Krzysztof Jarecki, Author at Email vendor selection Select and evaluate email service providers [tips tools and guides] evaluate email marketing software Fri, 10 Jun 2022 08:40:04 +0000 en-US hourly 1 How to know if data in your marketing automation software is secure. https://www.emailvendorselection.com/data-security-marketing-automation-software-iso27001/ https://www.emailvendorselection.com/data-security-marketing-automation-software-iso27001/#respond Fri, 28 Feb 2020 10:47:49 +0000 https://www.emailvendorselection.com/?p=21823 There is a growing concern about data security. Your business needs to keep a close grip on data security now more than ever. In this article, we explain one of the best ways of making sure that happens.

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When on the hunt for the perfect multi-channel marketing automation solution, marketers often look at features, deliverability, and costs. These factors are important, but today that is not enough.

There is a growing concern about data security. Your business needs to keep a close grip on data security now more than ever. In this article, we explain one of the best ways of making sure that happens.

Customer data is one of your key assets

Your customer data is one of your key assets, and as such, it should be secure (we don’t need to persuade you there!) In the recent Data Privacy & Security survey from the RSA, 72% of consumers said they are very concerned about identity theft.

There are different ways — or levels — of ensuring data security. So, how do you tell if your data is being protected in the correct way and is not prone to security breaches, theft, and fraud? The answer is quite simple: by using a provider that has been certified with a internationally recognized certification — like ISO 27001.

What is ISO 27001?

ISO 27001 is an information security standard. It helps businesses prevent mishandling of data. To receive the ISO 27001 certificate, a Multi-Channel Marketing Automation Provider is examined for information security risks. They need to create an information security management systems, specific to each organization, that is then examined by the auditor. Then, it needs to put in place risk treatment and regular security controls.

iso27001 compliance email marketing automation(img source)

Getting the certification is not a one-time event. The security system is designed to continually improve. So, the organization has to systematically examine both risks and the way it deals with them.

What other types of data security certifications are there?

The ISO 27000 family of standards offers a number of certificates suitable for different businesses and sectors. However, ISO isn’t the only one out there. There are other standards that can help to mitigate data security threats and vulnerabilities. Including:

  • ISO/IEC 27018:2019 – Information technology — Security techniques — Code of practice for protection of personally identifiable information (PII) in public clouds acting as PII processors
  • ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) framework designed to standardize the selection, planning, delivery and maintenance of IT services within a business. The goal is to improve efficiency and achieve predictable service delivery..
    ICOBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies) framework and supporting toolset that allows managers to bridge the gap between control requirements, technical issues and business risks.
  • IO-ISM3 (The Open Group Information Security Management Maturity Model) 2.0. for managing information security. It aims to ensure that security processes operate at a level consistent with business requirements.
  • SOC 2 (System and Organization Controls) cover controls such as security and privacy and may be used by leaders in internal audit, risk management, operations, business lines and IT, as well as regulators.

As far as data security is concerned, ISO 27001 is amongst the most popular frameworks chosen. In the U.S. alone, certification to the ISO 27001 is growing at 91% year-on-year. This is much higher than the global growth rate of 20%.

Why choosing a ISO certified service provider is a good idea

There are at least three reasons why Choosing an ISO 270001 Certified Service Provider Is A Good Idea

1. You are ensured your vendor‘s data processes are reviewed

ISO 270001 certification gives you the certainty that the data you process is taken care of. This means the data is handled according to the ISO standards — not only when audited periodically, but at all times, as the ISO requires data to be constantly monitored, with zero exceptions made.

What is equally important, certified providers focus on preventing data breach incidents. So, if such an incident happens, they follow very specific guidelines. Additionally, you are always able to review them and understand what the entire process looks like.

As a result, the ISO certificate makes it easier for marketing teams to buy access to such services and get things approved by their internal compliance/IT departments.

benefits ISO27001 marketing automation data

2. Your effectiveness will increase

The ISO 27001 certification requires businesses to minimize the downtime of delivering security measures. This constant focus on improving results in a much better performance of the entire service. This improves your experience with their service — or to put it bluntly: it saves you time and money.

3. Other businesses will trust you

Once an organization has passed the ISO 27001 certification, it is committed to maintaining high data management quality, and it will do its best to maintain those standards. If you operate globally, it is good to work with an email service provider that conforms to a standard that is recognized — and trusted — all around the world.

What types of companies should get the ISO 27001 Certification?

As with any other certification system out there, the ISO 27001 is not a must. There is no law that requires organizations to get certified. But some brands will only work with other ISO-certified companies.

By acquiring the certificate, you become a potential supplier to them, and you’ll be improving your organization overall in order to qualify.

Certification also makes you look more professional and credible to all the other potential clients out there. They will feel at ease for working with you, as it shows that their data security is taken seriously.

So, if a company processes any type of personal data, acquiring the ISO 27001 certification can only be an advantage.

How can you make sure a provider has the ISO Certification?

All companies certified with the ISO 27001 should display information about it on all of their educational and promotional material. So, the easiest way to find out if a company is compliant with ISO is to look for the ISO 27001 certification logo on their website (see the bottom of our website for example).

iso certification sign

If you want to be 100% sure, contact the company and ask for proof of certification.

Bear in mind that a negative answer doesn’t automatically have to be a deal-breaker. When submitting a request for proposal, ask the following questions:

  • Are you certified with ISO 27001?
  • Are you planning or implementing the ISO 27001?
  • If not, have you implemented a data security management system? If so, how does it work?
  • What other security policies have you implemented in your organization?
  • How to get the most out of an ISO Certified SaaS-provider

    Performance-related improvements aside, the ISO certification confirms that a company’s data security standards and procedures are top-notch. It means that your data is as safe as possible with them at all times.

    A good idea is to include information about the certification in all external communication with prospective and existing clients. It should be visible on the website, social media channels, company presentations, printed materials, and any other communications.

    Conclusion: Why use an ISO 27001-Certified marketing automation provider

    Entrusting your customers’ data to an ISO 27001 certified service provider for Multi-Channel Marketing Automation or all you Marketing Saas service lowers the chances of a data breach, theft, or any other problem caused by the mishandling of data. To put it simply — it saves you a lot of money and protects your biggest asset — your reputation.

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    ]]> https://www.emailvendorselection.com/data-security-marketing-automation-software-iso27001/feed/ 0 Selecting the best Email Workflow Automation tool for your business https://www.emailvendorselection.com/how-to-select-best-email-workflow-automation/ https://www.emailvendorselection.com/how-to-select-best-email-workflow-automation/#comments Tue, 13 Aug 2019 19:10:55 +0000 https://www.emailvendorselection.com/?p=13088 Many businesses would love their customers to stay engaged throughout the customer journey. This calls for automation and a special kind. With email workflows you save significant time. Automated email marketing steps and tasks are more effective. But what is the best Email Workflow Automation tool for your business?

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    Many businesses would love their customers to stay engaged throughout the customer journey. This calls for automation and a special kind. With email workflows you save significant time. Automated email marketing steps and tasks are more effective. But what is the best Email Workflow Automation tool for your business?

    What is Email workflow automation?

    Email workflow automation is the process of creating a series of automated email campaigns. Your customer’s behavior and data profile trigger these automated email series.

    Email workflow management software helps marketers engage customers at every touchpoint. Every touch contains relevant content based on the customer’s behavior and data.

    7 examples of email marketing automation workflows

    Classic examples include automated email workflows that send:

    1. cross-sell email campaigns
    2. campaigns that encourage recurring purchases after a certain period of time
    3. automated emails that help recover abandoned shopping carts
    4. automated lead nurturing emails that turn leads into customers
    5. abandoned shopping cart recovery
    6. abandoned product views
    7. price drop or back-in-stock product notifications

    Take an automated email workflow and make it your own. A custom variation on the classic. You might not be able to see at the moment how much fun this is. Once you start thinking of the ideal automated funnel the creative juices will start flowing. Think about how to bring people back that are bound to fall out of the ideal automated path.

    What email workflow automation isn’t

    Email Workflow Management is more than sending simple emails after a completed web form. Email Workflow Management software does a whole lot more than autoresponders. With Email workflow automation you lead a customer down a dynamic path. A dynamic path is a series of steps that change according to what the customer needs.

    forrester-quote-workflow-automation

    Why you need email marketing automation.

    Every business can use email campaign workflows in multiple email streams. What type of automation you need for workflows depends on your business context. Here are a few signs that you will profit a lot from email workflow management;

    • You sell products that expire or have a limited life
    • You sell products that are complemented by others
    • You have customers that don’t always complete their purchases
    • You manually follow-up with leads
    • You have customer purchase history & other preferences data to segment them

    This list is not every scenario that email workflow management; software can handle. If you have a customer’s preferences you already send a personalized series of welcome emails. A marketing automation funnel starts at first contact, first inquiry, first purchase. you don’t need to have the data yet. Use the behavior and data that you pick up after the first automated email.

    Your future business needs automated email software now

    If your automated marketing automation brings an influx of new leads, those need to go through a lead nurturing process. Is your marketing funnel ready to convert those leads into clients? An email campaign workflow at the right time to the rescue. The management of dynamic email campaigns is where email workflows come out strong. Grow new and current customers.

    These are solid business reasons to invest in marketing automation. Furthermore, they will help you with your resourcing struggles so that you maintain sustained growth. In short, to account for future of you business scale, it makes sense to get your marketing automation funnel tools in order today.

    What to look for in your Email Workflow Automation software

    Strong workflows make use of triggers in different ways. Email triggers can be based on customer behavior, events, logical operands and conditions on any dataset. This means you should be able to make use of all the data you own to automate your workflows.

    It all has to start somewhere – how flexible are the workflow’s start points?
    Your workflow’s starting point should be totally open for you to fill in, otherwise, it will be limiting your campaign setup. This means you should be able to start your workflow with any type of condition or event, even if that is just an open of an email, a click event. But also custom event or API calls.

    How integrated is your segmentation with your workflow?
    It’s all well and good if you automate with an automated workflow, but that won’t have the business impact if your customer isn’t getting the right message. Advanced segmentation can help guide your customer across their customer journey. Segmentation is a marketing tactic of choice to get the right message in front of the right customer. For that to happen you need well-defined segmentation and the appropriate content. Enter advanced segmentation.

    How advanced is your segmentation?

    Here’s a sample creative that went out as part of a clearance sale offer. It takes the customer’s purchase history into account and offers them a specific product based on their purchasing history.

    newsletter_surfboard

    Advanced segmentation ensures that you’ll have the right recipients receive the right content. With workflow automation they also get it at the right time. It’s being able to make use of all your data with dynamic content, based on business rules.

    It should be just as easy for a business user to create advanced segmentation visually via the email marketing tool UI. The majority of users do have SQL knowledge. Once you’ve got your segmentation and your workflows defined it’s time to put it to work.

    Email Marketing Automation Workflow Example: Clearance sale

    There’s almost no limit to what you can automate. Here’s a simple example of an email marketing automation workflow of a targeted clearance sale offer.

    Let’s have a look at the things you could do with a well-planned out clearance sale campaign workflow. Your workflow start with a segmentation. The segment selects all users that purchased a specific product within a time frame. In this case a surfboard within the last 24 months.

    Our workflow starts a clearance sale that offers our customers products of the right type and size. It’s based on their history of previous purchases. We add their browsing history to tracking.

    workflow-automation-example

    There is a logical data switch. It sets the email campaign workflow with the right delays. Send your customer the most relevant clearance sale offers at the right time.

    Email Marketing Automation Workflow Example: Recurring purchases

    According to recent research from Adobe, the conversion rate of repeat customers is around 4x higher than for new customers.

    This workflow will remind dog owners to purchase some dog food for their beloved pet. It’s a recurring purchase that they’ll need to do for years on end, so let’s make it easier for them.

    email automation workflow example

    1. A customer purchases a 4kg bag of dog food. We remind them that in 3 weeks’ time they should buy a new bag.
    2. We give them 3 days to make the purchase. If they still haven’t purchased the dog food, we send them another email “Don’t let your dog go hungry”.
    3. We give them 2 more days. If they still don’t complete the purchase, we send an email with a limited one-time offer. A stylish new chain for their dog to go along with the dog food.
    4. The purchase and reminder cycle is repeated after every completed purchase allowing us to increase sales.

    Tip: Further fine-tune the timing and follow up steps. This will make this Email Marketing Automation Workflow example work like a charm.

    The repurchase workflow example requires:
    * to know when the dog food is most likely to be finished,
    * to estimate and suggest when they should be thinking of repurchase.

    So if they bought a 4KG and two other bags of 6KG, ideally you have to do some calculation. If you want to make it super profitable, try and get them on a subscription model around the second purchase.

    Email Workflow Automation features you need

    The workflow examples show the potential of email workflow automation software. When deciding which email workflow management software is best, you want to consider the following features:

    • Start events: these events are the entry conditions that will start a customer’s journey in your workflow. Ideally, you should have complete flexibility in starting your workflow. We’re talking opt-ins, opens, clicks, defined goals, predefined times and custom triggered events via API calls.
    • Sending dynamic emails or other types of messages such as SMS or API calls at specific stages of the workflow.
    • Delay events: you can use these events if you want to send at a predefined time (say the next day at 3pm) or after a set amount of time.
    • Set data events: these update customer profiles in a workflow. You add tags and change data fields about customers in your database.
    • Winner switch: having the ability to run an A/B split test on a group of customers in your workflow automation. The winning version is sent automatically.
    • Distribution switch: dividing customers into groups to test different content. (E.g. 75% of the audience will receive one message and the remaining 25% will receive another message).
    • End event an element that marks the end of a customer’s path in your workflow and take them out of their workflow “membership”.
    • Contact frequency control: control over the number of messages a customer will receive in a given period. This includes the triggered emails in your workflow.
    • The ability to save and edit workflows, even when they are already started.
    • Workflow monitoring & reporting: give marketers the number of prospects in a workflow. It also gives them at all specific stages. You have the ability to select and export them.

    If you want to automate then you need to segment-ate

    Your automation will only be as powerful as your segmentation allows it to be. to choose the best automated workflow tool, know exactly what you will automate. Only then you’ll be engaging your customers with relevant content. Make your their customer journey align with your marketing automation funnel.

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    The 3 Most Important Things your ESP Needs to do Really Well. No buts. https://www.emailvendorselection.com/3-most-important-esp-focus/ https://www.emailvendorselection.com/3-most-important-esp-focus/#comments Tue, 28 Feb 2017 13:36:37 +0000 https://www.emailvendorselection.com/?p=13469 When it comes to email marketing every business needs to get the right message to the right person at the right time. But how does that translate into features? It’s nice to have additional tools within your email platform, but there are more important things to take into consideration when selecting your next email marketing company.
    But what are the essentials when trying to decide which email platform best suits your business needs and why should extras be treated as complementary?

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    …and why extra’s shouldn’t determine your email vendor.

    When it comes to email marketing every business needs to get the right message to the right person at the right time. How does that translate into features? It’s nice to have additional tools within your email platform, but there are more important things to take into consideration when selecting your next email marketing company.

    But what are the essentials when trying to decide which email platform best suits your business needs and why should extras be treated as complementary?

    3 things to focus on

    The three essentials that we should focus our attention on are: Segmentation, Automation and Deliverability.

    3_musthaves_ESP

    Advanced segmentation

    But what does advanced email segmentation mean?

    Speed. Can your ESP process your segment definition in less than a minute? Well, it should, if you can’t, then it’s time to speed away.

    Dynamic dates and calculations you say? Automatic messages require dynamic segments that are updated on the fly. A customer’s average order value and segments that adjust to time restrictions are musts. Can’t do that, then it’s time to fly away.

    Flexibility for all users. That’s right, all those complex relations between tables should be just as easy to get on top of for business users as they are for a seasoned SQL veteran. That means being able to create very precise custom segment definitions, should you require them. Can you flex your muscles with your ESP?

    Email Marketing Segmentation ExampleAn example segment definition for a customer that might be interested in purchasing premium running shoes.

    Email Marketing Automation

    Email Automation is creating a defined sequence of steps and tasks that automate different business scenarios. This sequence will have strict rules and conditions that will lead your customer down your (their) desired path.

    These paths might have any of the following; entry conditions, data switches, data points, delay events and distribution switches. This is what you’re going to require for real personalized and automated customer communication.

    What’s best, is that you’ll create these scenarios and they’ll run automatically in the background, letting you focus on strategy and campaign optimization.
    It’s advanced automation that will give your business a greater ROI on its marketing investment because, in business, every nuance counts!

    Automated email Marketing workflowHow an automated workflow might look for a customer making use of the services of a travel retailer.

    Read our earlier article to see what a customer journey down an automated path looks like.

    Deliverability

    It’s all well and good if you’ve prepared the perfect message for your customer, but that’s not going to count for much if it doesn’t find its way into their inbox. Your ESP’s deliverability prowess needs to be cat-like.

    This means that they are going to be able to help with anything related to inbox placement with the most popular ISPs to problems with black listing, IP warming, throttle rates with specific ISPs and IP-routing. All this on top of a sound content strategy – if your customers aren’t engaged and don’t want to receive your emails then you’ll need to work on that too.

    How solid is your ESPs deliverability support?

    Email extras

    So, you’ve covered the three core and most important things your ESP needs to do really well.

    Now let’s focus on what can help you enhance your customer experience and achieve other business goals. Elements such as surveys, forms, landing page builders, e-commerce plugins, recommendation engines and lead scoring tools are going to help you do just that.

    Lead Scoring systems
    Are you selling products or services that have a long decision process that involves multiple visits to your website where a lead’s temperature should invoke a certain chain of messages? Then sophisticated lead scoring might be what your business needs.

    Maybe you’re selling lower value products that result in abandoned shopping carts? Then, a robust recommendation engine might be in order.

    In both scenarios, you’ll want an API (or at least the ability to import that data into custom tables) that’ll allow you to make use of that data in your campaigns.

    Web Forms
    Sound form design is a science that’ll allow you to gather data that’ll you’ll be able to leverage in future communications with your customers. It’s a balancing act between asking for the information that you’d like and letting your customers know why they should give it to you (your value proposition). Here’s one way to create the perfect email registration form.

    Again, as was the case with our lead scoring systems, you want your form data pushed or stored in your marketing platform via an import or on the fly with an API.

    It’s great if you can get some of these tools out of the box, but often 3rd party vendors that specialize in these tools are more than likely going to do it better. You should ensure that your potential platform has all the integration you need; whether that’s through an officially supported plugin or through flexible API integration, your platform shouldn’t limit you in any way.

    Work the core and then add those extras

    You’ve gone ahead and automated campaigns that go out to the right customers with a sound deliverability strategy. You’ve also enhanced your customer’s experience by ensuring that they’re getting the right content and there’s consistency across channels.
    Congratulations, you’ve just selected the best email vendor for your needs and your customers are going to be getting what they want to read in their inboxes.

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    Talking deliverability with your next Email Service Provider https://www.emailvendorselection.com/deliverability-next-email-service-provider/ https://www.emailvendorselection.com/deliverability-next-email-service-provider/#comments Wed, 10 Aug 2016 09:11:33 +0000 https://www.emailvendorselection.com/?p=12465 When trying to find the right email marketing software, we often look at a platform’s feature set, but we should also pay particular attention to a vendor’s level of expertise. This is where a vendor can prove their weight in gold. Deliverability is one of those areas that is critical, but often overlooked or misunderstood. […]

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    When trying to find the right email marketing software, we often look at a platform’s feature set, but we should also pay particular attention to a vendor’s level of expertise. This is where a vendor can prove their weight in gold.

    Deliverability is one of those areas that is critical, but often overlooked or misunderstood.

    Common Deliverability questions for an ESP

    The questions marketers ask about deliverability often relate to their specific line of business; e-commerce retailers are going to have different priorities than affiliate marketers. Having said that, one of the most frequently asked questions relates to inbox placement and how to increase deliverability rates with specific ISPs (Internet Service Providers).

    Yahoo and Gmail are often the ISPs of greatest concern. Both of these ISPs pay significant attention to user feedback from recipients. Users move messages between the inbox and junk folders and report email as spam which significantly affects the reputation of a sender.

    report spam

    Better not have them report spam! Other user feedback is also used as a filter.

    So deliverability also has a non-technical side – ensure that your emails are relevant and of value. The right message delivered to the right person at the right time is an email that a subscriber wants in their inbox.

    Deliverability questions you should ask an ESP before signing up

    It’s quite easy to find advanced email marketing technology these days, but it’s not as easy to find the same level of support. A customer’s deliverability success begins with personal and proactive support from their ESP and that’s the foundation for a long term relationship.

    Deliverability support
    Most of the official support can be found in your Service Level Agreement, but a lot of it will also be based on your own intuition and the discussions you had with your prospective email marketing company.

    You shouldn’t hold back with your deliverability questions, for instance, ask them:

    • How will you respond in the case of a black listing?
    • What should I do when a specific ISP is blocking my emails?
    • How many 1000’s of emails can I send to this ISP per hour?

    No matter if you have a self-service or full-service ESP, Email marketing software support is an important consideration to take into account when it comes to potential deliverability problems.

    Deliverability reporting capabilities

    Once you’re sure that you’ll have the appropriate level of support; Then it is wise to look into the deliverability reporting capabilities of the ESP, and not just at the bounce and open ratios.

    Some ESPs can group domain families and break down the deliverability performance per specific IP addresses. For example, see the Outlook domains below. Or Yahoo, which owns yahoo.com, ymail.com, rocketmail.com.

    outlook-domain-family

    Grouping these domains allows you to see how a specific IP address performs with each ISP. It also allows the ESP to do something called IP-routing if you are using a shared IP pool, or using multiple IPs.

    The ESP can route traffic share to an ISP across the best-performing IP addresses.

    Domain family deliverability report
    A domain family deliverability report view in ExpertSender

    Aggregation of domains into a domain family can give a more holistic view without going into the details of each domain separately and this helps with segmentation and analysing deliverability performance.

    In the image above you can find an example of a domain family deliverability report. (click for full-size)

    A proactive approach to avoiding deliverability problems

    Avoiding email deliverability problems is always a better strategy than trying to fix them later. You want to proactively mitigate them before they occur. An email marketer can expect an ESP to ask them important vetting questions and interview them to find out exactly how long their subscribers have been on their lists, how they were collected and how frequently they had been receiving communications.

    In addition to this, it’s also very important to ensure that any email address that generated hard bounces or had complaints submitted had been removed prior to sending.

    es_devielrability_2

    Deliverability and your first campaign

    You need to ensure that you have a sound subscription process on the customer’s website. Furthermore, it should be very clear what type of content a subscriber might expect once they’ve signed up. Ideally, you should give the subscriber choices as to what type of content they’d like to receive.

    Is re-permission needed?

    If you haven’t been sending to your list for a long time or obtained it through 3rd parties, then this could have a significant impact on your IP reputation. In such cases, it would be wise to consider running a re-permission campaign that will verify which email addresses are in fact valid and active.

    Email marketing is a long-term proposition, you might lose some subscribers with a re-permission campaign, but avoiding deliverability problems in the long term will make this more than worthwhile.

    Be patient and you’ll be rewarded in the future

    Customers are often anxious to send emails to their entire list immediately when they sign up, but it’s wiser to send to a more engaged audience first as every dedicated IP space requires an IP warm up phase to build a solid reputation with different ISPs.

    Building your volume gradually across a few weeks will allow you to send larger volumes in the future, so it’s worthwhile being patient as you’ll be rewarded in the future.

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    Email marketing support – what should you expect from a good ESP? https://www.emailvendorselection.com/email-marketing-support-customer-support-good-esp/ https://www.emailvendorselection.com/email-marketing-support-customer-support-good-esp/#respond Tue, 14 Apr 2015 04:41:02 +0000 https://www.emailvendorselection.com/?p=10141 One of the most important parts of a cloud email marketing solution is the customer support pinned to the tool you are paying for. Let’s be honest, the more dedicated and sophisticated service you are buying, the more questions you will have and need to be answered. So what does great email marketing support look […]

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    One of the most important parts of a cloud email marketing solution is the customer support pinned to the tool you are paying for. Let’s be honest, the more dedicated and sophisticated service you are buying, the more questions you will have and need to be answered.

    So what does great email marketing support look like?

    The need for Email marketing support

    In self-service, it doesn’t matter if a service has a 100 or a 1000 pages of documentation – there always will be the need for direct support. This is why a good customer service that addresses all your concerns and questions is extremely important. An alternative to relying on self-service is a full-service ESP, where all issues connected to your email marketing are managed by your provider.

    Choosing the right ESP is a business decision and at the end of the day there is always the issue of internal time versus external costs.

    Perfect email marketing support attributes

    In the self-service ESP scenario, what does great email marketing support look like? Here is a list of key attributes you could expect from a proactive customer service.

    email-marketing-support

    Fast response times with valuable solutions

    Being ticketed for 48 hours only to get a half-baked answer you already found online yourself is very disappointing, but too often a reality. Knowledgeable support is a big deal. Most often it’s the first test showing the approach of your ESP to customer support and how good your support knows your needs and circumstances.

    Direct contact via email, phone and other channels

    First of all, you should make sure you are talking and working with a real person, not with an anonymous group of people hiding behind role-based email address. It’s very important, because it helps you maintain real connection with your expert. Talking via phone or Skype allows for brainstorming, which should be appreciated by any marketer.

    Active help with implementation of technology and features

    Implementation of technology and features is all about developing your initial email marketing strategy and making it efficient by implementing technologies and processes: segmentation, triggered messages, welcome emails series, retention, list growth, sending time optimization, list hygiene.

    Your ESP should be a partner that advises you about the strategy to generate the best results. Marketers often want to implement tactics like abandoned shopping cart emails, but miss the expertise to execute on them. This is exactly where an active involvement of your Email marketing support expert comes into play.

    Ongoing campaign monitoring

    Running email marketing campaigns means dealing with a very dynamic environment. Your email marketing support should keep an eye on your account: statistics, deliverability, segments or creatives.

    A good example could be sending a sale campaign for an online store where the CTR from first day is too low. Your customer support expert for instance should advise to resend the campaigns to non-openers and broaden the granular segments in order to improve the reach of your campaign.

    Second example, email marketing support tracked a deliverability issue and starts working on the ISP postmaster side to deal with the problem pro-actively.

    Those examples just show that ongoing campaign monitoring allows you to experiment and together learn how to generate the highest revenue from your email lists.

    Proactive approach

    Your account manager should be active in providing email marketing support. His job shouldn’t be limited to waiting for your potential questions. On the contrary – he should be proactively asking questions to understand your business, tailor solutions and advising on ESP best practices to improve your email marketing program.

    It could be for example introducing a life-cycle based messaging workflow for free trial account users or having a call every week to talk about the current strategy and make changes if required.

    Informing about legal issues

    Anti-spam and privacy legislation is constantly evolving and marketers need to be one step ahead of all the changes. New laws are introduced almost every year. The Canadian new anti-spam law CASL and regulations for tracking user actions on the websites for marketing purposes are just examples from a long list of changes. Key business and technological processes should always follow the most recent regulations.

    Weekend availability and Murphy’s email law

    This is a very common pain. Murphy’s email law states: „if something can go wrong, it will take place during a weekend”. So it’s very important to get email marketing support or at least an escalation procedure that covers those days. Because your business should be making money on Sundays and Saturdays too, am I Right?

    Email marketing support has to feel at least partially responsible for your product and marketing results, virtually become part of your team. In the ESP world, when you decide to choose a more advanced solution or when your email marketing is growing from simple bulk sending to more advanced – it very often means dealing with warming-up dedicated IPs, list hygiene, segmentation strategy, funnel tactics and much more. For all those aspects you need a reliable partner on the ESP side.

    The post Email marketing support – what should you expect from a good ESP? appeared first on Email vendor selection.

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