New Product Development: Fast to Market

New Product Development: Fast to Market

(First Published by CIMtech February 2006)

Once upon a time (not too long ago) if an ESP (Email Service Provider) offered real time tracking by their system and MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) technology capabilities, then they were considered worthy of further consideration.

Since then, both Email marketing technology and how email marketing is being used as a marketing tool have evolved and are continuing to evolve and change at a rapid pace.
The same of course, can be said of Internet Marketing in general -
Websites: With the introduction of CSS, XML and usability limitations - what was once accepted as a brilliant website is now old hat and in some cases frowned upon,
SEO: Google has taken SEO to another level - ever changing in response to those who try to beat the system and mystifying those of us who try to follow the system.
PPC marketing: The years have seen the rise and fall of the banner and have now worked out a comfortable position for it in the marketing mix- thus paving the way for the very successful PPC marketing which now exists.
The internet still remains as ever, a fantastic example of 'Pull' marketing - but a combination of time, experience and technology has refined many of internet marketing's mediums - including email marketing.

Email marketing technology is now being viewed differently to when it first came on the scene. To a certain extent it has been viewed in the past as a 'new toy' and everyone came out to play - including spammers. There was a time when it was in danger of marketers giving up on it due to the problems spammers had brought with them, but the ISP's and ESP's responded with technology and fought back. Now on the rise again, email marketing technology has continued to be developed in response to user demands, with the results being that it is now no longer viewed as a toy, or indeed a separate tool, but something which is an integral part of the marketing mix.
Using the ultimate marketing tool - 'pull' marketing, marketers are now realising that they can carry the lesson learnt from Amazon into email marketing - they just need to refine and customise the technology so that it is meeting their client's requirements, rather than marketing as in the past around the restrictions of the technology.

Evolution
As a marketing tool, email marketing needs to evolve and advance and is influenced heavily by 3 main factors:
Spam: To remain static at this stage of the game would mean a death sentence to Email marketing. With Spammers somewhat restrained, but still active, email marketing would quickly end up with a bad reputation if the technology were to remain static. It needs to evolve as a response to anti-spam tools in order to survive.

Integration and working alongside other marketing channels. Everywhere we read thought leaders stating that single channel marketing is gone, and the phrases 'multi-channel' and 'marketing mix' are appearing. Email Marketing is no longer the new kid on the block - he has now been adopted by the Direct Marketing family and is learning how he fits into the family and how he can compliment other members and their strengths.

Marketers: Whether the marketer is an agency working for a client or the client themselves, they are the end user. Their feedback and requirements are essential and are what brings about many of the new developments.

For the above reasons, the success of the packaged desktop email marketing applications is declining and the ESP market is increasing - as the technology is ever evolving the product needed to be a web based application, able to be regularly updated.

New Developments
Specific new features which are common across the board to ESP's include a Spam Filter Tool which allows the ESP's client to test their message against a Spam Filter before sending, thus allowing them to see their point(s) of weakness in the Spam Filters eyes.
The adoption of ISP Authentication such as Domain keys, SPF Records and Sender ID was made throughout ESP's as a reaction to measures that ISP's made as a measure to reduce spam and phishing.

Other more generic developments, which differ with each ESP, are:
Improved reporting: Many clients no longer are satisfied with just receiving the basic reports such as open, click-through, bounce and opt-out rates. They see that as a tool, email marketing can give them and is giving, fantastic results and as such, are demanding the much sought after reporting tools that direct marketers have always dreamed of. An example of some of the reporting that is available now is:

Emails for Transmission
Emails opened (unique and multiple)
Emails opened by Day
Recipients details opened by day
Emails opened by time
Recipients details opened by time
Length of session
Unique click thru rates
Total click thru rates
Soft bounce
Hard bounce
View bounce reasons/codes

Improved data collection: Many ESP's systems now have CRM qualities, whilst other ESP's provide an API (Application Programming Interface) which integrates with the clients' internal CRM system, thus allowing the client to segment, target and deliver more relevant communications. This improved data collection allows further segmentation thus allowing targeting of the recipient with offers which are based upon not only their user preferences but their past viewing and purchasing data.

The above developments are not common to all ESP's, but have been developed by ESP's as a response to changing marketing requirements. Email technology is becoming more refined. It started off as 'push' technology and the campaigns were sent out based on the capabilities of tool. Whereas it is now regarded as a serious and integral marketing tool which is continually being molded and shaped to producing the results which marketers need.
The evolution hasn't finished as yet - I believe there is still a long, long way to go before the technological developments slow down in the email marketing arena - if at all.

By Kath Pay

Marketing Director, Ezemail

Kath Pay is Marketing Director of Ezemail, an innovative company that provides comprehensive email marketing solutions including a fully re-brandable Agency solution. For more information on how easily email marketing can be implemented, please contact Kath at kath@ezemail.com.