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All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized distribution strictly prohibited. Information provided by participants and is subject to change with product advancements. CONTACT Red Pill Email – 310-488-6769
2013 Email Vendor Features &
Functions Guide
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Email Vendor Features & Functions Guide
TC Media Edition
Table of Contents
DISCLAIMER ... 1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ... 2
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES ... 3
DATA &SEGMENTATION ... 4
DELIVERABILITY &LIST HYGIENE ... 5
DEPLOYMENT MANAGEMENT ... 6
TESTING &REPORTING ... 7
TESTING ... 7
REPORTING ... 7
ABOUT RED PILL EMAIL ... 8
Disclaimer
The information contained in this document is the proprietary and exclusive property of Red Pill Email except as otherwise indicated. No part of this document, in whole or in part, may be reproduced, stored, transmitted, or used for design purposes without the prior written permission of Red Pill Email.
The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice.
The information in this document is provided for informational purposes only. Red Pill Email specifically disclaims all warranties, express or limited, including, but not limited, to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, except as provided for in a separate agreement
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Executive Summary
The Email Vendor Features & Functions Guide from Red Pill Email is the only guide of its kind compiled and written by an email marketing veteran who has made a living sending email and integrating email deployment tools, not just talking about it.
With so many vendors aggressively vying for customers in a competitive marketplace, Red Pill Email surveyed 62 International providers with 500 questions across 8 top-level categories regarding their technical product offerings and service options important to prospective users.
Buyers should not focus on price alone and should let business requirements and contact strategy drive the selection process. In an increasingly crowded market, buyers need to find providers that offer scalable technology and pricing.
Author’s Note: TC Media ranks among the elite vendors in North America because of the flexibility and scalability of its platform, coupled with its strategic approach to email campaigns through extensive professional services, account management and analytics.
The categories highlighted in this report include: Professional Services, Data and Segmentation, Deliverability and List Hygiene, Deployment Management as well as Testing and Reporting. Highlights:
» Top Canadian provider in Enterprise-Level Self-Service (highly sophisticated and high volume)
» 3rd overall in the Enterprise-Level Self-Service category
» 6th in the Enterprise-Level category (combining self-service and full service vendors)
Enterprise (Highly Sophisticated; High Volume):
A key consideration of an enterprise-class email deployment tool is its ability to send tens of millions of messages per month per client. Other considerations include bi-directional data integration capabilities with the client’s data base(s), with the most advanced tools featuring open relational data table structures; integration to third-party applications; multi-channel support; integrated Promotional and Transactional platforms; dedicated IP addresses; and conditional data-driven messaging based on the user’s business rules.
Enterprise vendors for 2013 include adestra, CheetahMail, ClickSquared, ContactLab, Digital Impact (Acxiom), Dmail, dotMailer, Dyn, e-Dialog, EmailDirect, GreenArrow, Message Systems, Newsweaver, PowerMTA, PulsePoint, Responsys, Silverpop, Striata, StrongMail,
TC Media
, Teradata (Aprimo), and Tripolis.3
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Professional Services
Organizations with limited marketing resources might consider vendors providing full-services or à la carte full/self-serve. Vendor in-house professional services might include Strategic, Technical, Production, or Creative services and are billed by the hour or by quote.
With a strong in-house team of strategic, technical, creative and production professionals, TC Media allows marketers to tap into this expertise and consistently deploy successful email campaigns.
Enterprise-Level Self-Service Professional Services Score
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TC Media
5.00
Adestra 4.17ContactLab 5.00 EmailDirect 4.17
Dmail 5.00 Silverpop 4.17
PulsePoint 5.00 Tripolis 3.33
Responsys 5.00 Dyn 2.78
StrongMail 5.00 GreenArrow 2.50
dotmailer 4.44 PowerMTA 2.50
Newsweaver 4.44 Message Systems 1.39
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
In-house Creative In-house Production In-house Technical In-house Strategy
In-house Creative In-house Production In-house Technical In-house Strategy
Have Services 74.36% 84.62% 100.00% 89.74%
No Services 25.64% 15.38% 0.00% 10.26%
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Data & Segmentation
Data is at the heart of any email marketing program. The greater the options are to transfer, structure, query, and segment data the more intricate and complex messaging can become. Participants were surveyed in four subcategories of data and segmentation.
Enterprise-Level Self-Service Data & Segmentation Scoring
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Responsys 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00
StrongMail 4.80 5.00 5.00 3.75 5.00
Adestra 4.20 3.89 5.00 3.75 3.75
Silverpop 4.20 3.89 4.38 5.00 3.75
TC Media
4.20 3.89 3.75 5.00 5.00
Author’s Note: Email marketers are striving to become one-to-one marketers by sending relevant and engaging communications to subscribers. When selecting a partner, marketers need to ensure the platform they choose will allow them to do both simple and advanced segmentation and provide the results (data) to further refine subsequent campaigns and programs.
Scoring in the top five of Enterprise Self-Service vendors, TC Media’s email platform allows marketers to easily put their subscribers into different segments, enabling their clients to send
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Deliverability & List Hygiene
Delivery, or Delivered, is the mail sent less mail rejected by the receiving server that has bounced back. Deliverability is the ability to deliver to the recipient Inbox and not the spam or junk folder. Deliverability and List Hygiene tools help the user to maintain good list health which is essential to maintaining high deliverability.
Not every line item will be of equal importance to all users, however the following key items will be: Throttling/Metering per ISP
Integrated Feedback Loops Authentication
Good ISP relations White-listing services
Each vendor will have their own unique way of implementing the features and functions of their product. Some will require advanced programming skills and/or technological resources implement, while others may be easily accessed and/or configured by non-technical resources via the UI.
Enterprise-Level Self-Service Deliverability & List Hygiene Score
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TC Media
5.00
Newsweaver 4.55Adestra 5.00 StrongMail 4.55
ContactLab 5.00 Tripolis 4.55
dotmailer 5.00 GreenArrow 4.09
PulsePoint 5.00 Dmail 3.64
Responsys 5.00 Dyn 3.64
Silverpop 5.00 Message Systems 3.64
EmailDirect 4.55 PowerMTA 3.64
TC Media is committed to delivering its clients’ communications to consumers’ inboxes and providing expertise through its knowledgeable ISP Relations team.
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Deployment Management
Deployment Management helps to support and make adjustments to ongoing message programs, manage links, the ability to stop or pause campaigns, and more. The Decision Matrix will display the deployment maintenance options offered by each vendor shown in the query results.
One of only four participants to score a perfect 5.00 in the Deployment Management category, TC Media’s email platform gives marketers the flexibility and ability to react on-the-fly to ensure campaigns are successfully deployed on time and to the right segment.
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00
Average PowerMTA Newsweaver Message Systems TC Media
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Testing & Reporting
Testing is the foundation upon which world-class email programs are built. It allows marketers to make better decisions, consistently over time to show measurable improvement while proving success based upon rational, objective decision making. Vendors offer many features that make ad-hoc and/or repetitive message testing easier to implement and measure.
Testing
Testing is essential for the long-term success of your messaging programs, and the only way to determine what works best with your audience. Having a wide variety of testing options allows you flexibility to develop targeted and insightful tests to help guide your message programs.
Reporting
The Reporting scores are based on vendor response to asked in the three subcategories Reports, Report Levels, and Audit Trails.
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Silverpop 4.86 5.00 5.00 4.50 5.00
Responsys 4.71 5.00 5.00 4.00 5.00
PulsePoint 4.57 4.29 5.00 4.00 5.00
TC Media
4.57 3.57 5.00 4.50 5.00
StrongMail 4.43 5.00 4.62 3.50 5.00
Scoring in the top five of Enterprise Self-Service vendors, TC Media’s testing and reporting capabilities allow marketers to see what creative elements work best in deployments, understand
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About Red Pill Email
There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
We’ve lived on the client side, building multi-million dollar email channels with our own hands. We’ve walked the path of systems integration to bring highly complex automated data-driven messaging programs to life.
As the developers of the annual Email Vendor Features & Functions Guide, we have an unparalleled view of the email vendor landscape and vendor capabilities. Other consultants use our Guide in helping clients to select suitable vendors, so why not go straight to the source? We won’t always tell you what you want to hear, but will always tell you what you need to know to make the best decisions for your organization. Our extensive knowledge of the email industry can help you find the best fit for your needs and budget for your email program. We can assist you with installation of critical APIs to enable advanced email
messaging such as trigger based messages, lifecycle email marketing and retrieve all the data so you can make decisions based upon facts and solid analysis, not guess work
We are the agency behind other agencies and vendors alike. From process-driven vendor selection, to system integration, to deep analytics, data-driven profiling and personas, to strategic analysis and tactical implementation, to production support, we have the knowledge, skills, and experience to help you take your messaging programs to the next level.
Email Vendor Evaluation & Selection
The average email marketer will be involved in selecting a vendor for their organization a few times in their career; we’re involved in client vendor selection several times a year. From producing our Annual Email Vendor Features & Functions Guide, our insight into vendor capabilities is second to none. We’ve leveraged our years of experience in vendor evaluation and selection to develop an effective process designed to most closely match vendors to the client’s needs.
Migration, Integration, & Automation
Moving from one email deployment vendor to another can be overwhelming the first few times. For us those first few times was a long time ago. Based on our years of experience migrating and integrating dozens of client’s to a new vendor, we’ve developed a process for this, too. We’ll lay out the steps to take and order of implementation for a transparent and successful vendor migration.
Reporting Dashboards
Our reporting dashboards provide the ability to quickly view data for informed observations and business decisions. Dashboard charts, graphs, tables, and gauges provide a snapshot of your key metrics and performance indicators for day-to-day decisions and month-over-month reporting with a robust platform for monitoring, visualizing and analyzing associated data.
Analytic Analysis & Persona Profiling
Cluster, Scale, Factor, Meta, Regression, or Multivariate, we go deep into client’s data to gain the insight needed to maximize revenue. We provide the intelligence needed to consistently optimize
efforts, resources, and revenue.
Production Services
Contracted production services and blocked time units available to Agencies and select clients.
Bonded and Insured
For our client’s peace of mind, Red Pill Email consulting services are fully bonded and insured. For more information call Red Pill Email at 310-488-6769
