Email marketing programs for personalized emails

Email marketing programs for personalized emails

Can you please recommend (at least give me the names) of some good email marketing programs which allow the dynamic generation of personalized emails. By this I mean (for example) emails for marketing and/or regular newsletters containing merged salutations as well as paragraphs of content merged into the email based on rules linked to previously databased profiles of the individual recipients. So far I have come across Kana and Broadvision which seem targeted to high-end big business customers. I am looking for a low-cost solution.

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Richard,

You have clearly thought through your requirements and they are quite sophisticated. This is a good thing except when you are also looking for a low cost solution. So, trying to stay away from enterprise software solutions like those from Kana and Broadvision, here are some choices for you to explore.

The market for email marketing software can be divided into roughly 3 segments: Traditionally licensed software that comes on a CD that you install and run yourself, software that is hosted and accessed by you using a browser and is typically charged for over time, and a full email service solution that includes an element of software, usually in the form of reports, as part of the solution.

The reasons for choosing one or another include:

1) Your own comfort level with installing and maintaining and using software. If you don't want to deal with installation and ongoing maintenance, consider the hosted software solution or the full service solution.

2) Your cash flow needs. Licensed software is usually paid for upfront, hosted software is usually "rented" or paid for on a pay-per-use basis which defers payment till you see value.

3) The degree of complexity of your requirements and your knowledge level of email marketing. If you know what you're doing or your needs are simple, software (whether licensed or hosted) makes sense. If you think you'll need a significant amount of consulting or specialized setup, you might want to consider a full service solution.

4) Your time constraints. Hosted software is the fastest to start using, usually followed by licensed software, then full service solutions. The difference can be huge.

Here are some suggested vendors in each of these categories. I believe that the full service providers listed can meet your needs but I don't know about the low cost part. I don't have full knowledge of the licensed software solutions. With the hosted software you can usually do a trial on-line and check them out quite quickly.

Hosted Software

GotMarketing's Campaigner (their website say pricing starts at $99 per campaign)
http://www.gotmarketing.com/Services/Campaigner/Welcome_to_Campaigner.cfm

ClickAction ERM: (no pricing on their website)
http://www.clickaction.com/pages/products/ca_erm_overview.htm

Responsys Interact: (their website says it starts at $40K per year)
http://www.responsys.com/interact/interact.asp



Licensed Software products:

Elibrium
MailWorkz
Message Media

Full Service Solutions:

FloNetworks
Message Media
Responsys

Good Luck to you,

Lynda

For more information, check out searchCRM's Best Web Links on Direct/Email Marketing.


This was first published in April 2001

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