E-Mail Service Providers Can Streamline Marketing Campaigns
Though you can try to use Microsoft Office for an e-mail campaign, it wasn't built for that purpose, and you'll waste both time and effort. You're likely to have better results with an e-mail service provider that specializes in campaign delivery and management. Here are three e-mail providers that offer a range of services:
- Constant Contact provides e-mail marketing and online survey tools to small businesses and organizations. It's easy to use and beginner friendly. Like most software-as-a-service companies, the site has many e-mail templates, an array of list-building tools, survey tools (don't overlook Survey Monkey as another option for surveys), and lots of self-help information for newbies wanting to put together their first e-mail campaign.
- Silverpop is an e-mail service provider for larger organizations. However, smaller companies often require sophisticated solutions, and Silverpop offers integrated extended capabilities such as forward-to-a-friend, surveys, auto-deployment of messages (receipts, alerts, and notifications), and analysis and analytics that can be used for many types of opt-in, permission-based campaigns.
- Experian, the parent company of CheetahMail, is best known for its credit reports. Through this division it provides online marketing services that range from fully managed to self-service with a hybrid collaboration model for e-mail marketing that can scale and adapt to meet changing business needs.
See more Strategy Matters columns by Nilofer Merchant
Nilofer Merchant, CEO of Rubicon Consulting, is a global high-tech industry thought leader and trusted strategic adviser for companies such as Adobe, Symantec, and VMware. She publishes and speaks frequently on strategy, innovation, and leadership.
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