Questions & Answers

• What is permission-based email marketing?
Permission-based email marketing involves obtaining permission from your customers, prospects, or suppliers to communicate with them via email. Customers provide their email address and "opt in" for communications via email.

Seth Godin, in his book, "Permission Marketing" defines permission marketing as follows:

"Permission Marketing encourages consumers to participate in a long-term, interactive marketing campaign in which they are rewarded in some way for paying attention to increasingly relevant messages."

Anticipated - people look forward to hearing from you.
Personal - the messages are directly related to the individual.
Relevant - the marketing is about something the prospect is interested in.

• How do we obtain permission from customers? What about prospects?
Permission can be obtained from customers and prospects through a number of channels including your company's website, advertising responses, customer service and sales contacts over time. mass2one Email Permission Services can help your company develop an integrated email and permission collection program that will transform each customer and prospect contact point into a data collection opportunity.

• How do we maintain a database of email addresses?
Maintaining a database of accurate and up-to-date email addresses with "opt in" permission requires your company to establish business rules, or database hygiene methodology and process, to guide how you collect, update, maintain, and discard information on customers and prospects. mass2one Email Permission Services can help you establish these business rules as well as provide ongoing email and permission collection and verification services.

• How much does it cost to collect email addresses?
Costs will vary by source, but key to lowering the cost per email collected is establishing an integrated program that transforms all of your customer or prospect contact points into data collection opportunities. Automating the collection and distribution of email addresses to your company's central database or business systems can also save you significant time and money. mass2one and our strategic partners will work with your company to develop an integrated email and permission collection program, including a financial analysis that will demonstrate the return on any costs to collect email addresses and permission from customers and prospects. We also provide integration services that will automate the collection and transfer of email and other contact information with your business systems or Email Campaign Manager software.

• How does the cost of email marketing compare to other communications channels?
As you can imagine, the cost to create and send an email is significantly less than other communication channels. A recent study by The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) indicated that email costs ranged from $0.35 to $0.65 while the average direct mail piece cost $1.53. While email communications costs less than telemarketing or direct mail, the real value in email communications is derived from speed to market, improved response, lower cost per transaction, and mass personalization capabilities.

According to the DMA and the Aberdeen Group, direct mail response rates average 1% to 2% with an average cost per order of $40 per person while permission-based email generates a 10% to 15% response rate with an average cost per order of $5 per person. Of course, results will vary based on target audience and product or service category.

• What is an email campaign?
An email campaign is a number of pre-defined steps or email messages focused on generating a desired response (product order, information inquiry, survey response, etc.) from your target audience. Like a telemarketing, direct marketing, or advertising campaign, an email campaign is focused on delivering information to a target audience for the purpose of generating awareness, interest, understanding, and preference. Email Campaign Manager software allows you to establish multiple, time sensitive campaign steps and messages based on what you know about your audience (demographics, SIC Code, transactions, etc.) as well as how they respond to various steps in your campaign (response, no response) over time. The software allows you to integrate email communications with direct mail, telemarketing, and sales and service contacts.

• What is "click-through" tracking?
Email Campaign Manager software allows you to insert unique web site addresses into your email messages to provide your target audience with an opportunity to respond to your message. When recipients click on a URL link, their reply is routed through the software's server before arriving at the ultimate URL destination. Since every URL link imbedded in an email message is tied to an individual, Email Campaign Manager software allows you to track who has responded to your message by clicking on the URL link.

• How does Email Campaign Manager software handle undelivered mail?
Undelivered messages, or bounced email, is isolated within Email Campaign Manager so you can quickly identify the members of your target audience that have not received your communications. You can export information on customers or prospects with undelivered email for the purpose of telemarketing, direct mail, sales or service follow-up, or you can submit bounced emails to mass2one Email Permission Services for timely follow-up and verification.

• How does Email Campaign Manager software handle those wishing to no longer receive email communications?
You should include an "opt out" statement and link in every email sent to your customers and prospects. Information on customers or prospects that no longer wish to receive email communications is captured by Email Campaign Manager software and those records are flagged within the software's database to prevent subsequent email messages from being sent without a change in permission status.

• What do we do with customers or prospects that no longer provide permission for email communications?
First, and foremost, you should honor their request to be removed from future email communications. You can submit customers or prospects that "opt out" directly to mass2one Email Permission Services for follow-up and verification via telephone and/or mail. Email Permission Services will contact your "opt out" records to verify their decision and attempt to obtain "opt in" permission again.

• How does Email Campaign Manager software handle automatic "out of office" email replies?
The system parses mail that is incorrectly bounced -- such as vacation messages - for common error messages. It is possible, but unlikely, that a vacation reply will be mistaken for a bounced message. The bounced messages can be manually reviewed to verify the nature of the bounce, if desired.

• How do we get our information into Email Campaign Manager software?
Email Campaign Manager software allows you to define individual fields of data as well as determine how you want to access, analyze, view, query, and report that information. You can create and save frequently used import formats, or quickly customize import formats to meet your business needs.

Mass2one also provides integration services that will allow Email Campaign Manager software to automatically update information from business systems and/or other information sources.

• Can Email Campaign Manager software be used to send emails to customers or prospects without their permission?
No. In order to access the development tools used to create Email Campaign software, mass2one had to agree to prohibit the use of the software to send SPAM. The software's end user license agreement also prohibits the use of the software to send emails to customers or prospects who have not provided "opt in" permission.

• What do we do with customers and prospects that don't have email addresses?
Email Campaign Manager software allows you to store and query customer and prospect information regardless of whether or not you have an email address associated with a record. You can identify customers or prospects based on available information and quickly export records without email addresses (or "opt in" permission) for inclusion in telemarketing, direct mail, or personal sales or service programs.

• How many records (what size of database) can Email Campaign Manager software handle?
The software's Microsoft SQL database can handle a large volume of records, but performance issues (query, export, import speeds) are really a function of server configuration and database optimization. Mass2one and our strategic partners will work with you to recommend the appropriate hardware for a site license based on the unique needs and size of your database. We will also help you optimize your database to maximize performance.

• Do you have to have a web site to use Email Campaign Manager software?
While you don't have to have a web site to use Email Campaign Manager software, the ability to drive customers or prospects to a web page is essential for providing immediate response options. The software's Survey Builder feature allows you to create research or data collection forms that do not require a web site for operation. Mass2one emarketing creative services can help you develop an appropriate response or content web site to fit your business needs, including hosting your site(s) during the duration of your email marketing campaign.

• What happens if someone receiving an email clicks on their email software's "Reply" button, instead of an email address link or URL link to reply to the message they have been sent?
The message will be sent to the author that you enter when you create the message. This message will not be tracked or counted as a "reply", unless special processing is set up for the email address. Customized solutions - including solutions which track replies rather than click-throughs - are available on a site-by-site basis. mass2one can also provide email monitoring services, and provide human end-user support for recipients who ask questions, rather than clicking on links.

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