Your Contact With The Customer – The E-mail Marketing Server
An e-mail marketing service is an essential pre-requisite of your Internet based business. Just as a brick and mortar business can’t do without offices, warehouses and associated stuff, an Internet based business can’t hope to manage without an e-mail marketing server.
Outsourcing Is An Option
When you start off initially, you may be better off hiring space and server management services on the server of an ISP. This is because with limited cash flow and a small staff (if at all) you don’t want to divert precious resources into setting up servers, E1 lines and system administrators.
However, you still are a user of an email marketing server albeit one that you share with a number of other users like you. You also have the option of setting up your own desktop e-mail marketing server. However, this means that you (or an associate) will have to shoulder some of the server management tasks.
As your business develops and your traffic and revenues grow, there’ll come a time when you’ll find that a third party e-mail marketing server may not suffice. At that stage, you have the option of either procuring your own systems or outsourcing your e-mail marketing server to a service provider, who can dedicate a part of his facility and staff to your business.
Ensure A Minimum Service Level
At the very outset, you must ensure that your e-mail marketing server provides you with at least a basic set of capabilities. It should be able to gather, analyze and display detailed records about how your mail is being handled, how much of it bounces, what percent of your leads give you a response, how the replies are being handled, and in what timeframe. Without this kind of detailed statistical data, you’ll not be able to optimize your e-mail marketing efforts.
The server should also be able to generate details on how many people choose to unsubscribe from your mailing lists. This will give you an idea about the effectiveness of the message you’re sending, and whether your prospective clients are finding any value in them or not. Besides this, check with the service provider about the anti spamming precautions they take. You shouldn’t buy a service from a server farm that’s listed on many ISPs as a source of spam.
Test Your E-mail Server Quality
Find out more about the quality of service provided by the e-mail marketing service provider. Often, you can get a good idea by simply calling up their help line and posting a query. Talking to other clients will also help. Most service providers will provide you with a client list if you ask. Finally, the quality of your e-mail marketing service, is one of the determinants of your success. Don’t take this service lightly.
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