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1、THE RFP GUIDE5 Steps for Selecting the Right Email Marketing Platformfor Media&Publishing2If youre reading this,you probably already know that your old email service provider(ESP)doesnt have what it takes to deliver and scale your email marketing strategy.You probably spend your days dreaming about
2、all the things you wish you could do with your email marketing platform.Imagine having the ability to collect zero-party data and leverage that data to personalize the content,generate loyalty,increase subscribers,boost engagement and go viral.So,you are at a crossroads:stay with your current ESP,wh
3、o might be able to get the job done but isnt growing with you,or find a vendor who can match your ambitions and take your email marketing and messaging strategy to the next level.Since email remains the most effective channel for driving sales,selecting the right relationship marketing platform with
4、 robust messaging capabilities is a very important decision.And,given the number of stakeholders and teams depending on this technology,its very important to get everyone on the same page.From news outlets to newsletters,heres how to get on the same page about getting the right technology in place t
5、o scale your marketing.INTRODUCTIONIn a world where millions of publishers are vying for readers attention,the ones that consistently stand out are those that extend a hand and communicate with rather than at their readers.3What You Will LearnWhether youre a first-time buyer,or youve been through th
6、e procurement process a time or two,its your job to find the right email marketing technology that meets the needs of your media or publishing company.Many vendors say they understand your industry,but do they really know what it is like to exponentially grow a subscriber base and deliver personaliz
7、ed content that interests the unique views of their readers?DONT MAKE ANY ASSUMPTIONS.Your organization might require you to submit a request for proposal(RFP)to email marketing vendors you have identified,or you might use this eBook to help you shape your requirements lists and guide you through th
8、e evaluation process.Regardless of your approach,the 5 Steps for Selecting the Right Email Marketing Technology for Media&Publishing Guide will help you:Define the functional,operational and technical requirements needed to deliver an engaging and revenue-generating email marketing strategy Learn wa
9、ys to get all the stakeholders on the same page Select a relationship marketing vendor that understands the ins and outs of media and publishing Educate yourself on the best practices and use cases for leveraging email marketing technology for media and publishingIts a heros journey youre embarking
10、upon.May you depart with preparation,initiate engagement with the right vendors,and return triumphantly with a new relationship marketing plan that seems like it was created specifically for media and publishing professionals.123454Before you start building your requirements list,you need to ask you
11、rself and your colleagues the following questions.What is the state of your email marketing strategy,and what does it look like in six months,a year,and five years down the road?What will the new system be replacing?How much budget do you have to acquire,set-up,launch and manage your email marketing
12、 technology?What are the organizational goals.and how does email marketing support and deliver on these objectives?How do you currently grow your subscriber base?How quickly does it grow?How often do you email your readers?Do you leverage SMS(text)or MMS?Do readers have options when it comes to the
13、types and frequencies of articles,videos and other content they receive?How are you measuring success?What team members need to be involved in this decision?Marketing?Legal?IT?Sales?Compliance?What analytics do you need to report on your return on investment(ROI)?Does your email marketing strategy n
14、eed to fit into a bigger relationship marketing strategy?Perhaps adding elements like loyalty programs or experiences?Who is your champion?Keep them close because youre going to need them soon!STEP 1Get the Big PictureMapping your companys goals and objectives to your email marketing initiatives wil
15、l provide the foundation for identifying the right solution provider.One-on-one interviews,surveys and polls are just a few ways you can collect this information.Even if you have a general idea in your head of what you want and what you dont want its important that you document everything.You cant e
16、xpect a vendor to know your business until you capture the big picture yourself.And the bigger the due diligence on your end,the easier it will be to build your business case to select the email marketing technology you love.5 Steps to Selecting the Right Email Marketing Technology123455STEP 2Define
17、 and Rank Your RequirementsNavigating the complexities of technology procurement is daunting.Selecting a new email marketing technology requires a cross-functional team of stakeholders from marketing,operations,procurement,finance,IT and security which is why RFPs are extremely detailed.Before you h
18、it that“request a demo button,”you must build a comprehensive requirements list that addresses the functional,technical and operational requirements of the system.When thinking about your requirements,we recommend you are as granular as possible.The vendor you select is going to help you grow your r
19、eadership from thousands to millions.Requirements are best broken down into three groups:FUNCTIONALOPERATIONALTECHNICAL123456FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTSFunctional requirements describe what the system needs to do.This list typically comes from tech-savvy system administrators and strategic marketing tea
20、m members who are tasked with driving more readership and revenue from newsletters,emails and messaging.Examples of functional requirements include:Messaging.No surprises here that were starting with email and messaging it is the most effective channel for increasing readership and driving sales.Bey
21、ond asking about the ability to design and send a standard newsletter,find out if they can support things like sending emails to multiple lists from multiple brands or affiliates.If you like to monetize your emails by allowing your advertisers to sponsor an email that is an important feature to have
22、.Other features of email and messaging you should ask about are What does the email designer tool look like?Is it drag-and-drop?Can you code your own HTML messages directly within the application or upload an HTML file?Are emails responsive?Do you support predictive sending?How does email automation
23、 work?Can you send messages via SMS or MMS?Do you support transactional emails and auto-responders?Can you deliver messages based on subscriber behavior or interests?Are there options to branch out scenarios and trigger messages based on the rules you define?Can you build multiple templates for diff
24、erent brands,affiliates and categories?Dont feel silly about asking every question you can think of.Your emails need to capture your audiences attention and leave them wanting to read more.712345 Zero-Party Data Collection.Your subscriber lists are the lifeblood of your media and publishing business
25、.The ability to build standard subscription forms to collect names and emails is great,but youre probably already doing that,or you wouldnt be here.With tracking cookies going away,you need to ask your vendor about their ability to configure forms to collect the very coveted zero-party data.Start wi
26、th the basics like How difficult is it to build a form?Can the form be branded in your colors and fonts?Is drag-and-drop design a feature?Can you create custom fields?Can actions happen upon submitting a form?What sorts of integrations do your forms support?How advanced are your forms?Can we do prog
27、ressive profiling,autocomplete and dynamic fields?Your audience gets value out of reading your content.This means they are willing to share more of their personal information and interests with you in exchange to receive content that is curated to their interests.Think about all of the information y
28、ou can capture and all the exciting things you can do with that information if you go beyond collecting the traditional contact information.Segmentation.Its likely your media and publishing business produces a very high volume of content covering a broad range of topics.Some readers might be interes
29、ted in one subject,while others might glaze right over it.Once you combine the zero-party data you collect with information from other areas of the business,you can build robust segments for your readers.Hint,this is where things like progressive profiling can really help fine tune your readers inte
30、rests.Media and publishing companies need powerful segmentation features perhaps more than any other industry.So be sure to cover questions like.How do you build list segments?Can you segment based on branching questions and“if/then”scenarios?Reader behaviors?Expressed interests?Triggers you define?
31、How easy is it to suppress an audience?Are list segments static or dynamic?Meaning,can people move in and out of segments freely based on behaviors you perform?There are so many ways to slice and dice lists.Selecting an email marketing technology with powerful segmentation capabilities is critical i
32、f you want to deliver more targeted messages to your readers and drive more revenue from your advertisers.BONUS:You can spin off new offerings based on these segments as they reach critical mass.Functional requirements continued12345Functional requirements continued8 Personalization.We all know that
33、“insert first name”does not cut it in the media and publishing world.Readers want to feel like you know them.With the wealth of data collected as readers visit your websites and engage with your content,personalization needs to be best-in-class.Ask the tough questions like What can you do beyond sta
34、ndard personalization fields?Is there an ability to insert dynamic content into messages?Do you support cross-channel personalization?Can you pull in data from other areas of the business like payment history,content views and advertising engagement and leverage that data to make the experience both
35、 online and in email uniquely customized for that person?If its not relevant,it wont resonate.Look for technology with powerful segmentation and personalization features that help you send emails that connect to create loyal readers.123459OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTSOperational requirements describe how
36、 the system should run,including user profiles,security,scalability and customer support.This list typically comes from a collaborative effort between the marketing and operations teams.Examples of operational requirements include:Scalability.As your content and readership grows,so does your subscri
37、ber base.You need a technology that allows you to build email marketing campaigns,workflows and automations at scale.Content is the name of your game,so your email provider needs to be able to deliver a wide variety of emails and newsletters to groups of people.Ask things like How many messages can
38、you handle per year,and how is that number impacted by unpredictable activity spikes?(Which happens often in media and publishing)How many contacts does the system hold?What do the contact tiers look like?If we branch out and cover new topics or geographies,or launch an entirely new newsletter or pu
39、blication can the system accommodate your projected readership growth?Can we support sending sponsored emails from our advertisers and sponsors?If something goes viral,can your email provider handle it?If they confidently say“yes!”then you are golden,but if they hesitate at all mark that as a red fl
40、ag.1234510Operational requirements continued Integrations.Every company has information stored across multiple systems.What distinguishes a good email marketing system from a great email marketing system is the ability to pull together multiple systems of record to build a snapshot of individual sub
41、scribersAsk things like Does the system integrate with our subscription management database/system?Does the system integrate with our payment system?Do you integrate with major advertising systems like Meta,Google Ads,AdRoll,etc.?Are integrations native(meaning applications provide a direct means of
42、 integrating with one another via application programming interfaces)or through a third-party API connector like Zapier(which requires its own subscription)?Do your due diligence on integrations and pull in your operations and IT friends to help you understand the capabilities and restraints each in
43、tegration might have.Customer support.In a 24/7 media cycle,you need a vendor who is available to help when things go wrong.Thats why its critical to understand how easy it is to troubleshoot issues.Ask things like What are the customer support tiers,and is there an additional cost for support?Can I
44、 reach someone via phone,email or ticketing system?How do I escalate a mission-critical problem?What are your customer support hours?What languages do you support?Vendors who put a strong emphasis on customer service and support often have the happiest clients.When news can change in the blink of an
45、 eye,you need a vendor who has your back no matter what time it is.Think about services and support Trust me,you are going to need something here no matter how“self-service”you consider yourself to be.Chris MarriottPresident&Founder of Email Connect LLC“1234511TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTSTechnical require
46、ments describe how the vendor and the technology adhere to compliance,security,privacy and IT standards.This list typically comes directly from your IT and/or procurement team and likely feels a bit like alphabet soup with all of the acronyms.Often marketers tend to get really excited about the func
47、tional and operational requirements and toss the technical requirements over to IT.In the spirit of making you the subject matter expert on all things email marketing,we encourage you to get involved in this step.Having a good understanding of todays current compliance mandates,industry regulations,
48、data privacy laws and internal processes will help you become a more tech-savvy marketer and ensure all the safeguards are in place to remain compliant.Examples of technical requirements include:Compliance.IT is going to give you a list of compliance mandates the technology must meet in order to be
49、considered.All you need to do is send this list over to the vendors youre looking at for them to verify if they meet the needs.1234512Compliance mandates related to marketing technology include:SOC 2 specifies how organizations manage customer data.The standard is based on trust services criteria,wh
50、ich outlines the security,availability,processing integrity,confidentiality and privacy requirements.If youre looking at a new vendor,make sure you ask if they support SOC 2 requirements.Many tech start-ups are working towards SOC 2 compliance,but might not be there yet.California Consumer Privacy A
51、ct of 2018(CCPA)gives consumers more control over the personal information that businesses collect about them and the CCPA regulations provide guidance on how to implement the law.General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR)governs the way organizations communicating with individuals and organizations i
52、n the European Union(EU)can use,process and store personal data.This compliance mandate is unique to email marketing and requires things like double opt-in to email lists and the ability to opt-out at any given time.Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard(PCI DSS)is an information security stan
53、dard used to handle credit cards from major card brands.If youre connecting your email system through your subscription management system,you might need to check into these requirements.CAN-SPAM is an oldie but a goodie.It was first introduced back in 2003,and if an email marketing technology youre
54、looking at does not have CAN-SPAM in place,its a big red flag.The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email,establishes requirements for commercial messages,gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them,and spells out tough penalties for violations.Simply put you nee
55、d to give your reader the ability to unsubscribe,and you need to be thoughtful about the frequency and types of messages you send.Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act(HIPAA)is a United States federal law that protects sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without t
56、he patients consent or knowledge.If your media or publishing company is serving the health,wellness or medical community,HIPAA might come up.A lot of consumers connect their health data to applications nowadays,and anything they share must be safe and secure.Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act(C
57、OPPA)is a United States federal law that protects children under the age of 13.COPPA puts parents in control over what information is collected from their young children online.Technical requirements continued13 Customer Data.Understanding how the data which you work so hard to collect is structured
58、,accessed,protected and delivered is critical for internal IT teams.Its likely your company has an internal set of standards for customer data and privacy that youll need to include in your evaluation process.Get with the right people and include that list in your evaluation process.Deployment,firew
59、all and security:Since email marketing systems operate as software as a service(SaaS)model,IT needs to know all about the deployment,firewalls and security standards for your environment.You need to ask and understand how they handle enhanced authentication and data encryption.Its also good to know
60、what their vendor security model and SaaS Security Posture Management(SSPM)look like.Sometimes marketers fall in love with a vendor only to realize they dont adhere to a compliance mandate or security framework that is required to work with your organization.Its wise to cover these items at the begi
61、nning of the process to ensure the vendors youre looking at can work with your business.Technical requirements continuedDont forget to rank your requirementsNow that weve gone through the types of requirements you need to build out,its time to get with your stakeholders or selection committee to ran
62、k them by priority.One thing you might notice when you start this exercise is that everyone thinks their requirement is critical,so a quick tip is to objectively rank them on a scale of 1-5,one being a nice to have and five being a total deal breaker.4STEP 3Schedule Demos and/or Issue You
63、r RFPThere are a few different ways to go about the vendor evaluation process.You can submit a formal RFP to a handful of vendors youve already vetted.This RFP is a full-blown document that lists out all of your functional,technical and operational requirements,and includes questions about each topi
64、c.The vendor has a certain time period to complete your RFP and submit their proposal,which you will then review internally and schedule a demo based on if they are a good fit on paper.If you prefer a more conversational route,you can start requesting demos from the vendors on your vetted list.Since
65、 you went through the tedious but rewarding process of requirements gathering,youll have everything you need to know when you start the sales process.1234515STEP 4Scoring Your Top VendorsAt this point,you have a working document of your requirements list that you will use as you move through a serie
66、s of demos with your top vendors.Typically the sales process you will go through includes:1.Discovery call to get a general understanding of your requirements2.Functional demo to see how the email marketing system works3.Follow-up call with pricing and implementation scope4.Technical demo,which brin
67、gs in you guessed it the technical team members who can dig into the inner workings of the system5.Additional demos to dive deeper into questions or functionality you want to better understand6.A longer conversation about implementation,system migration,on-boarding and ongoing training7.Opportunity
68、to speak with customer references from the media and publishing industry to learn how theyre finding success from the platform During each of these calls,you will leverage your requirements document to create a vendor evaluation scorecard.This scorecard which is often a spreadsheet will list your fe
69、atures in the first column,and your rankings of the vendors in the remaining columns.That way,you can easily and objectively assign scores.1234516STEP 5Make it OfficialIts time to make it officially official and let your vendor of choice know youre ready to sign.Thanks to your due diligence,you have
70、 found the right email technology vendor to build lasting relationships with your readers.Bravo!FIVE NEW TIPS FOR MASTERING YOUR EMAIL RFPfrom Chris MarriottPresident&Founder of Email Connect LLC1Make absolutely sure you know what your specific requirements are2Only invite vendors to your RFP that m
71、atch those requirementsRepeat after me:“There isnt a best ESP,but theres a best ESP for my company”43Dont waste your time or that of your incumbent5Be OK with paying a little more to get a lot more17WE ARE MARIGOLD.Where relationships take root.ConclusionSelecting the right email marketing technolog
72、y requires deep investigation and vast brainstorming by a variety of stakeholders to determine what you actually need,and how it can really work with your team and your publishing model.This process can be an illuminating and worthy experience,one that results in a new relationship with an ideal par
73、tner to help grow your business.As you compile a group of vendors to evaluate,we hope youll consider Marigolds relationship marketing technology suite.There are a lot of companies out there that can send your emails.We can build relationships.Lets talk!18Where relationships take root.Marigolds appro
74、ach to Relationship Marketing stands alone in a world of one-size-fits-all marketing technology companies.Our solutions are designed for your specific size,industry,and maturity,giving you the technology and expertise you need to grow the relationships that grow your business,from customer acquisiti
75、on to engagement to loyalty.And,with a team of strategists that provide insights into whats working,whats not,and whats changing in your industry,youre able to maximize ROI every step of the way.Great marketing isnt just about conversion,but true connection.Learn why 40,000 businesses around the world trust Marigold to be the firm foundation they need to help relationships take root.Find out more at MeetM