This week we continue our series of interviews with emailing platforms with EmailStrategy.
Can you give us a brief history of EmailStrategie? When was the platform founded, by whom, has the business model evolved since the beginning of the adventure?
Founded in 2001 by Frédéric BURON, EmailStrategie specializes in email marketing strategy and emailing/SMS/FAX routing. At the time, the Internet bubble was bursting, and no one believed that companies would one day be paying to send emails! In 2010, the independent company designed and developed the WeWmanager sending platform, a solution available in SaaS, webservice and API mode (an evolution of the first platform, which was in ASP). Accessible 24/7, the WeWmanager solution can be used for Full Service (EmailStrategie handles the emailing/SMS order from "A" to "Z" via a highly advanced workflow system) or in Self Service (the customer is completely autonomous on the platform).
What makes EmailStrategie unique? What distinguishes you from other players in this highly competitive market?
As for the platform, WeWmanager is the only solution on the market developed in FLEX (compatible with all PC and MAC browsers): this language has enabled us to develop a very user-oriented platform, paying particular attention to the needs of our customers and to the ergonomics of the interface. It is the technology that must serve the user and not the other way around! Another differentiating element is the numerous deliverability tools offered by the platform to monitor message delivery as closely as possible and thus obtain, in the end, very good results in terms of openings, clicks, etc.
When it comes to services, we follow the same logic that guided us during the design of the WeWmanager platform: the user comes first! We offer a wide range of services to help you optimize each of the elements that make up a campaign (email databases, graphic creations, HTML integrations, advanced delivery tools, etc.), to accompany you on the platform (online help, support, training, etc.) but also to facilitate the integration of email marketing into your marketing and CRM strategy by creating synergies (specific developments, multi-channel relational programs, integration of social networks, Google Analytics connector, Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics connectors, Dropbox connector, etc.)
What are the 3 main challenges for the next few months in the emailing world?
Deliverability is a major permanent challenge that requires real know-how. Our Deliverability unit works daily on all the levers that will affect the quality of message delivery: infrastructure, sending parameters, reputation, etc.
Management of email databases The management/segmentation of email databases is another major challenge for marketers in 2013. Aware of this challenge, EmailStrategie's teams have developed a very flexible hosted database module designed to group/update - automatically and on a single interface - all customer/prospect information useful for their targeting and thus facilitate the segmentation of their contacts (drag & drop queries, etc.).
Need help?
Reading content isn't everything. The best way is to talk to us.
The responsive design applied to emailing Mobile devices: mobile devices (smartphones, tablets) are widely used today but most emails are not optimized for these interfaces. Too much content, poor graphic rendering, links that are difficult to click, texts that are too small, etc. The size of screens and their resolutions are forcing marketers to opt for more impactful emails and for solutions that allow for the creation of self-adapting messages called responsive. EmailStrategie has therefore designed a responsive HTML editor in WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) mode capable of generating templates that automatically adapt to the reading interfaces used by recipients/visitors.
What are the next evolutions of your platform?
The next major evolution will concern our hosted DB module: we are currently working on new, more "datamining" oriented functionalities that will allow us to go even further in the analysis of databases and the extraction of relevant data for their segmentations...
Do you offer your customers a "Freemium" mode (free version with reduced features)? If not, why not use this model?
We do not offer a "Freemium" version. Like our emailing policy, our company's policy is not so much quantitative as qualitative. An emailing platform is, in the end, only a software solution: the best of tools, placed in the wrong hands, can prove to be disappointing in terms of results, or even dangerous if it is badly used...
What do you think of the French emailing market? Is it mature or is there still room for new innovations?
The French emailing market is mature as far as ESPs (Email Service Providers) are concerned. New operators continue to enter the market but few of them are capable of sending large volumes: their platforms, although very efficient, often suffer from a lack of infrastructure in the background which directly affects the quality and delivery times to the recipients' inboxes.
As far as advertisers are concerned, the French emailing market is rather disparate: some advertisers (especially e-commerce pure-players) are very advanced in their practices and we work alongside them on advanced relational schemes... Other advertisers (sometimes very large companies) only have 5% of their databases informed at the email level! It is therefore a question of accompanying these customers not only in terms of email marketing, but also in terms of their global CRM strategies.
