Selligent, formerly known as Marigold/Selligent, and now Zeta-Selligent, is one of the world's leading companies. advanced email routing platform. By advanced, I mean that the technical possibilities offered by the platform are numerous. Selligent has two main versions of its tool: Campaign (historical) and Engage (more recent). In recent months, I've had the experience of two customers who were wondering whether to make the switch from Campaign to Engage. And this is the perfect opportunity to give you my conclusions in an article.
A little history
Selligent is a Belgian company that dates back to the late 90s. The company first existed as a CRM publisher, before specializing in email marketing. The tool developed at the time was intended for use by on-premise (on-site) and based on eco-system technologies Windows. One of the current versions of Selligent, Campaign, is the direct descendant of the historic tool. That's why Campaign still only works with Windows. This is one of the main reasons behind the development of Engage. Engage is a 100% web-based platform, compatible with Apple and Linux, and in the cloud. On paper, Engage is therefore more flexible, and is designed and sold as an evolution of Campaign.
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Two tools, two targets
Selligent Campaign
Although Campaign is a rather austere piece of software from a visual point of view, and heavy in terms of infrastructure, it's a tool that's a real pleasure to use. very powerful. The campaign management module is a powerful WYSIWYG advanced, stream-based. Segmentation capabilities are also very powerful, with the ability to integrate SQL queries.
It is also possible to set up stored procedures. These are bits of SQL code used to perform various actions on data. There's even a built-in SQL editor in Campaign to work directly on data tables, but also on Selligent-specific technical tables. This allows great flexibility for someone with the necessary technical skills and knowledge of these tables.
Technical freedom is therefore huge, The direct consequence of this is that large accounts using Campaign generally have fairly complex workflows in place, with technical links to other platforms. On the other hand, Campaign's target user will ideally be a technically oriented profile ; Whether to operate the tool or to support content- and/or strategy-oriented users.
To make Campaign easier to use for less technical users, the integrated Express has been developed. It's a module for creating emails based on a template coded by a developer. The email creation can then be done directly in WYSIWYG and send it directly. Here, too, the technical possibilities for template development are extensive. It's possible to set up blocks that fetch information stored in tables, place filters, format data, and many other things, provided directly in the template, and therefore without the need for intervention by someone simply wishing to add content.
Selligent Campaign is therefore a heavy, powerful tool, requiring a heavy infrastructure to host the data and technical profiles to manipulate the tool to its full potential. It offers a high degree of technical flexibility, enabling it to be integrated into complex corporate environments.
Engage
Engage is the evolution of Campaign that keeps pace with the times. Engage is a tool SaaS, designed for easy deployment, and can be operated directly by profiles with little or no technical background. With this release, Selligent is clearly moving away from technical complexity to make the tool as accessible as possible.
In this spirit, the interface is more modern. The tools available remain broadly the same: a flow designer for managing email campaigns and a designer for preparing emails. Engage also features’a email builder integrated, but for the moment, it's far from holding up (if our article about it may sound complimentary, it's because there's a difference between what's presented in the documentation and what's actually used). The Express module no longer exists, the whole package having been designed to create simple campaigns quickly and directly.
While it's always possible to set up stored procedures to manage data, in use it's very clear that while Campaign's interface was made for technicians first, Engage is made for non-technicians first. In terms of functionality, on paper, Engage is very similar to Campaign. So on paper, Engage seems a logical choice. On paper. And in real life?
Engage Vs. Campaign
Technology vs. accessibility
Campaign has been around for a long time, and the software has overcome its teething problems. It's a tool that's been tried, tested and refined. It's certainly not perfect, but what it does, it does well. Very well indeed. And once again, technically it offers enormous possibilities, such as attacking data in technical tables directly to produce fully customized reports in PowerBi or any other reporting tool.
Large accounts that have been using Campaign for a long time have set up an infrastructure they can control. From my experience, they've also set up a procedure for having technical support staff, and content creation staff. There are also complex links between the company's various tools and Campaign.
Engage, for its part, has abandoned the need for heavy infrastructure, which is good for costs, but does not allow you to fetch data from technical tables. Engage also offers an email builder that integrates most of the technical capabilities that a developer could implement in a Campaign for Express template. But, and this is where it hurts the most, this email builder doesn't work properly. For relatively simple things, it does the job, but it's clear that this tool hasn't been extensively tested, and has yet to make its youthful mistakes.
Among other bugs I've identified:
- A tag present in the doc but not working (
sg:text) - The main content tag,
sg:content, does not work properly with custom styles - The ability to add content elements to repeatable blocks exists in templates, but not in emails.
- etc.
While this is of no importance for customers who integrate their emails internally or via an agency, it poses major problems for customers who want to use the full power of the tool and manage their email correctly. system design automatically. And I've seen this in the experience of customers who were thinking of migrating from Campaign to Engage, but refrained specifically because of this rickety templating tool. In Campaign, of course, the interface is less modern and you need a developer to set up complex templates, but it works.
Price
Another element that came up through my experiences is the pricing model. For the moment, the two tools are presented as living in parallel, and Selligent has confirmed that there is no planned end date for Campaign. On the other hand, all new developments will take place on Engage, and not on Campaign. However, these enhancements come in the form of new modules and are billed in addition. This can add significantly to the bill.
And while some new features are sexy, the important thing is to know your needs and objectives. The basic tool is already extremely powerful and can do a lot. Make sure you're using it fully and appropriately before you want more.
In summary
| Campaign | Engage | |
|---|---|---|
| Type of user | Marketing technician, data engineer, CRM manager | Marketeer / digital campaign manager |
| Learning curve | Quite high | Low to medium |
| Technical freedom | Very large (scripts, SQL, complex workflows) | Supervised, with pre-built models and automations |
| IT Governance | Required | Lightweight (Zeta/Marigold manages infrastructure) |
Conclusion
Which Selligent version is best? Engage? Campaign? As is often the case, there's no simple, straightforward answer. If you're a new customer, you'll probably already have done your market research, and you'll probably be there for Engage. For existing customers, as Selligent has targeted large accounts, it's a safe bet that a migration from Campaign to Engage (or another tool) would cost you a lot of money, and it's not certain that you'd keep all the features present in Campaign. So, generally speaking, the choice will be to stay with Campaign.
But isn't Campaign doomed to disappear? Yes, probably, but not in the short term (and personally, I'd wager that even in the medium term it'll still be around). There are too many large accounts with too many mechanics in place to let the tool go. Eventually, the Campaign / Engage distinction could disappear. in favor of a unified platform under Zeta. In the meantime, Campaign remains the safe bet for demanding technical environments, while Engage aims for simplicity of use for marketing teams.
Personally, my heart goes out to Campaign. No doubt because it's where I cut my teeth as an Email Campaign Architect. But also because it's a tool that leaves plenty of room for technical customization. I've never found so many possibilities in a tool other than Selligent Campaign.
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