Emailcenter

While both of these options can offer great performance and results, for email marketers who send high volumes of email or have very specific data security needs these solutions are not ideal.

Removing the ‘pay per email’ barrier
The cost of sending the emails while retaining features such as personalisation and tracking for high volume campaigns of 50,000 or more can run into thousands of pounds every month.

A typical company sending 250,000 emails a month can pay between £50-60,000 a year on transmission of the emails.

An internal solution such as Maxemail inHouse will remove all of these costs, and give you better control, security, tracking and reporting. All you would pay for is a software licence and the minimal hardware costs.

Until now the main constraint has been technology. In the UK compared to the USA access speeds to the Internet are incredibly slow. Most companies sending email campaigns would see their Internet and network performance slow causing huge productivity issues. Additional connections such as Leased lines offer great speed but they do come at a cost of around £10,000 a year while ADSL offers affordability but its performance at sending large quantities of email is poor.

However the new SDSL technology allows the user equal upload and download speeds. And at around £130 per month you can get a line that would be more than powerful for email campaigns.

Managing the technology can also be a problem. When sending and tracking the campaigns a highly stable platform is required. Windows (PC) based email marketing solutions do not offer the stability and reliability required to manage multiple high volume email campaigns, usually they are limited to running a single campaign only. Also, they tend to require a high level of user management adding further operating costs.

Maxemail inHouse is one of the first solutions that removes all these issues. It is a server-based solution that drops into your existing IT infrastructure. It is easy to integrate with your existing network and Internet connection. The software has an established pedigree and proven track record, managing many leading UK and International companies email marketing campaigns.

Additional benefits of Internal solutions

Internal solutions don’t just give you the benefit of cost savings. Other benefits include:

Data Security
Most service bureaus and ASP solutions have excellent security but if you have specific needs then by bringing all the data in-house you can implement whatever your legal or IT department specifies.

As many emails as you want
An in-house solution provides you with the ultimate flexibility in your campaigns. Rather than being constrained by budgets sending emails really does become free! You can send as many emails as desired in a campaign to follow up as many times as you wish. (Remember however that you must still only send as many emails as you stated when asking the recipient to opt-in)

How do I choose between in-house and other solutions?

Choosing is not just a case of looking at the costs necessarily. There are a wide range of issues you need to take into account:

Do you have the right skills?
If you are not yet comfortable with designing emails, managing and cleaning the data or collating the tracking results then a managed services such as Emailcenter’s Maxemail Managed is probably the solution for you.

Do you see the volume of emails increasing or falling?
If you know that your email volumes are going to be stable, increase or decrease it is relatively easy to work out the cost implications for internal, ASP and outsourced solutions. We can provide you advice and guidance to help you choose the best solution for your needs. Click here for advice and a price comparison.

If on the other hand you are not sure what will happen in the future with email marketing then using a service bureau or ASP solution will give you flexibility. You can of course always move over to an internal solution when you are ready.

What are your IT resources like?
With Internal solutions your IT department will almost certainly like to get involved in the decision making process. If they would like to discuss the various solutions we are always here to answer their queries.

What are your data security needs?
If you need to keep your data in-house for security or legal reasons or just feel more comfortable in doing so then an in-house solution will provide this.

Summary

There are many different approaches to email marketing, in-house being just one of them. At Emailcenter we recognise this and have tailored four different products to meet your needs. These are Maxemail inHouse, Maxemail onDemand (our ASP solution), Maxemail Agency (for marketing and advertising agencies) and Maxemail Managed (a comprehensive range of services such as list rental and building, campaign design and reporting.)