Email marketing is not all about tech: its customer service that matters
Adestra today launches the Adestra Customer Charter and becomes the first Email Service Provider [ESP] in the UK to do so. Not only does this demonstrate the company’s focus to be the most customer-centred ESP, but the clear and open Customer Charter details the standards of service it aims to provide clients and shows the best channels for communication with the management and support teams.
The Adestra Customer Charter clearly differentiates the company from others in the email marketing sector. With many players ‘obsessed’ with the technology side of things, Adestra is taking a more holistic, customer-centred approach by formalising the commitment to service levels, which is based on continual improvement.
Adestra is already highly respected by its client base and throughout the email marketing industry, a fact borne out by their high retention rate of 98.7%. The Customer Charter builds on this and shows customers what to expect. Henry Hyder-Smith, MD at Adestra, explains:
“The Adestra team has always believed customer service to be paramount, and our Customer Charter goes a step further, formalising the process of interfacing with clients and detailing the standards of service we are aiming for.
“By introducing the Customer Charter this shows clients how we value them and means we are completely open and up-front, so they know what to expect.”
At Adestra, the team seeks to provide the highest possible levels of customer support and intelligent, innovative consultation. They recognise that their clients have the right to expect a fair, efficient and polite service from Adestra that meets their needs.
The Customer Charter is based on direct feedback from clients on what is important to them. The company is committed to making sure that all employees keep to the principles of high quality customer service. It accepts that it may have some work to do to achieve all of these, but it will be open with clients about its progress and any improvements made.
If you would like a copy – please click here
Press Contacts
For more information, please contact press@adestra.com
Following the release of their 2012 Email Marketing Platforms Buyers Guide, a recent post from Econsultancy stated that despite the rise in social media use and consumption, the UK market for email marketing platforms and services was worth £336 million in 2010 and grew by an estimated 15.5% year-on-year to a value of £388 million by the end of 2011.
Adestra’s Henry Hyder-Smith comments:
“With the rise of social media, the talk of the industry
at the beginning of 2011 was all about social media being the death of email. The market has actually grown and the two channels have grown to complement each other.”
“Email marketing has not lost its place in the marketing communications mix, but it has and will have to evolve to fit into the changing times. There has been a rise in email automation to fit into this change, moving from ‘load and blast’ to a focus on relevant and 1:1 communications. The coming years will see email evolve even further, to fit into this social world we are rapidly becoming.”
The email marketing sector continues to flourish, with growth driven by various factors, including competitive pricing and efficiency. Email continues to be highly cost-effective and to deliver strong returns. Growth in this market stems from an increasingly cross-channel approach to marketing, with companies integrating data and insights from a variety of channels to increase the effectiveness of their emails. This is demonstrated by Econsultancy’s 2011 Email Census (published in association with Adestra). It shows that companies are becoming more familiar with the rules of email marketing best practice. Almost three quarters of companies (72%) rate email marketing as “excellent” (26%) or “good” (46%) in terms of return on investment.
How do you rate the following channels in terms of return-on-investment? Econsultancy / Adestra Email Census 2011
To download the 2011 Email Census click here
To take part in the 2012 Email Census click here
To download the 2012 Email Marketing Platforms Buyers Guide from Econsultancy click here
Don’t miss your chance to take part in the UK’s largest Email Marketing Survey. Now in it’s 6th year, the email census has recorded the changes in email marketing from load and blast to more relevant, targeted and intelligent communications, the arrival of social media and mobile email.
The 2011 census highlighted some fascinating trends, including;
Take part in the industry’s biggest survey and receive an advanced free copy of the full census (normally worth GBP250).
Adestra will hold a breakfast briefing on 6th March 2012 in London, where we will discuss the latest hot topics and best practice for email marketing for from the census findings. If you are interesting in attending, please feel free to fill in your details on our contact us page.
Adestra today announces a partnership with Apteco where its enterprise level email marketing platform, MessageFocus, is integrated with Apteco’s FastStats data analysis and automation platform. FastStats Discoverer and PeopleStage users can now upload data, trigger a broadcast and receive response data via Adestra’s MessageFocus platform.
Targeted marketing lists segmented in FastStats can be uploaded into Adestra’s MessageFocus email platform and email campaigns broadcast directly from there in an easy-to-use process. Email campaigns can even be configured to be automatically sent out. Post-email send information recorded by the comprehensive MessageFocus reporting suite is then transferred back into FastStats via key metrics reporting of clicks, opens and bounces.
From one-off broadcasts to more comprehensive integration, the new Adestra/Apteco partnership helps marketers co-ordinate and manage multiple direct marketing promotions and handle responses in a reactive manner. This benefits users in a number of ways: giving greater control over their email marketing; improving bounce suppression and deliverability; and, using best practice guidelines, can significantly improve response rates.
MessageFocus has a multi-tiered structure which allows multiple brands or divisions to all exist separately as part of one account – a unique design that is not found in any other email platform.
Steve Denner, Director at Adestra, comments: “We’re delighted to have agreed this partnership – it gives FastStats users greater flexibility, and enables them to ‘unlock’ their data and maximise its value through using powerful email marketing tactics with our email platform MessageFocus.”
FastStats provides fast, visual and truly easy to use data analysis with an intuitive drag and drop interface and wizards that guide users through powerful analysis. FastStats is proven in over 300 installations, with thousands of users worldwide, able to handle massive databases for modern direct and digital marketing.
James Alty, MD of Apteco, said: “We are pleased to integrate FastStats with Adestra’s technology and give our users the ability to use MessageFocus. The two technologies provide a better and more powerful solution than either can deliver in isolation.”
This partnership helps FastStats users make the transition of data to and from a fulfilment channel as seamless and simple as possible. It is ideal for users across all sectors including charities, publishers, events management, and other ecommerce organisations.
Press Contacts
For further information, please contact press@adestra.com
Last week Adestra sponsored the last Figaro Digital Email Seminar of 2011. 
It was an interesting day, with speakers from all around the world and some great presentations. One of which was from our client Action for Children, who presented on Adestra’s behalf at the seminar.
Matthew Warrilow, Digital Commications Officer at Action for Children talked about “Action for Children embarked on a digital journey last year, completely changing our online strategy. This presentation goes through the journey and the improvements that have been made to their email strategy, driving awareness of campaigns and improving engagement for those drier messages.”
You can send an Action for Children e-card to your friends / family / colleagues here >
You can watch the presentation here on Figaro Digital’s website >
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