Datran Media Launches StormPost 4.0 with Facebook Integration

More than ever, your customers are spending a majority of their time on social networks - making it increasingly challenging for you to reach them. With over 66 million active users, Facebook™ is one of the most popular social networks online, and is likely home to many of your customers and prospects. Like email, social networks including Facebook are excellent platforms for viral marketing campaigns. However, the opportunity to reach these social network users has posed a hurdle for many marketers. Fortunately, Datran Media has released StormPost 4.0, the only Inbox marketing system that allows retailers and media companies to communicate their messages to Facebook subscribers - directly into their Facebook accounts.

During last week's Coremetrics Client Summit in Fort Worth, TX, Datran Media announced the release of StormPost 4.0. The latest version of the ESP platform offers the first-ever tool to reach Facebook users in their environment. The innovative tool makes it possible for marketers to send highly personalized communications to social media content subscribers through the StormPost system. This feature is simple to use and offers the same tracking and reporting benefits you've come to depend on from email.

"We've found that there are folks who spend a lot of time on Facebook and do a lot of messaging there," said Dave Hendricks, VP of marketing and strategy at Datran Media. "So we wanted to build a tool that would give marketers the opportunity to message there. It works great since Facebook is based on email addresses and accepts messages from outside systems."

In addition to the social media tool, StormPost 4.0 features integration with Coremetrics LIVEMail 2.0. Commenting on StormPost 4.0's Coremetrics LIVEMail 2.0 integration, Hendricks stated, "The combination of LIVEMail's behavioral targeting offering with Datran Media's advanced segmenting capabilities makes StormPost 4.0's analytics integration valuable because it allows users to execute win-back/reactivation and renewal campaigns, regardless of whether the user is partnered with another ESP for its retention mailings or not. If you are a user of Coremetrics, you can leverage the power of performance marketing through StormPost without going through a painful conversion effort."

Other enhancements to StormPost 4.0 include upgrades to its user interface, trend-based reporting and Inventory Management features -- all focused on simplifying what it takes for marketers to execute and measure the results of highly sophisticated marketing campaigns. The Inventory Management feature is a unique capability, providing publishers and ad-supported media companies with the ability to monetize their message streams.

For more information on StormPost 4.0, read the press release, email Dave Hendricks or contact him at (212)-706-4911 to set up a demo.

New York's Interactive Advertising Club Discusses CRM

New York City's Interactive Advertising Club, simply known as 212 and named after Manhattan's dominant area code (sorry 646 and 718'ers) hosted the first of its "Dialed In" series of 2008 on Monday, February 25th. The interactive event focused on the changing landscape of Customer Retention Marketing (CRM) and brought together marketing experts including Datran Media's chief revenue officer, Sean O'Neal, and panelists from MediaContacts, MediaVest/Coke Rewards, and Wunderman.

Customer Retention Marketing, often known in our industry as eCRM or Digital CRM, is not just customer service, web applications, customization of content or the analysis of customers' purchasing behaviors on the internet. Digital CRM is all of these initiatives and more, working together to enable a marketer to more effectively respond to its customers' needs and to communicate to them on a one-to-one basis. There was some debate as to what CRM really means. One of the most interesting definitions of the night was "Customers Really Matter". But no matter how you define CRM, the panelists agreed that the Digital CRM landscape is changing, and marketers are struggling to find out not only how to acquire new customers but also how to keep them.

According to the informative panel, one of the best solutions to accomplish true CRM is through email. Unlike other channels, email is a 2-way channel. "Email can help you manage the customer experience throughout the entire sales lifecycle," explained Datran Media's Sean O'Neal to an engaged crowd of onlookers. "It is both push and pull in nature, so it really is the only channel that lets you listen to your customers and react to their behavior." Through new media channels and emerging technology, consumers have become in charge of the messaging they receive, and they manage this in the Inbox.

To learn how Boston.com used email to drive their CRM success, check out a recent article published in DM News. If you would like to test CRM in your email campaigns, contact us today.

Each month, Datran Media's director of strategic and analytic services, Nicholas Einstein, shares his email insights with the EEC community.

I spent the second week of February in Palm Desert at the eTail conference and participated in a panel discussion focused on advanced segmentation strategies. Unlike in previous years, the team at eTail set up channel-specific tracks that preceded the usual conference-email and search each had their own rooms, and sizeable crowds looking to learn more from experts in the space. Read More >