Any email automation app out there?
I want my marketing guy to be able to define emails that will be sent to my users based on queries that he should be able to build.
- If 30 days have passed since user signed in
Then send email A - If user sends first message
Then send email B
As a developer I just want to send what a specific user do to this automation app and let the marketer deal with email automation:
- Just signed in (2011-09-10 12:41)
- Sent first message (2011-09-11 13:54)
- ...
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Someone also mentioned http://officeautopilot.com to me. – Aymeric Gaurat Apelli 12 years ago
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Why not just build it? Sounds easy enough to develop and you can tailor it to your specs. If I were going to build something like this for me and my business I would think it would take me about 4 days max. Plus you wouldn't have to worry about any monthly fees. Some of these SAAS apps being recommended here are just way too expensive and not flexible enough to allow for custom rules like you had mentioned you needed. – Tim 12 years ago
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I prefer to pay $10 per month than spend 4 days of my time. (there is a risk that 4 days is underestimating the amount of effort required too) – Aymeric Gaurat Apelli 12 years ago
4 Answers
Infusionsoft would be another option. It's meant for businesses already with a steady flow of prospects and customers and are slightly beyond the "startup" and "idea" stage. It's the most powerful marketing automation software for small business and email is one of its strong suits.
For larger applications a combination between Salesforce.com and ExactTarget would work, too. But for most small businesses, Infusionsoft is an all-in-one marketing suite for this.
See the details on what they provide:
http://www.infusionsoft.com/products/features/email-marketing
If you've worked hard to get the permission of users to market to them directly, I wouldn't take the value of that list lightly. For starters, I would highly suggest outsourcing it to a email marketing service provider - because the simple application you're talking about would easily be out done by one of these services.
Quick Google search pulled up this 2011 Best Email Marketing Service Comparisons and Reviews - which I'd take with as a starting point for features and providers, not an authority who to select.
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blunders, sorry I wasn't clear in my question. I know about MailChimp, SendGrid and PostMark for example. None of them give you an easy way to send emails based on your users activity without requiring a developer. – Aymeric Gaurat Apelli 12 years ago
When I was looking for an email list management application, I took a liking to MailList King out of New Zealand. It's a powerful app from a small company that provides good support. You might check with them whether they can customize any functionality you need that they don't already offer.
Since your user data is likely in your database. If you important it into (or better, sync it with) say Outlook then you could likely write a simple VBA routine to do it for you.
It seems it would take a very short time to write such a utility (a bit small to be called an app). You could likely get someone on one of the freelance sites (http://vworker.com or http://guru.com or http://elance.com ) to write it for you for less than $100.
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I am a developer myself so I could develop it but before I do that I wonder if such an app exists. – Aymeric Gaurat Apelli 12 years ago
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I understand looking to see what's out there but from developer to developer, you're looking at an hour's work, tops, to write it yourself. Considering your data is likely in some database, you're not going to find an email app which ties to your custom database (without writing code). Were it me, I would write it and be done with it. – John 12 years ago
