[epub] Re: ESP Differentiator

[Daniel Hedrick <Daniel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mar 28, 2005, at 3:11 PM, Christopher Knight wrote:
> What is the #1 thing that differentiates the average ESP (Email 
> Service Provider) from a
> top dog ESP?

I'm betting this is going to vary based on the type of publication, but 
IMHO, I'm going to stick with the 2005 theme of "analytics" and say 
that reporting is going to have to be my #1 differentiator.

> How high of a factor does Email Deliverability factor in?
> How high does ease of use for the non-techie factor in?
> How high does self service tools vs. full service human support factor 
> in?
> Would you take an easy to use interface over poor deliverability?
> Would you tolerate a poor interface to achieve excellent deliveries?

Perhaps I'm naive, but are deliverability and ease-of-use inverse 
relationships when dealing with ESPs?

When it comes to ease of use, I'm more interested in post-processing 
than in setup, composition and sending. For me, that's because I have a 
high degree of comfort when dealing with those tasks based on my 
background and training. I would also posit that pre-delivery technical 
issues are much easier to deal with from a tech support perspective. 
That's also an area where I would assume that professional services or 
consulting can provide lift.

As for post-delivery issues, my main concern is not with the ease of 
use, per-se, but rather that *all* or *as much as humanly possible* of 
the data is presented to me so that I may deal with it (deliveries, 
opens, bounces, unsubs, click-thrus, conversions, forwards, etc).

Specifically regarding the interface, *those* are the features I'm most 
interested in for any actual tool -- the post-delivery reporting 
capabilities.

As far as deliverability, I would *ass/u/me* that it will be highly 
variable based on the list source and contents. A highly technical list 
that is used to market high-dollar pbx switching equipment may have 
greater deliverability than a list of baby-boomer women interested in 
general quilting (pure speculation, no offense is meant to your list 
whether you market to either of these demographics).

I would place an ESP's ability to document and outline their 
deliverability initiatives (dealing with pre-checks, bounces, unsubs, 
etc) as high on the list  -- but again, that's kinda orthogonal to the 
usability issue in my mind.

Good question, though.

-daniel