ExactTarget, a provider of on-demand e-mail and one-to-one marketing solutions, just launched its Live Offers coupon service for e-tailers. An extension to its ExactTarget platform, Live Offers can be used by online sellers and marketers to add a new dynamic coupon functionality to their e-mail newsletters and campaigns.
ExactTarget is a hosted service, which can be tailored to suit the needs of any company; from small to mid-sized businesses, right up to the enterprise level.
The platform is used to create, deliver and then track results of marketing campaigns through a variety of portals.
In an interview with Ecommerce-Guice.com, Scott Roth, director of product marketing for ExactTarget, said that many clients use ExactTarget for e-mail marketing, however the platform does also support marketing efforts through SMS messages, recorded voice and Web site landings pages, to name a few options. All these marketing channels are actually created from within the ExactTarget interface.
Adding to the functionality of ExactTarget, Live Offers provides the means to manage live coupon promotions in e-mail marketing campaigns.
The technology driving Live Offers is such that it is able to intelligently render live coupon-based offers, not when the e-mail offer is sent out, but rather as the e-mail is opened by the subscriber.
E-tailers Can Track from Open to Redemption
Web shop owners have the flexibility from within Live Offers to target specific subscribers or to specify that the offer not exceed a maximum redemption rate, based on their budget earmarked for the campaign.
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Live Offer: Coupons in e-mail marketing that you can track in real time. This is an example of a coupon offer still available.
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For example, if you wanted a maximum of 1,000 redemptions but your subscriber list is 2,500 members, you can have Live Offers provide the code for the coupon to the first 1,000 subscribers who open the e-mail, and have the remaining users on your list see a different offer or be sent to a different landing page on your Web site.
Live Offers actually does this on-the-fly, sending information back to the server so the specifications set by the merchant are never exceeded. In addition, every offer (coupon code) is tied and tracked to a unique individual which gives e-tailers precise data, in real time, to evaluate the ROI from their campaign. To help with marketing planning and strategy, the data feeds provided by the platform show exactly when the offer was sent, exactly when it was opened and when the offer was printed by the user or redeemed online.
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Live Offer: Coupons in e-mail marketing that you can track in real time. This is an example of a coupon offer that has expired.
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The intelligent data does not stop with the opening of the e-mail, as it would in traditional static e-mail offers. In cases where the offer is for a printed discount to be redeemed in-store, you can further track the conversion rate as you'll also know exactly how long it took the subscriber to go into the store and redeem the coupon. You'll also see how much money the consumer is spending on or offline as a direct result of your e-mail marketing efforts.
Roth said, "This tracking is only possible because every single e-mail that is distributed with a coupon is tied to a specific individual on your list, and stays tied to the individual, whether he or she redeems a coupon online, in-store or doesn't redeem it at all. From a retailers' perspective, it really is a great thing to be able to prove back the ROI that campaign initiated, and the retailer has a database of subscribers and knows precisely who acted on that offer or not, and they can now go back and market to those subscribers according to what they did with the coupon."
You could also choose to specify that the offer be based on the actual number of redemptions instead of putting the cap on the number of e-mails opened. For instance, if you wanted the offer to be live for the first 1,000 subscriber to redeem it, not just view it, those subscribers past the threshold could again be directed to an alternative offer in its place.
While Live Offers can be used to help online vendors stick within their marketing budget, it is also a good choice for inventory over-run offers, because, again the coupon is dynamic and it can verify usage and redemptions in real-time. This allows you to promote, for example, a deep discount on a specific quantity of merchandise without making the mistake of presenting an invalid offer to subscribers if the specified number of discounted product has been sold before they open their e-mail.
Availability and Pricing
Live Offers is an extension of ExactTarget's one-to-one marketing platform, so to use the Live Offers service, e-tailers need to be ExactTarget clients. The company says it offers affordable packages designed for the SMB market. ExactTarget is currently offering an Early Adopters Program for Live Offers, which is available for the remainder of 2008, and according to the company, allows smaller online businesses the opportunity to leverage advanced features that are usually suited for larger organizations. (Details of pricing are currently under a mandatory "quiet period" imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission as the public company is currently registering its securities with the group.)
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