My Emailing

Polémique Google Buzz, vie privée et paramètres de confidentialité

2010-04-28T02:47:00.000-07:00

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Google Buzz est un service de réseau social prenant la forme du micro-blogging à l’image de Twitter ou Facebook. Ce nouveau service Google permet de partager des messages courts en y intégrant facilement photos, vidéos, liens, informations de géolocalisation et d’importer des données depuis Picasa, Google Reader, Flickr, Twitter, Blogger, YouTube. Intégré à toutes les messageries Gmail, Google Buzz a suscité de vives réactions dès son lancement le 9 février 2010.

En effet, à peine lancé, ce web social de Google a suscité une levée de boucliers à propos de la confidentialité des données personnelles et du consentement des utilisateurs. A l’origine, Google Buzz convertissait des contacts de messagerie Gmail en contacts de réseau (followers) sans demander l’autorisation aux utilisateurs : les personnes avec lesquelles vous correspondiez le plus étaient automatiquement insérées dans votre réseau, en fonction de l’historique des e-mails et des conversations instantanées. Par défaut les personnes que vous suiviez et ceux qui vous suivaient étaient communiquées automatiquement à quiconque consultait votre profil. De nombreuses voix se sont élevées pour déplorer le fait que n’importe quel utilisateur du service était en mesure de consulter le carnet d’adresses d’un autre utilisateur sans son autorisation (les listes de contacts qu’ils suivent et ceux qui les suivent), mais aussi pour se plaindre du peu de contrôle sur les personnes qui vous suivent (possibilité de bloquer un utilisateur qui souhaite vous suivre).

Face à la polémique, Google ne tarde pas à réagir dès le 11 février, sur le Gmail Blog (Millions of Buzz users, and improvements based on your feedback) : Todd Jackson, Product Manager pour Gmail et Google Buzz, souligne qu’il est possible de créer un profil public limité permettant de contrôler l’affichage des contacts. Mais les feedback ont fait remarquer que la case permettant de sélectionner les personnes ayant accès à ces informations, était difficile à trouver. Todd Jackson annonce que Google s’engage à clarifier les conditions d’utilisation du service et que la firme a rendu plus visible l’option permettant de ne pas montrer ses followers et les personnes suivies sur son profil public et de filtrer l’accès aux informations partagées. En outre, il est désormais possible de bloquer toute personne souhaitant vous suivre alors que précédemment on ne pouvait bloquer que celles qui avaient un profil public. Les modifications instaurent plus de clarté quant au statut des profils (public/privé).

Dans une nouvelle contribution du 13 février (A new Buzz start-up experience based on your feedback), Todd Jackson précise les modifications qui seront apportées « over the next few days ». Le suivi des contacts sur Gmail ne sera plus automatique (auto-following) au profit d’une suggestion de contacts ("auto-suggest model") : l’utilisateur doit sélectionner lui-même ses contacts ("Follow selected people and start using Buzz"). De plus, Google Buzz n’est plus connecté aux albums publics Picasa et à Google Reader. Enfin, depuis les paramètres de Gmail (Gmail Settings), il était déjà possible de désactiver Google Buzz de l’interface du webmail ("hide Buzz from Gmail or disable it completely") mais un lien depuis la page d’accueil doit davantage mettre en évidence cette possibilité.

On remarque qu’en modifiant les paramètres de confidentialité, Google réagit vite, mais le 17 février, l’Electronic Privacy Information Center, association américaine de défense de la vie privée, porte plainte contre Google auprès de la Federal Trade Commission (Commission fédérale américaine du Commerce) : "Nous demandons expressément à la FTC qu’elle oblige Google à adopter une procédure d’opt-in complète sur Google Buzz, de cesser l’exploitation des contacts privés des utilisateurs de Gmail pour alimenter son réseau social et de permettre à ses membres de disposer d’un contrôle important sur ses données personnelles", explique l’EPIC dans son dépôt de plainte. Le lancement de Google Buzz est assimilé à une violation de la loi fédérale sur la protection des consommateurs et l’on exige que l’utilisateur puisse donner son consentement explicite avant toute exploitation de ses données personnelles, par opposition à la constitution automatique d’un réseau lors d’une première utilisation du service.

Le 6 avril, dans un nouveau post (Confirm your Buzz settings), Todd Jackson confirme les règles de paramétrage de la confidentialité et la volonté de Google de réduire la propagation non maîtrisée d’informations personnelles. Il incite les premiers utilisateurs (notamment ceux qui furent connectés à Buzz avant les modifications apportées) à valider les paramètres de confidentialité et délimiter l’étendue des données qu’il veut publier sur une page de confirmation qui s’affichera au prochain clic sur l’onglet Buzz. L’utilisateur peut définir à tout moment quels sont les contacts qui pourront suivre ou non les discussions, déterminer quelles listes sont rendues publiques et gérer l’interopérabilité (Picasa, Twitter…).

Mais "l’affaire du lancement de Google Buzz" n’est toujours pas digérée. Le 20 avril à Washington, un sommet de l'International Association of Privacy Professionals a regroupé les autorités de protection des données de différents pays, dont la Cnil pour la France. Les commissaires à la vie privée de 10 pays ont dévoilé leur courrier à Google daté du 19 avril, dans lequel ils reviennent sur les problèmes et la polémique suscités par le lancement de Buzz en soulignant le fait que les modifications apportées afin de répondre aux plaintes des utilisateurs, ne règlent pas tout. Ils s’inquiètent "de voir que trop souvent, le droit à la vie privée des citoyens du monde est laissé de côté" et disent avoir été "troublés" par le lancement de Google Buzz, "qui a été fait dans le mépris des normes et des lois fondamentales en matière de protection de la vie privée", en rappelant que "ce n’était la première fois que [Google] omettait de tenir compte du respect de la vie privée en lançant de nouveaux services".

Selon eux, "attribuer automatiquement aux utilisateurs un réseau d' "amis" constitué des personnes avec lesquelles ils communiquent le plus fréquemment va à l’encontre du principe fondamental selon lequel les personnes doivent pouvoir contrôler l’utilisation faite de leurs renseignements personnels. Les utilisateurs ont immédiatement reconnu une menace à leur vie privée et à la sécurité de leurs renseignements personnels, et ont été, à juste titre, outrés. À votre décharge, Google leur a présenté ses excuses et a agi rapidement pour remédier à la situation".

Malgré les ajustements rapides effectués par Google, les rédacteurs de la lettre continuent "d’entretenir des préoccupations très sérieuses à l’idée qu’un produit ayant une si grande incidence sur la vie privée de ses utilisateurs ait pu être lancé au départ. (…) Il est inacceptable de lancer un produit qui rende publics des renseignements personnels sans l’accord des intéressés, avec l’intention de régler par la suite les problèmes susceptibles de se poser. La protection de la vie privée ne doit pas être reléguée au second plan dans l’empressement de proposer de nouvelles technologies en ligne aux utilisateurs du monde entier".

Ils demandent donc à Google, "comme à toutes les organisations qui détiennent des renseignements personnels", de recueillir seulement les renseignements personnels strictement nécessaires, de mettre en évidence les informations sur l’utilisation prévue des renseignements personnels, de mettre en place des paramètres par défaut qui protègent la vie privée des utilisateurs, d’inclure des procédures claires pour obtenir le consentement des utilisateurs, de veiller à ce que les paramètres de contrôle de la vie privée soient bien visibles et faciles à utiliser, d’offrir aux utilisateurs des procédures simples pour la suppression de leurs comptes.

Comme Facebook, Google Buzz n’en finit pas de se heurter aux réclamations liées à la gestion des données personnelles et au consentement des utilisateurs. Les nombreuses plaintes révèlent que les options permettant de paramétrer les niveaux d’exposition des données devraient être beaucoup plus claires et plus visibles, à la manière de la "démarche" opt-in qui, dans le domaine de l’email, autorise l’utilisation d’adresses pour d’autres envois : avec l’opt-in actif, l’utilisateur est dans une démarche volontaire, son consentement est explicite (il doit par exemple cocher une case ou pour que son adresse ou d'autres données soient utilisées ultérieurement à des fins commerciales), contrairement à l’opt-out, cas dans lesquels on considère l'accord de l'internaute comme acquis par défaut, implicite, comme dans les configurations par défaut de Google Buzz ou encore Facebook, où les paramètres de confidentialité par défaut ont pu être jugés peu explicites et ainsi réserver parfois de mauvaises surprises aux novices.

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Didier Gaultier: Threats From Email Spam Is Still Strong

2010-04-02T07:29:00.001-07:00

Last week, Jacqui Cheng from Ars Technica gave an opinionated (not in a bad way though) about the latest findings that came out of Ipsos Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG): The numbers reveal that half of Norh-Americans and Western Europeans respondents confessed that they opened a spam email intentionally. Even though some of them argue that they opened the email to put their names off the spammed list (ie unsubscribe), 15% said that they wanted to learn about the offer!! Even worse: 4% have forwarded spam to their friends :D Surprisingly, the research that led to those findings also shows that opening spam messages is not a mistake made by the elderly: Under-35-year-olds also admit to open spammy-looking emails to look what's inside.

The author of the post identifies a bigger threat behind it: Too many people are willing to give away their personal information because they think something amazing awaits them on the other side. In a former post, Jacqui Cheng covered the release of a study from Sophos unveiling that 63% of participating corporate system admins thought their company's employees were sharing way too much info online.

This could potentially put the corporate infrastructure at risk, especially if they reveal too much about the company, not to mention details about their personal identities. According to Sophos' research, this worry is justified—33.4 percent of business users have been spammed on a social networking site and 21 percent have been phished there. (23.6 percent and 27.9 percent, respectively, said that they had no idea either way. That should reallyinspire some confidence.)

This explains why some system admins sometimes decide to block social networks, preventing users from over-sharing data on sensitive public places.

The problem seems to be that everybody thinks of himself as someone who can't be duped. Therefore, a lot of people will open emails with too much confidence, and occasionally fall in the spammer's trap. Educating email users seems to be the most appropriate way to go, but even myself can't imagine the amount of work that requires.

Bottom-line: We are all the victims of this permanent incoming threat that attacks us via our email inbox. Spam marketers are good at making us click on ads, simply because this is their jobs. There is no universal solution to this mess. The only way out would be to have only opt-in messages getting inside our inbox, and all other ones should stay out. All email providers should add this kind of plugin that lets users select from which sources they want to receive emails from. An opt-in only email inbox would be the soluton. If someone wants to send me an email, whether I send him my information, or this person should start to follow me on Twitter, and maybe in the long-run I'll know that person enough to share more personal information.

Activity Based Segmentation Is the Future of Email

2010-03-26T07:40:00.000-07:00

I am quoting here an article of my colleague Neil M. Rosen president/CEO of digital marketing solutions provider eWayDirect. about Activity Based Segmentation:

"E-mail marketers have typically focused on using demographics to segment lists: gender, age, geographic location, and the like. But that’s all about to change.

This year we’re going to see a strong shift to activity-based segmentation, which relies on actions—such as who opens, and clicks, and buys, and visits Web sites—to determine how often to contact customers and prospects and which campaigns to send them.

One reason for the shift is that ISPs are now blocking companies based on inactivity—in other words, if they e-mail to too large a group that has had zero activity. Therefore you need to maintain high levels of activity among your e-mail recipients by ceasing to mail to people who don't respond

Over the years, the ridiculously low cost of deploying e-mails has encouraged even experienced marketers to forget almost everything they had learned about best practices. Instead, they just blasted away. There was no need to prequalify leads, qualify customers, use behavioral targeting, or follow any other e-mail best practices, because overdeploying had such a minor effect on the bottom line. And to add insult to injury, over the short term, the more e-mails you blasted out, the more revenue you generated. Volume was (and still is) the number-one driver of sales.

But over the longer term, this practice stands to hurt marketers, and the biggest reason is that it annoys people. Each day, each week, each month, a few more people are unsubscribing in disgust, eventually creating an army of detractors capable of deteriorating the value of a brand. And in the new era of social marketing, there are forums in which they can voice their negative opinions.

And as important as it is that ISPs will start to block a company’s mailings due to overdeployment, and online reputation sites will devalue the brand due to overdeployment, and unsubscribes and complaints will rise due to overdeployment, all of these negatives pale in comparison to the fact that you are simply annoying your prospects and customers.

All this to say that e-mail marketing based on activity is the way companies build solid long-term relationships with their customers and prospects and protect their brand reputation. And it needs to start the very day a prospect raises his hand and asks for more information about your company.

you can find the full story here: Full Story

Email Institute

2010-03-26T07:11:00.000-07:00

I am very happy to introduce "Email Institute"to you, the email best practices blog maintained by Epsilon International.

Epsilon International is one of the largest world wide leading Email Service Provider in the world and also a recognized player in Customer Data Management and marketing services.

Happy Reading!
Didier Gaultier

Sears is testing potential new Gmail offering

2010-02-25T06:25:00.000-08:00

Sears is currently testing a new beta of a potential new Google offering called “Enhanced Email,” which allows a form of browsing to occur within an email viewed within Gmail.

For instance, Sears was able to include seven “pages” containing 20 best-selling products that its Gmail subscribers could browse using the navigation within the module without leaving the email.

When a subscriber hits the “next” link in the module’s navigation, the current set of products slides out of the box to the left and the next set of products slides in from the right in one smooth motion.

It is still a beta function and the email is personalized at the time it is open, not before the email is sent.

You can see the result of this new feature above.

For more information, you can read the article from chad on the link below:

Full article

Case study of Ubisoft with Epsilon

2010-02-20T04:41:00.000-08:00

Here is the Video conference (in French) of Damien Glorieux Ubisoft with Epsilon on how to succeed international email marketing campaigns:

[Aller voir le site]

Video Case study of France Loisirs with Epsilon

2010-02-20T04:36:00.000-08:00

Here is the Video interview (in French) of Véronique Pappe France loisirs with Epsilon:

[Aller voir le site]

Email, Pillar of the Web

2010-02-19T05:23:00.001-08:00

When RSS feeds became the anticipated standard to follow one another on the Web, advocates of the new Web preached the end of the email. When social networks became the new online venue for the hip kids, advocates of the new Web preached the end of the email. Whatever the next best thing is, it seems that it's systematically meant to replace the email...

The email is not dead my friends. Through the rising tides of the interwebs, the pace of our online activities accelerated. Everytime we do something on a Website, one thing is systematically required: our email address. With this e-ID, we can comment, participate, post, upload, subscribe, pay, order, confirm, send, connect, buy... How is an information technology like RSS or a utility tool like a social network going to replace something as personal and identifiable as our own identity.

Recently, Facebook announced a partnership with Paypal to enable payments on Facebook through Paypal's email address payment system. What we see here is the leading social network, second most-popular Webiste in the US, acknowledging that emails facilitate payments. Last month, Facebook enabled comment replies from within your own email inbox, which was a move to facilitate interactions between friends. It's indisputable that social networks could not connect with their users if they did not ask for an email identification.

In a more traditional way, good marketers are still prospering from email subscription to newsletters. Dorian Benkoil, Sales Manager at mediashift and SVP at Teaming Media, shared his positive returns on newsletter email subscriptions, where some good points are mentioned. First he explains how he found out that most of the email-subscribed people oftentimes represent your most loyal audience. They are the ones who do not want to miss a post published on your site. Such a devotion to the publisher's content turns email into very valuable advertising channel:

For a publisher, email ads, which by law require a user's permission and are thus more targeted than many other advertising formats, tend to garner a much higher fee on a per-user basis than web ads. They also allow for a level of design and linguistic craft that can be impossible to achieve on social platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

Finally, the other significant event that consolidates our email inboxes at the center of our digital lives is the launch of Google Buzz within Gmail. In the long run, through its API, Google Buzz will connect all of your social activities in one data stream. Buzz was launched within Gmail for two obvious reasons: One is that Gmail has 100 million users, which translates in 100 million Buzz users instantly. The second reason is that, at the end of the day, our email inbox is THE place where all our online activities converge anyway.

I am not advocating email marketing as the sole solution to talk to a customer online, but I am indeed pointing out to the fact that our email inbox is here to stay. A company with a direct marketing strategy should never think that Facebook could replace email marketing. Actually, they will probably find out that sending out an email to promote a Facebook Page will drive higher conversions ;)

Emailing is a source of visits and sales for e-Commerce

2010-02-17T04:44:00.000-08:00

This is an interview of Didier Gaultier explaining how email is contributing to visits and sales for e-commerce.

To view the interview in French, please clic here

History of Direct Email Marketing

2010-02-15T13:30:00.000-08:00

History of Direct Email Marketing

I found this historical definition of email Marketing, that I found interesting. Did you know that the very first email ever sent in the world was "QWERTYUIOP" back in 1971?

Email is probably a necessity to you, but there was a time when there was no email! Today email is considered the backbone of all digital communications. Just like the printing press 500 years before it, email is an effective and efficient means of mass distribution. Email also provides an easy way to conduct personal one-on-one dialogue.

Email is a way of sending messages or data to other people means of computers connected together in a network. Email actually predates the Internet, and was first used as a way for users of the same computer to leave messages for each other all the way back in 1961. Ray Tomlinson is credited with creating the first network email application in the year of 1971. He initiated the use of the @ sign and the address structure that we use today (username@domainname.com). Email was used to send messages to computers on the same network, and is still used for this purpose today.

It was only in 1993 that large network service providers, such as America Online and Delphi, started to connect their proprietary email systems to the Internet. This began the large scale adoption of Internet email as a global standard. Coupled with standards that had been created in the preceding twenty years, the Internet allowed users on different networks to send each other messages.

The first email spam dates back to 1978. Spam is defined as unsolicited commercial or bulk email, and today is said to account for 80 to 85% of all email (Waters, 2008). Direct marketing has long played an integral part in marketing campaigns, but the high cost meant that only large companies were able to pursue this. However, with the growth of the Internet, and the use of email to market directly to consumers, marketers have found these costs dropping, and the effectiveness increasing. That is the born of direct email marketing.

Didier Gaultier Interviews

2010-02-09T02:30:00.000-08:00

Every time I attend ecommerce expos, I systematically get a video interview with the guys from Tivipro or similar online reporters, who want to get my opinion as the Country Director France of Epsilon International. Since I have a few of them running on the Web, I decided to compile them in a Youtube playlist and share it with you that way. The embed video player below contains all those videos.

Most of those interviews are in French, but I am working on translating them in English to make my thoughts more accessible to our English-peaking peers.

If you'd like to access this playlist directly on Youtube, Didier Gaultier on Youtube.

Related Links:
Didier Gaultier on eMarketing and eCRM
Didier Gaultier on MyeCRM
Didier Gaultier on MyEmailing

E-mailing: should an Email marketer choose a software or a full service agency (or ESP)?

2010-02-07T08:58:00.000-08:00

Executive Summary

The total cost of a full service agency or ESP specialist in e-mail channel is likely to be much lower than a dedicated software, even in the long term, and to offer more flexible, sharp and profitable email marketing projects.

Introduction

Email has progressively turned into a major marketing communication channel but too often, companies view it as a short-term way of selling and a mean of maintaining low-cost customer relationship.

It would be misleading to believe that successful emailing campaigns comes down to simply press the "send" button using a hastily prepared message.

Email marketing is a marketing channel that should be considered in the long or medium term and for which a communication strategy must be implemented and followed (as any other marketing channel).

It must be measured, analyzed and optimized to ensure maximum efficiency and profitability.   

Two options are available to the marketing manager as to how to use email: a specialized email software - either the traditional inhouse software mode or the outsourced mode also known as Software as a Service (SaaS) – also called self service mode, or to use an ESP (Email Service Provide) or an agency specializing in e-mail which will, in addition propose deployment and sometimes creative services, also known as “full service” mode. For this fundamental choice, one of the first idea of the advertiser will very likely be to focus on the budget side of things.

Software can be found on the market in all price ranges, from thousands to hundreds of thousands Euros, Pounds or US$ (or at a CPM price around 1 € per 1 000 e-mails), these software licenses seldom includes support and maintenance.

But this up front cost is – from far- not the only one to consider. In fact, the marketer will have to add the human resources costs necessary to operate the software, to generate appropriate content, to manage the databases, and to monitor the deliverability of e-mails, not to mention the resources required to analyze, evaluate and optimize campaigns. These items require specific marketing, email and statistical expertise and the candidates available on the market with these multiple competences are often rare and expensive.   
Moreover, these resources will likely have to be doubled because of leaves: if your deliverability manager goes on annual leave, your deliverability will do the same and the ROI of your email campaigns is gone.

Suddenly, dozens or even hundreds of thousands of Euros (pounds or US$) are to be taken into account along with the initial cost. 

A good email marketer has to care about how the solution manages not only inbox deliverability of the campaigns, but white listing, feedback loops with ISPs, unsubscribes, complaints/abuses and in general database churn.

Some studies available on the market (one of them being produced by Epsilon International) are showing that each active and opt-in email address in a database represents and intangible asset representing a capital circa thirty to forty Euros on average.

Any lost address is so much money gone up in the blue.

Not to mention the impact this may have on the advertiser’s e-reputation, which may cause him to see his campaigns marked as spam, blocked or even black listed by ISPs.

Another cost, which for some brands, can easily exceed several million Euros per year and will add to the overall budget.

In fact, each marketer has an email e-reputation, and similarly to the off line world, where brands represent an intangible value in the balance sheet, the e-reputation and the email database also represents an asset that worth money.

Finally, we have to consider the time needed to implement the solution.

In some cases, it is not unusual to see time to market circa 24 to 36 months or even more, between the purchase of the software license and e-mail channel actually operational.

How many companies can afford to wait that long to reap revenues and return on investment? In comparison, the benefits of a full service agency specialist of the e-mail channel are many: complete mastering of the technology, availability of necessary human resources, multiple expertise, scoping capacities, campaign analysis, implementation and optimization, and swift deployment.

The more important criteria remains likely to be cost control, in the full service mode, the budget is defined and agreed by contract, and is also often much lower that the total cost offered an inhouse solution, even if you take depreciation into account.

Technology control

Indeed, each provider specializing in a specific software or solution can exploit the slightest functionalities, especially since it is often specially developed or adapted and can include some unique features you will not found in a commercial software. And because it is shared among all agency’s clients, its cost is more easily depreciated.

The advertiser is guaranteed to have the latest technology at an unbeatable price.

Resources and expertise

Specialized agencies (or ESPs) employs only experts, both technology experts and deliverability experts, and will provide the resources needed to ensure the success of the advertiser’s project, offering a team of professionals that would have been hard to put together inhouse and for a prohibitive cost and time to market. In addition, the agency may also provide expertise for ad hoc needs of the client.

Implementation

A common misconception is that the e-mail channel is simple. Implementation of email campaigns often require far more resources than expected, whether in computer graphics to create the html messages, uploading messages and lists in the email management tool, or management of personalization. One weakness of inhouse email management is that the very same teams than the ones that implemented the campaigns generally also do quality controls. Only a specialized quality control team ensures the message can be sent safely.

It is sometimes necessary to assemble a team of several people working simultaneously on these different tasks for the campaign to be live in time: only a “full service” agency will gather as many professionals in such a short time – sometimes just a few hours between the brief and the deployment of the message.

Evaluation and Analysis

Today more than ever, no marketer can undertake action without a serious evaluation of the return on investment.

A real time analysis allows adapting the strategy when necessary to generate the best results.

Email today became much more complex than watching only three indicators: open rates, click rates and conversion rates.

Some e-mail channel specialized agencies have developed more relevant indicators, that need to be interpreted by an email marketing specialist.

Does a piece of software enable the advertiser to access the good indicators? To interpret them correctly? Take the necessary decisions and adjust the parameters of its campaigns? Will it allow to give access to the databases traditionally structured into demographic segments to a dataminer so that the marketer can build a statistical classification more suited than an off line segmentation to e-mail and web in general? Does this software allow this classification to be directly actionable?

The traditional RFM segmentations are rarely adapted to e-mail and on line applications that require very often an advanced behavioral classification.

For a credit institution for example: first-time buyers, tenants not yet owners, divorced people, landlords, etc… And the marketer relying solely on a piece of software will he be able to make the best ROI and strategic choices for its campaigns based on automatic data supplied by the software?

All these points, far from being trivial, can be determined by the analysts employed by the specialized agency, in addition to their statistical mastering, they not only have a great marketing knowledge but they also master the characteristics of e-mail channel.

Swift Deployment

Knowledge and expertise of the specialized agency, combined with an already operational infrastructure, allow marketers to set up complex projects in a few weeks, where an implementation from scratch would take several months (particularly with inhouse software).

This speed allows to access to a very fast income in front of the needed investments involved. And some flexibility in tactical actions can be considered without delay problems.

Cost mastered Like any supplier or provided, a specialized agency is working on a RFP to provide a quote. The advertiser has full visibility onto the project and its cost overall.

It enables the marketer to integrate easily the project investment in his marketing budget without risk of unexpected overflow.

Conclusion

Finally, the total cost of a full service agency or ESP specialist in e-mail channel is therefore likely to be much lower than a dedicated software, even in the long term, and to offer more flexible, sharp and profitable marketing projects.

Didier Gaultier

Note: this article has been published initially in French on Journal du Net at the following URL :

Journal du Net Link

You can reply to the author of this article using the following address:

Didier Gaultier

Didier Gaultier: Introductory Post

2010-01-31T07:27:00.003-08:00

"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower", Steve Jobs

For the introduction, my name is Didier Gaultier. Back in 2005, I brought a bit of innovation in the CRM land by introducing the "Quantitative Factor Customer Record Methodology" (QFCRM) during the completion of my international MBA at the IFAM Business School. The concept consisted in using advanced statistics to help marketers generate a higher business intelligence by better quantifying their CRM data. Right after obtaining my MBA degree, I joined Double Click Email Solutions as the sales and account management director. A year later, the company was acquired and merged with Epsilon / Alliance Data Consortium, which brought me to where I am today, the Country Director of Epsilon International France.

I didn't just pop up in the highest levels of management without previous experience. Before enrolling in a MBA, I handled various positions as a sales engineer or sales manager in top-notch CRM-focused companies: Oracle, Harte-Hanks, ATOS Origin... I commercialized database infrastructures, call center services, direct marketing solutions, throughout the world and to a variety of Fortune 500 companies. During the 90s, with the Internet turning mainstream, my interests as a salesman shifted to a dazzling new tool, the email inbox. Emails can be blasted in bulk, instantly, and targeting one specific person. The email brought new horizons to the CRM industry, which motivated my choice to enroll in a MBA where I could scholarly apply my CRM expertise to this new communication tool.

As the Country Director of Epsilon International France, my duties include evangelizing Epsilon to CRM marketers as the most comprehensive solution when it comes to understanding customers, building a forecast system, crafting a reliable strategic planning, and driving successful integrated marketing campaigns. A common misconception is that email marketing is a simple media to use. Going for the cheap ramp off the email marketing highway can actually cost a lot to any marketer that has not thought his emailing strategy the whole way through. I am delighted to work at Epsilon because I play the advocate of a product that truly adds priceless value to the work of thousands of marketers.

Epsilon operates worldwide. Thus, cultural psychology is intrinsically connected to our approach of email marketing. Did you know that an email subject line announcing a product with your name on it will get a profitable amount of clicks only in Asia? Epsilon's world-class engines shed a light on thousands of cultural facts like this one. Every year, Epsilon blasts 40 billion opt-in emails worldwide, so you can imagine the mathematical depth Epsilon's data-miners get into. This massive amount of data is processed and used to develop a deeper personal relation with the rich diversity of Epsilon's address book, and I find it fascinating.

Why this blog? Email marketing and database infrastructures constantly evolve, and innovation is the key factor that feeds growth. A while ago, I wrote a piece on innovation: "The freedom for thinking and creating are the drivers of innovation, and innovation usually happens when people expect it the least". I believe that a blog is a great tool to freely express thoughts, opinions, theories, or whatever it is that runs through one's mind. By sharing my thoughts publicly, I wish to sensitize marketers to the problematics around advanced CRM infrastructures. Beyond a pure knowledge-sharing process, I hope that our discussions will push us into exploring new ways to approach CRM at large. Eventually, when we expect it the least, innovative ideas might spark out of the content generated on this blog.

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Best,

Didier Gaultier