Citing the changing nature of the industry, Direct Media this week began offering additional e-mail optimization services to its clients.
Direct Media CEO Larry May said it was done it an attempt to transition for the future of the lists and database business.
“We have been predominantly a postal company, but e-mail and online is the future,” he said. “We are anticipating what our clients’ needs are and helping them solve problems. We are approaching all this new media with our thirty years of experience in the business; of knowing what is successful in direct marketing and what isn’t.”
The new services offered are called the DMI Email Optimizer, which May said is a full suite of tools and services designed to help clients monitor, manage and improve delivery of their email communications to customers and prospects.
Among the various functions the optimizer performs are checking a client’s sending history, infrastructure, messaging methodology and content against all major spam filters and blacklists used by enterprises, ISPs and end-users.
May said clients can also use diagnostics to identify what might trigger legitimate e-mail to be considered spam and advise on the specific copy or HTML code changes needed to optimize deliverability.
A service called eDelivery Tracker provides a third-party account of the entire delivery process, which Direct Media’s clients can use to determine what percentage of their mail is being delivered by internet service providers and what percentage is actually reaching their customers’ inboxes.
May said though the majority of Direct Media’s business is postal lists, offering these e-mail optimization services is part of “ a major expansion” into online and digital services.
“It’s definitely a challenging time in the business,” he said.
Further, May said Direct Media’s absorption into infoUSA – now infoGROUP – offered the company “a lot of new opportunities.”
That merger took place in January.
