Scott Olrich, chief marketing and sales officer at Responsys, discusses his company’s expansion into Germany and how email marketing will evolve over the next year.
Direct Marketing New (DMN): What is the strategy behind opening your new office in Germany?
Olrich (Responsys): We have been serving big brands in this region for a long time. Lufthansa and Austrian Air have been clients for years, but we wanted to give them an office to work with in their area. Our big push is to build a fully functioning office to help with creative and strategy to give clients an account manager in their market. We want to be able to give them creative and strategic services in their region with offices close to them. And we want to give multinational companies the ability to work with local offices in the regions that they are doing business in.
DMN: How does this expand your foothold in Europe?
Olrich: Europe has been one of our fastest growing regions. The UK has been growing slightly faster than the company average. The Munich office comes off the heels of putting folks in the Nordic region. It is about our European expansion. We are in Denmark and have been serving companies like Lego, Egmont and Pandora, a major jewelry chain there. That group serves Denmark and has been pushing up to do business in Norway, Sweden and Finland. German is one of the main languages in Europe with 90 million to 95 million people speaking the language in Europe alone. We also want to go after this market, and this includes in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg. Our new office in Munich will serve these countries.
DMN: How do you address deliverability when the laws in different European countries vary?
Olrich: We set up relationships with local companies that do in their countries what Return Path does in the deliverability space in the US. We partner with these deliverability folks and with ISPs to make sure that we are compliant.
DMN: How do you think the European email market will evolve over the next year?
Olrich: Digital marketing is more sophisticated in the US, and I think you’ll see this sophistication and maturity curve go up in Europe. Most European marketers have been doing email marketing with simple segmentation, but I think they will be moving towards triggered messages and automation. As digital channels begin to evolve, I think you will see marketers begin taking a cross channel approach, where they are moving from a campaign mindset to the concept of automation.
