GuestTrack Launches Personalized E-Mail Product
Los Angeles-based GuestTrack Inc. launched an e-mailpersonalization product that uses profiles to target individuals and tailorthe content of e-mail messages.
Los Angeles-based GuestTrack Inc. launched an email personalization product that uses profiles to target individuals and tailor the content of email messages.
The app, called GT/Mail, uses the same rules-based “personalization engine” and database as GuestTrack, the company’s Web personalization product. This “closed loop” of Web and email communications tracks the profile, messages and responses of every Individual, the company said.
GT/Mail is a server-based email application that can be used by companies and publishers to send individually created emails to Web visitors, customers, and newsletter subscribers that are based on each individual’s profile. GT/Mail can deliver both ASCII text as well as HTML emails that contain “rich media” advertising.
The product applies one-to-one marketing techniques to tailor the content of each email message to match the interests and demographic profile of each person. The profile data collected on the Web site by GuestTrack can be based on answers to questions, purchase history and viewing activity on the Web site.
Personalization with GT/Mail is accomplished with logic rules included in an email template file that accesses the recipient’s profile and other data to decide which content elements to include in the message. In addition, SQL commands can be embedded in the email template file to specify tabulations, calculations, and complex logic rules that are evaluated “on the fly” while each piece of email is being created.
In addition to delivering personalized content, GT/Mail also creates individualized links to a company’s Web site that include each individual’s unique encrypted ID. When the reader clicks on the URL in the email message, their browser sends the URL–which includes the user’s ID–to the server, where personalized Web content is displayed. This allows a user to be tracked from their first visit to the Web site, to individual email, and then back to the Web site. This allows Web managers to correlate profile data, Web activity, and email response to purchases, support, and need for additional products.
The first publisher to use GT/Mail is SodaMail, a Silicon Valley-based publisher of family and entertainment email newsletters. SodaMail newsletters are opt- in newsletters that are free to the subscriber and contain targeted advertising.
GT/Mail is available for Sun Solaris and Linux servers, and requires an existing license of GuestTrack. For existing GuestTrack customers adding GT/Mail the price is $2,000 per server. For other companies the price of a GuestTrack and GT/Mail package is $6,000 per server.
