Adestra's MessageFocus is a Solid ESP for Medium- to Large-Sized Businesses
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
As an agency, we recommend Adestra to medium and large sized businesses interested in email marketing. Most businesses are managed services, but there are some hands-on companies that manage campaigns on their own, including design and list management. The Adestra dashboard makes the process simple for business owners. The cutting-edge features provide advanced solutions like personalization, dynamic content placement, split testing, and programmatic email marketing. For an agency, the tool-set is well supported by the Adestra team.
There are currently a few different editors to help campaign managers, who may be HTML literate or WYSIWYG users.
The reporting is thorough, allowing users overview on a project or campaign level with optional date filters. Granular data is provided via click-through into any one of the key performance indicators. A real-time web report can be generated for non-users marketing overview.
Administrative rights can be provided for users on three levels, which allows marketers to administrate their own workspace, manage campaigns or simply review the process.
*It should be noted that layout skills, knowledge of design, familiarity with spreadsheet and data management, in addition to a solid understanding of how email clients work, are required precursors for a email marketing. Regardless of the email service provider, these necessary skills support all phases of email marketing. It most cases, it is best to hire an experienced and professional email marketer.
Pros
- Adestra's "dynamic" list allows users to consolidate multiple lists in combination with data filters and exclusion lists. This implements segmentation and is a powerful marketing tool.
- Adestra's MessageFocus API integration provides developer-tools for list, campaign or transactional automated requirements.
- Campaigns can be sorted into project folders. This allows marketers to group campaigns together for management or reporting requirements. Moving or copying campaigns from one project to another is a simple process.
- Data downloads via Reporting is available at every level, from overview to individual KPI.
- Creating "core" tables helps marketers develop lists with similar attributes. Whether a list has many fields or simply the one required email address field, a "core" table helps to quickly map data labels from spreadsheet to online database. Creating data labels on the fly is a simple process, as well. The "core" table also groups similar contacts into one core database.
- Any list can be quickly "emptied" for to manage refreshed data. The contacts within the "emptied" list would still be members of the "core" table and so the process does not negatively impact reporting.
- Unsubscribes can be managed in one list (as a default) or individual lists. Creating individual unsubscribe lists -- dependent on business requirements -- would allow for a preference center, whereby recipients could be given a choice as to which campaigns they receive.
- The Form tool creates signup forms, simple surveys and landing pages. These can be hosted via Adestra or otherwise on the web. The tool provides for branding and proprietary cascading stylesheets, with a number of actions available through a drag-and-drop interface.
Cons
- As of this writing, there are at least 3 different editors available (a drag-and-drop, a WYSIWYG and HTML). However, only a small template library is available if requested through support. Those expecting to find ready-built templates for re-branding would find them through the third-party EDM Designer drag-and-drop editor.
Likelihood to Recommend
Small businesses with even smaller marketing budgets and no email marketing experience would be better off selecting a lower-end email marketing provider. However, Adestra will provide a growing company with every email marketing tool along the way.
