The Broadcast Email module of InterAction CRM is a tremendously powerful marketing tool with capabilities that fundamentally alter how law and other professional service firms will market themselves via email. Until now, the high administrative cost of email campaigns has confined their use to only firm-level and sometimes, the practice group or industry group level marketers.

InterAction CRM drastically lowers these costs by providing accessible marketing lists, eliminating data transfers to third party Email Service Providers (ESP’s), and simplified Activity recording. In addition, InterAction provides broadcast email capability to essentially all users via Mail Merge. By lowering costs and providing wide accessibility to the email tools within it, InterAction CRM provides firms the capability to communicate via broadcast email at the firm, practice group, industry group, client service team and even individual partner level.

InterAction Broadcast Email vs. ESP’s

Although ESP’s have not been widely used to date in the professional services arena, ESP’s have become the standard in industries using more advanced internet marketing techniques. A 2005 survey of 1,927 companies by MarketingSherpa reported that 87% used ESP’s to replace or augment their own IT departments broadcast email capabilities. But firms using ESP’s rather than the Broadcast Email module, must take extra steps to run the same types of email campaigns. Prior to launching the email, data stewards or marketing executives must first:

• export the list of recipients from InterAction
• then import the list into the remote ESP database 

From there, the email creation and delivery work takes place within the ESP platform including:

• message creation/compilation
• dynamic personalization
• testing
• execution

After the mailing, data stewards or marketing executives return to InterAction (or other CRM) to record activities and document the results from the campaign.

This process requires time and a skill set that is expensive to field at the practice or industry group level. Executing the campaign requires an individual(s) with knowledge of the ESP platform in addition to CRM training.

In contrast, the InterAction Broadcast Email Module:

• eliminates the need for data transfers
• standardizes InterAction CRM as the palette for email creation and delivery
• provides one-step activity recording

Due to this streamlined process and lower training costs, InterAction CRM effectively ends the business case for third party ESP’s.

Inside the Broadcast Email Module

The InterAction Broadcast Email provides two methods of campaign execution: The Windows Client and Mail Merge.

Windows Client

Within the Windows Client, data stewards or marketers with Windows Client access can target recipients by either querying the desired contacts or using a preconfigured Marketing List.  Once this list is in hand, the User then simply opens the Broadcast Email feature and selects the details on how the email should be sent (Figure 1).

Users are provided options to:

• keep the recipients anonymous from one another
• choose which email address to use for the recipient (home, office, etc.)
• omit recipients with a vacant email address
• use alternate email addresses in case of a vacant email address

Once the options are set, InterAction then compiles the message within the user’s Outlook to be sent off.

Although the Windows Client method lacks some personalization options, it’s fast, easy, and reliable (assuming the firm’s IP address is in good standing with the internet service providers).  This method is well-suited for firm, practice group, industry group and client service team level communications.

Mail Merge

The second method of sending emails in InterAction is through Microsoft Word.  Unlike the previous method that is solely available to users with Windows Client access, the Mail Merge method is accessible to all Users with Web Client access and above. 

Directly from the desktop, firm professionals can send personalized email campaigns using Word’s Mail Merge feature and the InterAction add-on.  A simple 6-step wizard guides the professional through the steps of:

• drafting the email
• selecting the recipients from the firm contacts
• inserting any dynamic fields into the body of the email
• finally sending the email through the user’s Outlook

Users can add an activity to all of the email recipients after sending the email. However, in contrast to the Windows client method, this requires an extra step. To be certain that firm professionals adhere to best practices regarding activity recording, we highly recommend that ALL likely senders of Mail Merge email are trained in how to properly document activities through the Outlook plug-in.

Due to its universal access within InterAction CRM and the extra steps it requires, Mail Merge is best utilized by those without Windows Client access. Depending on the firm, this is likely to include smaller client service teams and individual professionals.

Conclusion

In the decentralized business development environment of law and professional service firms, technological empowerment of the professional must be a core mission of firm administration. The InterAction Broadcast email module creates decentralized marketing abilities by placing these capabilities into the hands of the firm professionals, while at the same time providing the necessary activity recording tools for central coordination at the firm and practice group level. Firms that effectively implement and utilize these tools seem destined to achieve a clear strategic advantage over those firms that do not.

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