For many an evening in 2004, three people sat Around a single desk in a tiny medical office — an office that functioned as the group's conference room, lunch room, and thought hub. Backed by a little programming group in India, the trio (comprising Benchmark Internet Group founder Curt Keller, his wife Denise, and an search engine optimization expert) discussed ideas on how best to implement a deceptively simple idea. Simple email marketing. Many of the thoughts were beyond the resources of the fledgling business, but that didn't stop Keller from planning ahead.
The first Customers of Benchmark Mail were small companies located in close proximity to Benchmark's one-room HQ in Long Beach, CA. Keller and his team sold them on the usage of email marketing, while working hard to make a very simple user interface which would be easy to operate. All the while, the business championed such innovative ideas as customizable templates and applications which adapted to consumer requirements. They also made certain from the beginning that anybody who needed help would have rapid access to outstanding customer support.
Benchmark Has continued to grow and advantagesper. Its present focus. Providing global email marketing services to small and medium-sized companies while continuing to honor a commitment to assist children in need. This does not indicate that Benchmark is a little-guys-only service, however; it has stuck to its core principle of adaptability and functions large organizations such as UNICEF and Kaiser-Permanente through its High Volume Enterprise plans.
Today, Benchmark serves upwards of 73,000 users from throughout the planet, but the company hasn't forgotten its roots. Benchmark still keeps good relationships with small, locally-based companies. In fact, the company offers a full page of testimonials from local users of the program. You may read more about Benchmark's history and development here.
· Dedicated Email Server. All Benchmark's High Volume programs have a dedicated IP address to help increase deliverability prices. Users on other plans have the option of paying for this service ($30/month) to increase their own delivery stats. Read more about the advantages of dedicated servers .
· Mobile App. Benchmark's mobile programs make it possible for customers with an Apple device to get several purposes on the street. They can get and add contacts, read reportsand send videos through integration with a YouTube accounts, and even design and send quick email blasts with one of 10 available templates. That is quite a little more than a number of other businesses offer on their mobile programs, making them considerably more operational.
· Autoresponder. Every Benchmark client has the power to design up to eight custom autoresponder messages. These could be scheduled as a string or event lead-up, or made as annual messages like anniversary or birthday mails.
· Sign-Up Forms. The only way to be prosperous in email marketing is through growing your own list, and Benchmark really promotes doing this through sign-up forms. The business bases its Free For Life account entirely around site and Facebook sign-ups and provides an easy-to-use instrument to create customized templates for each medium.
· Inbox Checker. Since every email program is different and each internet browser includes a signature style, making sure your emails look great across the board is crucial. It is possible to use Inbox Checker to have a look at the way your email displays in Gmail using Explorer and Outlook 3. Employing the full program (which assesses everything from AOL to Yahoo, Explorer to Safari, mobile to PC) is a paid add-on provider, available for $14 per 100 checks.
· RSS-to-Email. Regular bloggers can create newsletters from their sites mechanically through the RSS-to-Email feature, which works with any site which handles an RSS-feed. Users simply need to set up a template and campaign within Benchmark once.
· API Integration. An API (Application Program Interface) allows different software programs to communicate with one another without a formal plug-in connection. Benchmark's API Integration feature allows users with XML-RPC, HTTP POST, or HTTP GET skills to retrieve data from other programs which use JSON, XML, XML-RPC, or PHP serialization strings. In brief, this permits them to play three purposes. Manage contact lists, handle campaigns and effort sending, and assess data. The business describes this role in more detail here.
Enrolling in a Benchmark account is fairly straightforward. After entering your name, email, contact number, and business name, you need to validate your email address. This was a five-minute procedure for me. Upon logging in to my account (with the free plan) I was greeted by an appealing UI that gave me a clear direction about how to create my first email campaign. Good start!
From there, you must decide if you want an RSS Or traditional email message. You can use Benchmark's drag-and-drop editor, or move for more customization using the built-in code editor. If you are someone who codes their own email, then my hat is off to you, but I am not personally gifted that way, so I moved with the drag-and-drop alternative.
I had been prompted to enter a subject line for my Email and setup how much tracking I wanted on the message, as well as if I wanted an automatic tweet once the effort went out. The following task was to select which contacts I wished to get the campaign. With that, I was eventually able to start constructing the email . If you want to, you can assemble your own email designs using a very intuitive editor. On the other hand, you can modify one of Benchmark's templates, which are great, and better than I was able to do in my.
If You're just Starting out, you can certainly do as I did and manually enter contacts one at a time. However, for those who already have a listing, there are several ways to import it. You are able to upload a CSV, xls, or txt file directly from your personal computer; import contacts directly from Salesforce.com, Hotmail, or Gmail accounts; or copy and paste huge lists of contacts to a text form. When you create your Benchmark lists, they'll show up on your dashboard, together with a Master Unsubscribe List.
The actual sending of this email is quite simple. Once you've finished all your tweaks, you can either save the email as a draft, send it immediately, or schedule a date and time for delivery. If you want to check everything is well before distributing your email on the planet, you can send it to yourself to preview it as many as 10 times/day. I chose to program my email for delivery to view how timely the automated system would actually be. I advised my email for 2.45 and obtained it at 2.50, so while the timing was not exactly perfect, it was probably within tolerance levels for many users. If you are one of the more infrequent users who need on-the-minute email sending, you might have to appear elsewhere. More worryingly, my email didn't go to my primary inbox but was mechanically sorted in my"promotions" folder. Definitely not perfect.
First thing I Noticed about Benchmark email reports was something I would read in a couple of reviews. They are really, really fast. I mean lightning fast. Opens enroll in the Benchmark system virtually immediately. I have worked with a lot of other apps where these reports take hours or even days to appear.
Though all of the information Is Excellent and Necessary, it isn't sufficient to sustain increased level marketers that want more information such as conversions, which links were clicked, and revenue analysis. Although Google Analytics provides a whole lot of this information with appropriate integration, there may come a time when serious marketers need more information than Benchmark provides. Whether a small business will get to that point varies, naturally, dependent on the business.
Benchmark made its 3-tiered pricing Structure with the goal of serving everyone from the tiniest kitchen-table startup to large email marketers. On the other hand, the organization's main focus is on small to medium companies, especially those just starting out in email advertising. This is especially reflected in the fact that customers subscribing to the moderate plans get unlimited mails, while bigger plans have limitations.
· Benchmark Occasions — Benchmark Occasions is event marketing applications designed to integrate fully with Benchmark Email. Launched in 2012, this program allows users to make and customize events, promote and market tickets, and track the success of their events via their Benchmark Email accounts. A number of subscriptions are available, such as a free option.
· WordPress — Benchmark Mail Lite is a WordPress plug-in which permits users to quickly build an email viewer via their subscribers. The plugin can automatically create email versions of blog articles and permits users to connect up to five Benchmark accounts.
· Benchmark Power — This free plug-in allows you to source images for your Benchmark emails from places throughout the web. Benchmark Power captures pictures you find and immediately uploads them to your Benchmark accounts for future usage.
Because Of the key connection between social networking and email advertising, it is important to look at the social media features contained in Benchmark.
· Social Links within Email — Once you connect your Benchmark account together with your Facebook, Twitter, and/or LinkedIn accounts, you can add buttons to every email which will direct your subscribers to each of your social networking pages.
The company also fully Complies with all the U.S.-E.U. and U.S.-Swiss Safe Harbor Frameworks regarding the selection of personal data from citizens of these nations. When clients provide credit card amounts to Benchmark, the business utilizes secure socket layer (SSL) security to encrypt the information. The entire platform is encrypted to ensure the safety of all customers' personal details.
Like All valid ESPs, Benchmark takes spam seriously and summarizes a clear zero-tolerance policy for any of the users hoping to engage in spam actions. The business is fully in compliance with all the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Benchmark also takes several steps to maintain its standing as a spam-free provider, one of them membership from the Email Sender and Provider Coalition. The business uses the program SpamAssassin to filter messages delivered through its server.
To prevent users from Unknowingly sending spam-like substances, Benchmark supplies a spam check feature that looks for words commonly used in spam messages. It scores each email on a scale from 1 to 5; 5s are assigned to content that's very likely to be blocked. In the event of a top score, the program suggests"less spammy" alternatives. Individualized IP addresses also help large-volume senders reduce their spam numbers.
Benchmark Offers its users a lot of support resources. Customer service is generally responsive, with minimal waiting times. The site provides good learning resources, but can be opaque at times. Crucial information can be buried and hard to locate, especially in the event that you don't know precisely what you're searching for, especially in regards to minute details about plans. For instance. The Free For Life plan includes Benchmark branding on each email, however you won't see that mentioned on the Free For Life page, not even in the fine print. Nor will you see it said when you sign up. The only place it is mentioned is at the FAQ, here.
· FAQ — Benchmark's FAQ section is somewhat mislabeled as it is closer to a QandA-format knowledge foundation than a typical FAQ. There are more than 900 entries, sorted into 18 topics ranging from"Getting Started" to"API." Users may execute a keyword search of any topic (or sub-topic) or from the FAQ as a whole. 1 caveat. With such a comprehensive knowledge base, it is pretty much inevitable that some entries will be out of date. A few of the QandAs offer advice which is wholly inaccurate, so in some cases, you may want to contact assistance to hash things out.
· Video Tutorials and Webinars — Benchmark supplies about two dozen video tutorials which take users step by step through the features of this app. The business also supplies a webinar called"Benchmark Mail Crash Course." You may view it live each Friday at 10.00 a.m. PST or watch the recorded version at any moment. You might also request a special webinar on a number of other subjects. Live webinars comprise the chance to ask questions during the presentation.
· Email Marketing Manuals and Articles — There are more in-depth details on email marketing generally, as well as the Benchmark program specifically, at the Manuals Section. These downloadable files also cover industry-specific troubles. Articles, very similar to sites, offer users guidance beyond that found in the FAQ section, but in shorter, more readable chunks compared to the guides provide.
· Website and Newsletter — For current info about email advertising trends, check out Benchmark's monthly newsletter, as well as its exceptionally active blog. All subscribers automatically obtain access to current newsletters, and Benchmark also offers an archive of newsletter articles from November 2007-October 2012.
· Top Notch Service . This is maybe the most common monitoring concerning Benchmark, and some thing I noticed for myself as well. People tend to find support prompt and beneficial, and some say it is actually the element that distinguishes Benchmark from its competitors. The business also receives praise for its website articles and videos.
· Feature Selection Across All Plans. Some users praise the inclusion of features including AB analyzing and surveys from most programs; many companies charge extra for these attributes or only include them into their pricier plans.
· Benefits of Use. Users tend to find Benchmark's interface incredibly intuitive and user-friendly. The program gathers praise from a wide range of demographics, from first time ESP users to people who have tried a variety of programs before settling on Benchmark.
· Inconsistent Send-Times. Apparently some users experienced a problem with Benchmark in which their emails were sent hours when they were scheduled. 1 customer theorized the issue might arise in long lists of recipients. Not all clients of all Benchmark will possess time-sensitive shipping demands, but others will. Should you want your mails to go out precisely when your schedule dictates, you may have to take into account this situation.
· "Spammy" Templates. Some users were concerned that Benchmark's templates can feel like spam mail, leading receivers to mark them as junk and not reading the contents. Since the entire point of an ESP is to stop this from happening, this might be a problem. On the other hand, I never felt this way while looking through the template list, so it might not be the most legitimate of complaints.
Benchmark Provides a huge number of pricing plans, including a free plan and a massive scale of paid programs that may service anywhere between 600 and 7,140,000 subscribers.
Benchmark's free plans do not require credit Cards, which is always refreshing. The only catch. There'll be a small Benchmark logo at the bottom of every email you send out. Obviously, you may always choose to upgrade to a paid plan in case you don't want the Benchmark branding. The free plan permits you to send up to 14000 emails to up to 2000 subscribers and gives you access to most but not all Benchmark's features record. Notable absences to the features list for free account include email automation and sub-accounts (allowing many users to access one Benchmark accounts ).
Users with small contacts lists and restricted Monthly messages have the option of paying for their email advertising based on the number of mails they send each month.
Benchmark is a solid program. It is easy to use, Open to innovation, and competitively priced. Its free options might just be the best in the company for anybody who just wants to dip into email advertising (particularly small, neighborhood businesses). For that matter, any Benchmark strategy can work nicely for a little business which views email as a minor aspect of its advertising and has no desire to operate beyond the basics just yet.
If you are a little or even medium-sized Company looking for a simple email advertising program with a multitude of amazing features, Benchmark is an excellent choice. Though there may come a time when you outgrow the app, it supplies a great deal for the price, offers exceptional service, and the company seems to be sensitive to the requirements of its customers. You can't ask for more.