SAS (SAS Institute, Inc) is a business analytics software company, best known for its business intelligence tools. One of these tools is SALES ANALYTICS, which stands for Statistical Analytic Solutions for Email Marketing.
If you’re reading this, I assume either you’re already in the marketing department of a company and looking for ways to better understand your customers or you’re in charge of the marketing department of a company and looking for ways to optimize your marketing efforts.
Why Should You Try SAS Email Marketing?
With more than 4.5 billion active users across the globe, WhatsApp is the world’s most popular communications app. Within that app, there is a feature called ‘Share my statistics’. When a user shares any statistical information on WhatsApp, it often includes a graph showing the number of days/hours/minutes since the last message was sent and a little information about the sender (e.g., number of people they’ve helped, when was the last time they sent a message, etc).
The point of this article is not to compare WhatsApp to email marketing; rather, it is to show that when it comes to gathering and analyzing data, few tools can match the functionality and flexibility of SAS.
With SAS Email Marketing, you will have access to all the information you need to track the open rate, click-through rate, and conversion for every link, button, and text message you send. You can even set up automated emails that will track these metrics for you. You won’t need to manually input this information – it will all be pulled from your database and reported on dashboards that are easily accessible from any device.
SAS offers a free trial of this software, so you can gain a feel for its capabilities. You can sign up for a free trial at:
- (Click here to get started) (or visit this link)
- (The SAS website) (or visit this link)
What Is the Most Basic Functionality You Need?
In order to fully utilize the functionality of this software, you will need to have a good understanding of email marketing. If you aren’t sure what that means, here are some general guidelines.
Whenever a customer receives an email from you, they will have the option of replying with a text message or an instant message. The only difference between these two options is that a text message will appear to have come from a person and will show up on that customer’s phone as a text message, while an instant message will show up as a small box in the upper-right corner of their phone’s screen (similar to what you see when you’re typing an email and the recipient responds – but faster and without all the boring parts that make up an entire email thread).
Since everyone has an email address and everyone also has a cell phone, you can take advantage of this fact to send a constant stream of marketing messages to customers without being hindered by the tyranny of distance (e.g., you can send an email to customers when your store is closed and they have nothing better to do, or when you know that a customer might be traveling and doesn’t have high speed Internet available).
If you decide that this is the direction you want to go in, your first task should be to set up a contact list of all the users who will be receiving these messages – this is called a segment and it’s important that you create one for each variant of email marketing you do (i.e., a segment for welcome emails, a segment for those that try to sell you something, etc).
How Many Variants Do You Need?
This really depends on how much data you have and how much you want to analyze. If you only have a few thousand recipients in your database, you can probably get away with sending out one email every two weeks and tracking the open rate, click-through rate, and conversion for each email you send out. You will need to adjust your segmentations based on how you’re doing.
However, if you have a much larger database (e.g., a few hundred thousand or more), you should consider segmenting your list according to how frequently they visit your website or how frequently they opened an account with your bank (depending on whether you’re selling financial products or services). This way, you can send out a different email to each segment and track the results of your various marketing efforts.
How Much Will It Cost To Move To The ‘Pro’ Version?
If you’re looking for a cost-effective alternative to gaining the full functionality of a marketing automation platform (i.e., cutting out the middleman and saving money), you should try out the SAS Free version. This version allows you to send emails with pre-written content, use email templates, and sets you back only $15 per user per month (plus tax). You will need to pay an additional fee to have access to all the features in the Standard version.
The good news is that once you try it out, you will not want to go back to regular email marketing. The extra functionality and features that this software provides will allow you to get more out of your marketing dollar and help you make better, more informed decisions about your customers’ habits and where you should direct your marketing efforts.
The Evolution Of Email Marketing
Just because email marketing has been around for a while, doesn’t mean that it is easy to get the most out of it (in other words, a lot can go wrong if you aren’t careful). Here are some general guidelines to try out when you’re starting out (or if you’re just looking to refine your approach)
- Make sure to identify the open rate, click-through rate, and conversion for each email you send out (don’t worry, this info is easily accessible in the dashboard).
- Try out a few different email marketing apps to see which one works best for you.
- Use a free trial offer from the app’s developer or vendor to try the software out (make sure to note which one you’re using so you can refer back to their website or contact information in case you have questions after you launch the application).
- Check out some of the other apps that can help you automate and track your email marketing (e.g., MailChimp, Constant Contact, etc).
- Make sure that your email address is listed on reputable websites and that it isn’t being used by anyone else (this is especially important if your email address is part of a mailing list – make sure that everyone who receives your emails is actually a part of your email list)
- Make sure to respond to emails in a timely manner (don’t expect that just because someone contacted you that they will automatically receive a response)
- Monitor your email marketing’s performance (this is extremely important if you’re looking for ways to improve your efforts or if you want to see how others are doing in your industry)