This is the first of a series of posts that will outline the effort, concerns, challenges, and opportunities when working with NetSuite to produce massed based email communications. The basic plan is leverage my personal list of contacts within Outlook (currently over 2,400) to produce communication events when we publish a new blog entry. If done in a tasteful manner, we will illustrate the power of the NetSuite platform and how its customer relationship management (CRM) capacities can increase distribution, enhance brand, and ultimately, facilitate greater revenue generation.
We believe this topic becomes relevant during the natural course of events when small businesses seek to increase its communications to its existing and prospective customers. We also know that blogging is one of the new ways to develop identity and brand in the marketplace. As such, we believe it would be valuable to show how these practices come together with the latest features offered in fully-integrated business management software — namely NetSuite’s Email Marketing Automation built into the standard product.
Most would agree that Outlook is the default desktop email communication system. Generally, contact records within Outlook need to get into the CRM system so that contacts can be appropriately targeted with relevant and meaningful messages. This is true for any communications platform including the “Constant Contacts” of the world. The situation becomes complex quickly because these questions must be answered in order to develop an ongoing, low cost, and easy to use practice:
- How will the Outlook contact records get into NetSuite to begin with? Will the records be leads, contacts, or customers? What about account entities?
- How do we create a blog entry and then push it out through NetSuite’s email system without a bunch of cut-and-paste?
- How can we format the email communications so that it maintains our brand objectives?
- If contacts wish to not receive further communications of this type, how do we update NetSuite with this preference?
- What segmentation possibilities exist to better categorize contacts based on their interest or preference?
- How do we maintain contact ownership between other individuals within the organization?
- How can we keep information captured and tracked in NetSuite back in Outlook?
These are not all the questions, but they are sufficient to drive the development of a practice. Standby for more posts as this unfolds.
Marty Zigman
Holding all three official certifications, Marty is regarded as the top NetSuite expert and leads a team of senior professionals at Prolecto Resources, Inc. He is a former Deloitte & Touche CPA and has held CTO roles. For over 30 years, Marty has produced leadership in ERP, CRM and eCommerce business systems. Contact Marty to set up a conversation.
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Good luck!!