NEW ORLEANS — Direct marketing agency SmartDM yesterday introduced two systems here at the DMA's fall show that aim to give marketers targeted access to its e-mail network.
The systems, SmartCluster and SmartTarget, offer SmartDM clients key marketing data, such as behavioral patterns and demographic information collected from the company's SmartReminders e-mail network. SmartReminders, the e-mail marketing tool of SmartDM, stores 4 million e-mails and plans to expand to about 8 million to 10 million in the next six months.
SmartCluster and SmartTarget are scheduled to be available in the first quarter of 2001. SmartCluster, a segmentation system, is a set of clusters based on interest and behavioral data provided by profiles filled out by SmartReminders members. The information consists of names, addresses and e-mail, among other points of data.
The system classifies members into segments depending on the profiles they fill out. SmartDM does not plan to release “underlying information” on its members but does plan to offer marketers “an aggregate profile” on each segment, which companies can then use to target the segments that match the profile of their customers.
“The advantage of it will be that we're going to have the behavior, the interest, the response and the demographics to try and really create some groups of people that are targetable,” said Bill Franks, chief strategy officer at SmartDM, Nashville, TN.
Meanwhile, SmartTarget, an advertising optimization engine, would offer companies some of same marketing data to help them identify the best advertisements to display to customers.
