E-mail marketing solutions provider e2 Communications expanded its operations to help Internet marketers in the United States and abroad reach Latin American markets.
E2, Dallas, said it would delegate a team of marketers to focus exclusively on the emerging market, handling issues such as translations, legal obstacles and cultural marketing. The company also said Raquel Pancer, senior director for Latin American operations and a native Colombian, would lead the marketing team.
However, e2 has not yet formed that team and instead will tap the company's other departments in the early stages of development, which include creating Spanish and Portuguese pages on the Web site, www.e2.com, Pancer said.
In conjunction with the new services, e2 partnered with Spydre Labs, Miami, a services and technology venture management firm. As part of that agreement, Spydre Labs will resell e2's software to companies in Latin America, said Alberto Perlman, CEO of Spydre Labs.
Pancer said e2 hopes to help companies with their return on investment, acquisitions and retention programs with targeted e-mail newsletters in native languages.
E2 has also partnered with several Internet service providers, Pancer said, including a Venezuela-based ISP called Tutopia.com, which serves the Latin American market. Latin America, while emerging, still has a low number of people using the Internet, she said.
Citing research conducted by e2 over the past year, Pancer said only 5 percent of the Latin American population used the Internet last year. She said the percentage is expected to increase to nearly 7 percent by the end of the year and reach about 10 percent by 2003.
“There's still a lot of room for growth,” Pancer said.
E2, in addition to translating marketing information for companies, also hopes to help its customers make a smooth cultural transition into the market, Pancer said.
“Here in the U.S., everything is very unified, so you can go from one state to another and you don't have the cultural differences you have in Latin America,” said Pancer, who said she has a background in international marketing. “Even though most of the countries in Latin America speak Spanish, they are very different in their cultures and backgrounds.”
In addition to Latin America, e2 plans to help its customers reach Puerto Rico, Pancer said.
The expansion of services into Latin America adds to e2's e-mail marketing operations in Europe. Pancer said e2 has signed more than 100 customers since launching its European operations three years ago.
“It was a good time to expand into Latin America since we had already solidified our operations both in Europe and the U.S.,” she said.
