For most marketers, the idea that your email service provider holds the data that you’re using to build campaigns is simply a fact of life. It’s just the way it is. Because they need your customer data to be in their cloud in order for you to use it, of course you have to send it up to them — and pay for that storage. It may not be ideal, and it causes numerous problems — from data lag to an inability to easily add new fields to a lack of data security — but it’s just something you’ve got to deal with as a marketer.
The fact is, though, it’s not necessary. It’s merely a byproduct of the way ESPs were built two decades ago, then purchased and bolted on to existing large platforms like Salesforce and Oracle. They weren’t built for the way you do business. And not only is this setup causing logistical nightmares for Super Senders, but it’s also costing them millions of dollars every year.
At MessageGears, we don’t hold your data at all. We come to it, and live where it lives so you can build campaigns directly with your live data rather than a stale copy of it. It’s the only way we believe marketing should be done. And in addition to the technical advantages to this setup, there’s a few reasons it actually enables us to charge less than our legacy marketing cloud competitors.
No data transfers or mapping
When you’re working with a legacy marketing cloud ESP, Super Senders constantly have to copy and ship their data back and forth to that ESP’s cloud in order to build campaigns. Each of those transfers has a cost attached to it for the ESP that manages it, and that cost is being transferred on to you even if they’re not explicit about it.
Because MessageGears doesn’t hold your data and enables you to work directly from your live database, we don’t bear any of those transfer and mapping costs. We come to you rather than you having to come to us. That greatly lowers our costs and the time it takes for you to get your campaigns built.
No extraneous storage costs
Storing your data in your ESP’s cloud can become costly rather quickly. And maybe you figure it’s worth the cost for the data you really are using to personalize messages. But what about all the data you’re not using? You’ll inevitably store more than you directly use because it’s a cumbersome process, and you’ll upload more than you need because their system is neither elastic nor scalable. You’ll pay for all of that, whether you use it or not.
Having your data access divorced from the processing and creation of messages allows MessageGears to be as elastic and scalable as you need us to be without incurring any extra costs. You can use as much or as little of your customer data as you need for a campaign, and it doesn’t materially impact the amount it costs us to get your messages out the door.
Don’t pay for other people’s data
Not only are you paying for your own data storage with legacy marketing cloud ESPs, but you’re paying for others as well. They’re storing all this data in their cloud, and other companies’ data volume can impact yours. For instance, if you have 1,000 subscribers but another of your ESP’s clients has 1 billion, having that massive data volume greatly slows your ESP down and increases their operating costs. You may only have those 1,000 subscribers, and aren’t causing the slowdown, but you’re paying for it anyway.
MessageGears doesn’t hold anyone’s data, though, so not only does one customer’s massive subscriber list have no impact on your cost, but there’s no impact on you whatsoever. Because we live with your database and allow you to pull directly from it, storage isn’t a concern because we’re not doing it. You only pay for what you use, and we can control costs for each individual customer based upon their volume, and not anyone else’s.
Our customers are our No. 1 priority, and we’re always looking for new ways to provide value and keep their costs reasonable. We’re always willing to work with you to determine the right send volume and the set of features you need from our products. Before you make your decision on who to partner with for cross-channel messaging, be sure to take all the potential costs into account so you understand where your money is going.
