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Customer Data Platform (CDP)

From Bronto End of Life to a Fast Future with Bloomreach

By Brandi Merrill

06/10/2021


This article was written in partnership with Ansira , an independent, global marketing technology and services firm that designs relevant, persuasive experiences for all the right moments

We all had hopes that 2021 was going to be the year of 'back to normal'. As a Bronto customer, those hopes were dashed when you received the news in March announcing that your ESP is going to be sunsetted with just months left to determine your future ESP. You probably didn't plan in your marketing budget, which may have already been drastically cut, to go through a new ESP evaluation and RFP. Maybe you inherited Bronto in your position and have never gone through a MarTech vendor selection process before. Whatever the case, you weren't expecting this change and need to get your focus back on your customers and company's goals. Let us help guide you through the steps to consider when evaluating a new ESP.

What do you need to evaluate / key considerations when choosing a new ESP?

1. Do you have another home for your data marketing?  

If Bronto serves as a data store for your marketing data in addition to ESP, the first step you will need to take is to audit the data in the platform and determine what is needed out of the tool as part of your migration roadmap. It is also important to keep in mind that different ESPs prefer to access marketing data differently (eg in platform data model vs accessing data externally through the use of data pipeline software). If your marketing data already resides outside of Bronto, this may be the time to re-imagine your long-term data environment vision. Is your data easily accessible to the marketing team who needs to access it in order to activate customers across channels? Do you need the ability to create custom segments, enrich your marketing data through the use of data exchanges, and activate across channels beyond email? Can you then quickly report on the performance of the campaigns through real-time dashboards? Data is everything! While your first reaction may be to focus on email deployment functionality when selecting an ESP, don't forget that an ESP is a platform to enable the monetization of your data by creating personalized customer experiences.

2. How will you manage and coordinate across batch and transaction marketing campaigns?  

The next step you need to take is a full audit of your batch and transactional emails in Bronto. Many of Bronto's clients use the platform for both the transactional and promotional batch email messaging vs using a separate ESP for both promotional and transactional messaging. Are you sending any multi-touch customer journeys with complex logic? Do you have any rules in place to prevent overlap in messaging to a single customer on a given day? Developing a catalog of existing emails in Bronto will help guide you in both your functional requirements when selecting a new ESP, and also serve as a critical component to your migration requirements.

3. How do I get the templates out of Bronto and where will they live in the future?

One of the appeals of Bronto is the out-of-the-box, standard email templates for retail and commerce clients. When evaluating new ESP providers, evaluate what templates are offered out of the box and what impact transitioning to those templates will have on your resources and user experience. Will your existing creative work within the standard templates? Do you need the ability to build new emails with the aid of a WYSIWYG, or do you have resources available to develop new custom HTML templates? You may find this is the time to build new email templates that can be used in any ESP. 

Where does Bloomreach fit in?

Transitioning to another MarTech platform is never easy; much less when you’re forced to do it quickly to avoid another dinosaur trap. But quick is what Bloomreach does best. Bloomreach is the world’s leading CDP + omnichannel marketing automation and experience platform (CDXP) that was purpose-built for commerce. The unified data from all customer touchpoints creates a single customer view that enables you to better understand, segment, and engage customers 1:1 on any channel at scale. Bloomreach ensures marketers are equipped with the tools required to manage the data in order to draw patterns, trends, and predictions. With all of that power, you can create incredible customer experiences that drive real results.

Key features offered by Bloomreach:

  • Robust email automation with built-in capabilities to design, test, execute, and report 
  • Real-time email insights are recorded in the customer profile and used to inform every other channel for a seamless customer experience 
  • Templates can be coded or created using WYSIWYG editor and tested on 50+ devices using built-in free email preview
  • Campaigns can be one-time sends or real-time triggered. Since email is built-in and informed by a single customer view updated in real-time, execution also happens immediately 
  • Built-in features that help manage deliverability (tracking, bounce management, consents, frequency policies, suppression lists, list hygiene filters, optimal send time)
  • In-house deliverability experts help with warming up domains and maintaining reputations. We work with multiple ESP providers both locally and globally to ensure the best deliverability in different regions.
  • Out-of-the-box dashboards report on performance, domain health, click maps to name a few.
  • Automatic optimizations include throttling, automatic A/B test winner distribution, and optimal send time. 

Brands love and trust Bloomreach because we solve complex marketing problems with an intuitive, easy-to-use platform with world class-support. And we do it crazy fast. Don’t bet your future on dinosaurs. Upgrade to Bloomreach.

How can Ansira help? 

You’ve done the hard part and started the process of evaluating new platforms, but are you asking yourself “what next?”.  There are a lot of factors to consider in planning your ESP migration approach.  How do I plan properly for an IP Warming Campaign to ensure my email deliverability does not tank and ensure inbox placement? What data do I need to access from the new platform to continue to deliver reporting and metrics to key stakeholders?  How do I transition customers to a new platform who are currently already in a complex, multi-touch email journey with Bronto, without impacting the customer experience? Do I have the resources on staff to manage the migration in addition to maintaining the existing marketing program? 

Ansira helps guide customers through these decisions every day. A large platform migration is not something marketers do often in their careers, but Ansira is an industry expert in the MarTech consulting and implementations space. They send billions of emails annually on behalf of their clients, so they know a thing or two about perfecting the email experience . And they can do it for you or with you; the choice is yours. Recently, they magnified their email marketing capabilities with the acquisition of industry leader BrightWave .

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Brandi Merrill

Digital Solution Specialist

Brandi is a Digital Solution Specialist for the Ansira Digital business unit. She focuses her time on helping clients solve issues through selection of Marketing Technology to create the best experience for their customers.

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