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Response to EMFABS Request for Proposal National Rural Electrical Cooperative Association
This proposal is valid for a period for 90 days. CommPartners’ proprietary rights are included in the information disclosed in this document. Recipient, by accepting this document, agrees that neither this document, the information disclosed within, nor any part thereof, shall be reproduced, transferred to other documents, or used/disclosed to others for any purpose except as specifically authorized in writing by CommPartners.
This project estimate is based on the information received from client Request for Proposal. In the event that additional project requirements are introduced after a Statement of Work (SOW) is established, such changes will be estimated independently of the original specification.
Contact Information:
CommPartners, LLC
Richard Finstein
Title: Client Manager
Email:
Telephone: (443) 733-1075
November 4, 2010
Ms. Theresa Polzin
National Rural Electric Cooperative Association
4301 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22203
Dear Ms. Polzin,
CommPartners is pleased to provide our proposal to continue as your provider for email marketing and fax broadcast services. Our response team carefully reviewed and responded to each requirement and bid component.
For seven years CommPartners has had the opportunity to support NRECA’s email marketing and fax broadcast requirements. Over this period our Real Magnet solution was used by over 100 contacts. We created over 150 customized templates. We invested hundreds of hours in training and support and have developed an enterprise structure to meet NRECA’s organizational needs.
While we take pride in this effort, we understand this response offers the opportunity to reintroduce ourselves. The environment for email marketing is significantly more complex and challenging then it was seven years ago. To succeed it will take a combination of best of breed email marketing and broadcast fax software and a client services group that understands and responds to the challenges of member based organizations. We feel uniquely qualified to meet this challenge.
Key components of our response include:
1. A support structure that has an intimate understanding of NRECA’s staff and your requirements. The project team that we had seven years ago continues to be the team that supports NRECA today.
2. An enterprise structure that has been developed to meet NRECA’s specific requirements.
3. Our advanced newsletter application which has an entire new suite of features including an advanced mobile version.
4. Native integration with Avectra’s netFORUM association management system.
5. Integrated Fax. SMS, postal mail and email services in one solution.
6. An entirely new mobile delivery and tracking capability
7. A new deliverability module that provides valuable insights into preparing and executing campaigns.
8. Association centered advanced features to build relevancy in each message.
Ms. Theresa Polzin
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9. New trend analysis tools to educate users about best practices.
10. Continued dedication to the association community including our partnership with the American Society of Association Executives.
Our relationship with NRECA has been one of the most gratifying of our 16 year existence. We greatly appreciate the opportunities you have provided our company and appreciate the chance to present our vision for the future.
Sincerely,
Richard Finstein
Client Manager
CommPartners, LLC
Index
1.0 Executive Summary 6
2.0 COMMPARTNERS COMPANY OVERVIEW / REFERENCES 9
3.0 COMMPARTNERS SOLUTION 15
4.0 EMFABS REQUIREMENTS WITH CORRESPONDING RESPONSE 25
5.0 RESPONSE PRICING 55
6.0 FINAL THOUGHTS 57
1.0 Executive Summary
In 2003 when we responded to the initial EMFABS evaluation and were awarded the contract we were just entering the period where email marketing services were beginning to emerge as the principal way associations were communicating with their communities. Our response to this RFP is drastically different. Today we are facing a much more challenging environment. Organizations have tightened their filtering of messages entering their networks. Recipients are much more particular in what they read and generally do not pay attention to messages that are not well designed, relevant and timely. Spam continues to rise cluttering our recipients’ inboxes.
Success in the future will require two components:
1. Staff involved in EMFABS will increasingly be strategic in their approach focusing on sending the right message to specifically chosen recipients, at the right time, in the right format, to have the greatest impact and fight through the “noise”. This will require a more significant investment of time to plan and implement campaigns.
2. The EMFABS application will need to provide features and functionality to support each chosen strategy.
Our responsibility is to manage both components. Increasingly the success of email / fax campaigns is about bridging the goals of the organization with a process using the application to reach a desired result. With our experience in support of over 1,000 associations with enterprise based strategies we bring unparalleled resources and vision to do this well.
Our response is focused around eight themes that we feel will help support the effectiveness of NRECA’s Email and fax campaigns.
A. Mobile Strategy
Our objective was to bring first to market a mobile strategy that will help our clients reach their recipients with engaging content regardless of the device they were using to view messages. We know increasingly our viewers will be viewing content in this manner.
To support our clients we created a mobile version of NewsManager, our advance newsletter tool. Users can choose their preferred version (desktop of mobile) however can toggle to the alternative version. The mobile version works in a similar manner to the desktop version providing a multi-screen design with an index, navigation to other articles, tracking screens and access to interactive features.
For message recipients the mobile optimized version is a Web page and recipients access it by clicking the link at the top of the message that invites them to view the message in their mobile browser. The message will be optimized for the mobile screen.
The full description can be view on the Real Magnet Blog at:
http://blog.Real Magnet.com/2010/09/mobile-central/
To support mobile readership we have added detailed metrics for who is reading mobile versions of messages and which device they are using. We have also included geo location as a tracking tool to see where individuals are.
B. Enhancements to Electronic Newsletters
The NewsManager application has been used extensively over the past seven years. When it was first introduced it was truly unique in helping organizations provide a more professional rendering of their most high profile content. The multipage design allowed organizations to present intelligent navigation and a positive experience for the reader.
In the past year we have introduced a whole new set of features that we feel will further support NRECA’s requirements. Features include the dynamic mobile rendering previously discussed, interactive features such a blog comments, article ratings and search for similar content, new innovative layouts, multimedia tools, and social media integration.
C. Customize Dashboard, Tracking and Reporting
When Real Magnet software was redesigned roughly a year ago, one the major enhancements was to move from general tracking data on a per job basis to cumulative tracking to evaluate the health of an organizations email marketing over an extended period of time. Ideally users will be able to learn and make adjustments as they understand the reading habits of their communities. A personalized dashboard will allow each NRECA user to create queries and reports that are most meaningful to them and have those posted on their dashboard when they login. For example a user might want to know, what are the best subject lines I have used over the past 30 days or what time is the best time of day to send a message. A new reporting module provides over 100 pre-configured metrics allowing users to understand exactly what is working and not working. Tracking is available for more metrics than ever before including domain reporting, recipient device reporting, physical location, browser type, and detailed bounce analysis.
D. Mixed Message Delivery
There are a few providers that can support a full mixed message strategy. The Real Magnet software offers full email – fax integration, RSS feed, SMS, mobile, and an option for print to mail. Each taken separately provides some value however integrated together using a strategic approach provides a much greater impact. NRECA will benefit from having the ability to generate an SMS message of fax when multiple attempts have been made to reach someone via email. Users could sign up to receive your newsletters to their desktop using RSS therefore bypassing email delivery altogether.
E. Enterprise Management
Roughly two years ago we invested much time and thought into customizing our enterprise structure to fit NRECA’s requirements. This structure called for unique views, selective permissions, a message approval process, support of workgroups, incorporated billing and organizational calendaring. We know the “enterprise” is a critical component to supporting NRECA email marketing and fax broadcast objectives.
F. Deliverability
Deliverability is the critical component to nurturing member and stakeholder relationships. With such a challenging environment for email marketers it takes a comprehensive plan, dedicated staff and solid reputation to ensure messages have the best chance of reaching their destinations. Associations are not like commercial marketers. Relationships hang in the balance. This is why we have instituted a comprehensive process to support NRECA’s delivery requirements.
G. Relevancy
It is proven that the most significant influence on whether a recipient reads a message and then follows up with some type of desired action is the relevancy and interaction opportunities of that message. The more that content is focused on the recipient, the higher the metrics. This proposal focuses on helping NRECA build relevancy through each message through outcome measurement and making appropriate adjustments, dynamic content, mobile strategy, campaigns, mixed message formats, linking strategically to netFORUM queries, threshold monitoring and A/B testing.
H. Strategic Partnership
We believe a strategic partnership is more than two companies agreeing to work together. It is the people in the organizations that come to know each other over a period of time. Most of the staff NRECA worked with in 2003 is still involved in our support of your organization. These are knowledgeable people who provide insights into best practices, answer each user’s questions professionally and with care, and who are specialists in working with associations. Our time working together allows us to support you more effectively and provide an understanding of expectations. Our designers, programmers, client team, and billing staff knows your account and is dedicated to ensuring you continue to receive courteous and responsive service.
Since we are the incumbent we have developed this response to be more of a strategic roadmap to share our vision and reconfirm our position as a leader within the association community. We believe themes described above are keys for building upon our current relationship. Each theme is detailed in the services section highlighting innovation within the product and our approach.
2.0 CommPartners Company Overview
CommPartners was formed in 1995 by a management group whose roots began with MCI. The initial focus was to provide data, messaging, and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) services to associations and their members through member benefit programs. At that time there was an upheaval within the technology sector as the Internet became the dominant pipeline for communication, collaboration and research. Corporations were drastically changing their strategy and shifting resources to focus on this new medium. With the shift in resources, there were many personnel changes and relationships with clients became less stable. This was certainly true with associations and association member programs. CommPartners developed into a company that organizations could depend on year after year to provide stable, thoughtful services and advice, providing consistency over a long period of time. The founders of the corporation remain actively involved in the day-to-day operations.
In 1997 the American Society of Association Executives formed a relationship with CommPartners to manage their email and fax services they provide to their members. MagnetMail was the chosen application. Today over 1,000 Associations use MagnetMail (now called Real Magnet software) as their enterprise email application through our association program. In 2001 we developed NewsManager. Over four hundred associations use NewsManager for their e-newsletter publications. CommPartners has grown significantly since the original contract award in 2003. Our updated profile is provided below:
2.1 Office Locations
7230 Lee DeForest Drive
Columbia, Maryland 21046
8178 Lark Brown Road
Elkridge, Maryland 21075
Telephone: 443-259-0630
E-mail:
Fax: 443-259-0522
2.2 Company Profile
Start Date: 4-1-95 as Communication Partners International, LLC The name was changed to CommPartners in 1998.
2.3 Staff: 37 employees broken out as follows
Customer Support: 5
Client Development: 8
Design: 3
Programming: 3
Admin / Billing: 2
Marketing 1
Multimedia Support: 3
Event Production 11
2.4 Revenues 2010
$7,500,000
2.5 Key Contacts
Richard Finstein – President
John Volentine – Director of Business Development
Mary Golden – Dedicated Client Support Representative
Vicki Knorr – Director of Client Services
Carl Aron - Assigned Programmer
Alex Robinson – Assigned Designer
* Résumé’s for all staff involved in the NRECA bid will be provided upon request or at bid award.
2.6 Company Mission
CommPartners provides consulting, applications, and technology services that enable our clients to present and share their value, facilitate learning, communicate and collaborate with their members, stakeholders, and partners and market themselves with greater effectiveness. While the products and services we provide are of significant value, it is our ability to listen, understand, consult and support that help us best meet our client’s greatest challenges.
2.7 Internal Mission Statement
In serving our clients we will act with poise and professionalism. We will put ourselves in the client’s shoes and provide complete and thoughtful responses. We will work as a team to solve problems and guide the organization. If there is an issue or a suggestion we will speak up to make sure each CommPartners’ staff member knows that their contributions are valuable and can make a significant difference.
2.8 Supporting Objectives
1. Have a continued focus on the client with every opportunity.
2. Continue to invest in personnel through training, counsel, and when necessary repositioning to better match staff with responsibilities.
3. Recognize and reward excellence. Provide constructive feedback through a formal review and evaluation process.