Patent Application
20140129319
Communication service providers offer products that enable businesses to design, implement, and track the success of marketing campaigns through a multitude of communication channels. As consumers become more market and technologically savvy, communication service providers develop new feature-rich products that help improve the success of marketing campaigns implemented by their customers. An efficient and successful way to sell these products to businesses is to demo their success with other customers in real time. However, new products are developed and implemented so quickly that a communication service provider may not have a successful customer story to share with prospective businesses.
Today, communication service providers show presentations to their prospective customers that include wireframes and static examples of what a successful implementation of a product would look like. If a prospective customer has a question about a specific feature, the communication service provider is required to explain the feature in the abstract or, in the best case, bring up a specific slide that shows an example of the feature in question.
It would be advantageous if the communication service provider could demo all of the features of a product to a prospective business with real or like-real data in real time. Then, if a prospective business has a specific question about a feature within a product, the communication service provider can simply demo the feature in question.
In addition, the marketing industry is constantly changing and communication service providers try to develop and implement new products that fit a consumer or business need as quickly as possible in reaction to such changes. One issue with the development and quality assurance processes surrounding these new products is that it is difficult to truly test how the new products would work with real customer data.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a system, method, and non-transitory computer-readable medium for simulating an electronic message campaign to obtain expected tracking and reporting metrics.
In the present disclosure, a system, method, and non-transitory computer-readable medium for simulating an electronic message campaign is disclosed. The simulation involves interacting with electronic messages using simulated subscribers in order to provide a user (e.g., company or business) with realistic results of tracking and reporting metrics. Based upon this feedback, a user may alter the campaign so as to better target particular demographics. For example, if the feedback shows that the target demographic of simulated subscribers is not opening the messages sent to them, the company behind the campaign may decide it needs to alter the content of the message or take some other action to penetrate the target demographic. Alternatively, an electronic message marketing company may use the simulation to determine whether it can effectively scale up to a large message campaign (e.g., from one thousand emails to ten million emails).
In at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, the establishment of simulated subscribers in step 105 may include defining a subscriber type and associating a subscriber type for each virtual subscriber. In such an embodiment, a subscriber type may include a pre-defined criteria as to how often a subscriber associated with the subscriber type may open a communication, click a link within a communication, reply to a communication, sign up to a mailing list, or otherwise interact with communications sent within marketing campaigns. In such an embodiment, a subscriber type may also include the type of device in which such subscribers may perform such activity. In such an embodiment, subscriber type may have different activity rates based on demographics or other criteria. Subscriber types may also include certain information about a subscriber associated with such a subscriber type, such as, for example, the number of Facebook friends, whether the subscriber has a Twitter handle, the age of the subscriber, etc. As used in the present disclosure, communication includes, but is not limited to, email, Facebook message, tweet, MMS, SMS, LinkedIn message, and other communication able to be received by a computing device.
For example, a subscriber type may be defined for a highly engaged subscriber. In this example, a highly engaged subscriber may open a communication between 60% and 70% of the time, click a link within a communication between 10% and 15% of the time, perform a conversion activity (e.g., sign up for a mailing list, purchase a product, etc.) resulting from a conversion 8% to 15% of the time. In this example, a highly engaged subscriber may have 90 to 1500 Facebook friends and have a Twitter handle.
In another example, a subscriber type may be defined for an unengaged subscriber. In this subscriber type, the unengaged subscriber may only open a communication 0% to 10% of the time, click a link within a communication 0% of the time, and perform a conversion activity 0% of the time. In this example, the unengaged subscriber type may not have a Facebook account or Twitter handle.
In at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, assigning a subscriber type to a set of virtual subscribers may automatically populate virtual demographic data for the virtual subscribers. In such an embodiment, the virtual demographic data may be defined within the subscriber type. For example, as previously discussed, a subscriber type for a highly engaged subscriber may automatically assign demographic data of the virtual subscriber having a Facebook account with 90 to 1500 friends. In another example, a subscriber type may include that any virtual subscriber assigned the subscriber type will have a certain percent chance to have one or more demographic information assigned to the virtual subscriber. For example, a highly engaged subscriber type may include that any virtual subscriber assigned to the highly engaged subscriber type will have a 45% chance of being male and a 55% chance of being male. In another example, any virtual subscriber assigned the highly engaged subscriber type may have a 1% chance of being born between 1928 and 1948, a 62% chance of being born between 1949 and 1986, and a 37% chance of being born between 1987 and 1999. It should be appreciated, then, that subscriber types may assign demographic information that assists in mimicking activity from a real-life set of subscribers with virtual subscribers by assigning defined subscriber types.
In at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, subscribers may be established in step 105 through scripting. In such an embodiment, an enterprise may define a set of subscriber types with accompanying information within a database. In such an embodiment, a script may populate a database table with a defined number of virtual subscribers and associate subscriber types to each virtual subscriber.
When simulating a marketing campaign by establishing subscribers in step 105, an enterprise may associate a number of virtual subscribers with these defined subscriber types such that activity performed by these virtual subscribers will conform to the metrics defined within the subscriber type. It should be appreciated that the use of subscriber types enables a simulation engine to more accurately depict real-life activity with various types of subscriber activity levels.
As shown in
For example, emails and/or communications may be received from a remote email sender. In addition or alternatively, emails may be built by a remote email sender utilizing an application hosted locally, such as, for example, an application hosted by an electronic message marketing company and/or communication service provider that also hosts the simulation. In at least one embodiment, emails and/or communications may be established locally, such as, for example, by an electronic message marketing company that hosts the simulation. The emails may include various types of content for electronic message campaigns, including messages and designs, such as, for example, information about a sale for particular goods or services, an advertisement for coats showing a picture of an individual wearing a coat, and the like. In at least one embodiment, the emails are addressed to the subscribers. For example, each of a group of subscribers may have distinct email addresses for the same domain. For instance, one subscriber's email address may be jsmith@orange.com (“Jim”) and another subscriber's email address may be kford@orange.com (“Kelly”). While the simulation in this example is described referring to emails, it should be noted that any type of electronic message may be implemented. For example, the electronic message may be SMS, MMS, social media, and the like.
As shown in
In at least one embodiment, if it is determined that the subscriber would open the email, then the email may be converted into a form that can be easily parsed. For example, an HTML email may be converted into DOM scripting to allow for parsing of any element of the email. The parsing may begin with a web beacon (e.g., 1×1 tracking pixel image). By firing an HTTP GET request to the tracking pixel's source URL, an email “open” is simulated and recorded by the simulation. Of course, other actions may be performed to simulate an “open” if it is determined that a subscriber would open the email. The email may also be reviewed to determine whether the subscriber will take any other actions, such as, for example, click, purchase, complete a survey, unsubscribe, and the like. Based upon the likelihood of these other actions, there may be additional firings of HTTP GET requests to the source URL, which would also be recorded.
The step 120 determines whether an electronic message will be opened or some other activity will be taken in regards to the electronic message based upon the engagement profile of a subscriber. The engagement profile for a subscriber may be determined by considering a variety of factors and facts about the subscriber. For example, a subscriber may be highly engaged in electronic message campaigns of a company if the company has a Twitter Handle, if the subscriber follows the company on Twitter, if the subscriber “Likes” the company on Facebook, and the like. A subscriber between the ages of 13-30 may be highly engaged for social media, while a subscriber that is 65 years old or older may be unengaged for social media. The subscriber's engagement profile may also be determined based upon the type of electronic device or domain that the subscriber uses. For example, a user of an iPhone may be more engaged to electronic campaigns than an Android user, and a user of Outlook may be more engaged to electronic campaigns than a user of Gmail or Yahoo!. The subscriber's engagement profile may also be based on the type of acquisition source, such as social media, mobile, website, and the like.
For example, suppose simulated subscriber Abe's engagement profile shows that he has a high level of engagement for sports and the email being processed by the simulation includes a subject heading for baseball. Based upon the subject heading alone, it is likely that Abe would open up the email since Abe is highly engaged with such content. However, if the email information is related to knitting, it may be unlikely that Abe would open the email to look at the email because Abe's level of engagement for such content may be low. In the former case, an HTTP GET request would be generated to the source URL to indicate an “open” and be recorded by the simulation.
It should be noted that the processing step 120 may be fully automatic. That is, as electronic messages are received or otherwise obtained for processing, each may be processed automatically without user action. This would allow for uninterrupted, continuous processing of one or more electronic message campaigns. For example, if multiple companies each have several email campaigns for testing using the simulation, they can each send their emails in any order, at any time and receive feedback about each campaign. They would not have to wait for an administrator to perform any operations to carry out the simulation. Such activity by multiple companies would also be beneficial to an email marketing company that may operate the simulation because the marketing company can determine whether their systems can withstand the high volume of messaging from multiple sources.
It should also be noted that the selection of subscribers used to carry out the processing step 120 may be selected by the user, automatically selected based upon the company's own subscribers, or otherwise established based upon some rule or selection. With the ability to customize the subscriber lists for each simulation run, a company may be able to obtain targeted engagement results.
As shown in
Referring now to
The first remote device 220 may be configured to send electronic messages to the host server 260 via the computer network 290. In addition or alternatively, the first remote device 220 may be configured to access and utilize an application hosted on host server 260 to build one or more electronic messages. First remote device 220 includes one or more computers, computing devices, or systems of a type well known in the art, such as a mainframe computer, workstation, personal computer, laptop computer, hand-held computer, cellular telephone, or personal digital assistant. First remote device 220 comprises such software, hardware, and componentry as would occur to one of skill in the art, such as, for example, one or more microprocessors, memory systems, input/output devices, device controllers, and the like. First remote device 220 also comprises one or more data entry means (not shown in
As described above, the host server 260 may be configured to receive electronic messages from the first remote device 220, host an application for the first remote device 220 to build electronic messages, and/or establish one or more electronic messages. In at least one embodiment, the host server 260 accesses the database 280 to obtain simulated subscriber information while processing the message in step 120. The host server 260 is configured to carry out one or more of the steps of method 100 described above. For example, the host server 260 may perform steps 110, 120, and 130 or steps 105, 110, 120, and 130. Host server 260 comprises one or more server computers, computing devices, or systems of a type known in the art. Host server 260 further comprises such software, hardware, and componentry as would occur to one of skill in the art, such as, for example, microprocessors, memory systems, input/output devices, device controllers, display systems, and the like. Host server 260 may comprise one of many well-known servers, such as, for example, IBM's AS/400 Server, IBM's AIX UNIX Server, or MICROSOFT's WINDOWS NT Server. In
The database 280 is configured to store the simulated subscriber information and engagement information resulting from step 130 that is received from the host server 260. Database 280 is “associated with” host server 260. According to the present disclosure, database 280 can be “associated with” host server 260 where, as shown in the embodiment in
For purposes of clarity, database 260 is shown in
First remote device 220 communicates with host server 260 via computer network 290. The communication between first remote device 220 and host server 260 may be bi-directional. Computer network 290 may comprise the Internet, but this is not required.
The following discussion relating to
The Simulation tool may be based on any development platform, such as the Node.js platform. While the Node.js platform may be used, any other number of development platforms may also be used. As noted above, the Simulation tool utilizes a database of simulated subscribers to provide a user with information for maximizing electronic message campaigns. In particular, based upon this information, the user can adjust the campaign to attempt to improve the efficacy of the campaign. The Simulation tool uses visualization techniques to make poor engagement results easy to identify. The Simulation tool generally allows companies to maximize electronic message campaigns prior to sending the electronic messages, evaluate products in a pre-sales setting, and/or perform quality assurance processes on new product features prior to release into a production setting, among other uses.
When using the Simulation tool, the marketing campaign may be executed in a similar manner as it would be executed against real subscribers. For example, when the marketing campaign sends an email to virtual subscribers through the Welcome Program, each email is received by the Simulation tool for each virtual subscriber and processed according to the virtual subscriber's expected engagement information. In another example, when the marketing campaign is directed to send SMS messages to virtual subscriber's mobile devices, the Simulation tool captures the SMS messages being sent and processes them through a server according to each virtual subscribers expected engagement information. This processing generates marketing activity that an enterprise may use to determine the types of results that can be expected from executing the marketing campaign against real subscribers.
In particular,
It should be appreciated that the activity generated by the virtual subscribers shown in
It should be appreciated that the systems and methods disclosed herein may generate multiple subscriber types for various virtual subscribers to generate different activity associated with campaigns. This dynamic approach provides a benefit by enabling an enterprise to customize its set of virtual subscribers in an attempt to mirror activity that would be generated if the same campaign were sent to real subscribers.
In another example,
It should be noted that the method, system, and non-transitory computer-readable medium for simulating an electronic message campaign of the present disclosure may be used along with or to complement one or more programs.
While this disclosure has been described as having various embodiments, these embodiments according to the present disclosure can be further modified within the scope and spirit of this disclosure. This application is therefore intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the disclosure using its general principles. For example, any methods disclosed herein represent one possible sequence of performing the steps thereof A practitioner may determine in a particular implementation that a plurality of steps of one or more of the disclosed methods may be combinable, or that a different sequence of steps may be employed to accomplish the same results. Each such implementation falls within the scope of the present disclosure as disclosed herein and in the appended claims. Furthermore, this application is intended to cover such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice in the art to which this disclosure pertains.
This application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/713,026, filed on Oct. 12, 2012 which is incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61713026 | Oct 2012 | US |
