Epsilon Adds Social Capabilities to its Response Network

Epsilon has launched the Social Media Tool, a new feature within the Epsilon Response Network (ERN).

First introduced in September 2012, ERN combines a cooperative database, sourced from contributing clients' activity data, with marketing tools that allow marketers to personalize campaigns.

The ERN Social Media Tool allows marketers to identify which consumers are active on social sites and monitor the topics that are driving interest among the brand's most loyal consumers. Brands can use that information to create personalized, omnichannel campaigns that appeal to their customers and drive brand engagement.

The Social Media Tool, which gives users access to a comprehensive dashboard, will offer marketers the following insights and capabilities:

• Leveraging the understanding of which consumers are socially active, the ERN allows marketers to understand the email topics that are driving the greatest interest among socially active consumers.
• The Consumer Interest Analysis identifies trends in social media posts that are relevant to the marketer. As consumers show growing interest in a topic that is meaningful to the marketer, he is informed of the trend and can drive more relevant social and email marketing efforts.
• The ERN's email activity assessment helps marketers identify the most engaged emailrecipients on their marketing lists.
• The ERN ties all of these elements together, identifying the company's true brand advocates and providing actionable insight in the topics driving interest today.

"Many marketers understand the necessity of a cross-channel vision, but few have been able to make it a reality. The Social Media Tool allows marketers to create a true cross-channel marketing experience, leading to more relevant marketing wherever the brand and consumer meet," said Quinn Jalli, senior vice pesident of Epsilon's Strategic Initiatives Group, in a statement. "Marketers often have deep visibility into customer behavior across the email and mobile channels, but not social. Furthermore, they typically treat each incarnation of the customer in the individual channels as a separate customer. For the first time, marketers can gain true cross-channel understanding of their customers and take appropriate action as a result."

Just two years after initial launch, Epsilon's Response Network continues to add advanced marketing tools to provide insight into individual customer behavior. More than 40 clients currently use the Epsilon Response Network. To-date, the ERN's scheduling intelligence capability has improved marketers' email campaigns, increasing open rates by 11 percent and click rates by 10 percent, according to the company.