MarketingSherpa, has re-posted a blog from February 2011 about our ESPinator email selection tool.
Back then, MarketingSherpa called out our newly launched ESPinator tool as an unusual and compelling example of content marketing: that is, content of value one can provide to prospects and customers as a form of marketing. Usually marketers think of videos, ebooks, blogs, articles, whitepapers and the like when planning a content marketing strategy. But online tools like the ESPinator are also content of value, as this MarketingSherpa post points out.
This content marketing tool also differs from other examples because it isn’t a “publish once” type of tool. It took two years for us as an email marketing agency to build the vendor-neutral ESPinator and that’s only the beginning. Due to the number of ESPs on the market and the frequent updates these companies make to their platforms, the ESPinator requires regular updates to stay current and useful.
In addition, we have over 20 email service providers in the system already, only some of which we have strong relationships with as a reseller and consultant. Getting to know the other ESPs in order to fairly represent them within the tool has taken a substantial investment of time and resources. But doing so is necessary in order to provide the most useful, vendor-neutral tool possible.
We didn’t build the ESPinator as a form of content marketing. Rather we built it as a way to help email marketers find the right email service provider for their own needs. That said, we appreciate the recognition of MarketingSherpa and fully agree: an online tool such as the ESPinator is an effective form of content marketing.
Another key ingredient of successful content marketing is re-using content…as MarketingSherpa aptly demonstrated by re-publishing this February 2011 post!
About the Author: Sharon
