Database Connectivity Features with Campaign Software

Database Connectivity Features with Campaign Software
Getting your email marketing software to talk to your database is absolutely crucial to the success of your marketing campaigns. Different software and service vendors take a variety of approaches in connecting to your database. Here are two primary methods used in the industry:

• Import into the application: requires you to export data from your database and import it into your email marketing software application. This is a slow, error-prone process that doubles your storage space requirements and creates a time lag between your source data and the data that gets used in a mail merging campaign.
• " Direct" connection to your database: allows the email marketing application to "talk" to the database in real time. The application does not store a separate copy of the data. Instead, it simply asks the database for the data as needed. This ensures the data is read and merged in "real time," keeping it accurate and timely.

Every edition of Campaign software uses the direct connection method. Simply tell Campaign where your database resides, choose a table (and apply filters, if desired), then utilizing Campaign's Dataways Connector™ the software will read and merge the data in real time.

Although the process sounds simple, accurately reading different database formats is a complex task. At Arial Software, we've spent more than seven years -- and worked with literally thousands of customers -- to refine our database connection routines. As a result, Campaign software offers robust connections to all the popular databases: MS Access, MS SQL, Oracle, Paradox, Informix, DB2, and many more. Campaign also works with any standard ODBC connection.

Complementary database support features are also contained in Campaign software. Database preview functions let you visually inspect your data selection before sending. Database write-back features automatically update your database with unsubscribe requests and mail bounces, giving you 100% hands-free automation of these complex functions.

Thousands of customers have used Campaign in conjunction with a tremendous variety of database platforms and environments