Solutions like these are fine, but unless they are integrated into a more complete contact management solution, the value is always limited. When you send an email, what you really want to know is who opened the email, who clicked on a link, who performed an action as a result of the email. With this information, you can then refine and target your email campaigns accordingly. As such, I prefer to see email management performed as part of a more comprehensive solution such as salesforce.com or crmondemand.com.

Ah, good suggestion. Salesforce.com (SFDC) is a really powerful tool, as well. My former employer, America Online, switched over to SFDC from a propriety tool in 2003 and it proved very successful.

For eCRM at the SFDC level but tailored to advocacy groups and organizations, you might also want to check out GetActive.

For a smaller campaign or organization, though, you can actually get the same level of reporting -- who opened an e-mail and who clicked -- from the two companies mentioned in the original post. It's crazy to think that you can get such detailed information from such inexpensive solutions. Ah, technology.

Check out new research about e-mail usage from America Online, as reported by C|Net News.

A quick, scary, and true excerpt:

The survey revealed that, on average, people check their mail about five times a day, and a quarter of them cannot go without it for more than three days at a stretch.

As many as 77 percent of respondents to the survey said they have more than one e-mail account. For 41 percent, morning coffee can wait, but not e-mail; accessing e-mail is the first thing they do in the morning.

I tend not to write about personal stuff here, but this all reminds me of the first time I took a summer job helping my father out at his office. I was in my early teens and I recall a fax coming across the fax machine. I thought it was so cool that I ran to the machine, grabbed the paper, and handed it to my father. He was in the middle of something and I guess I kind’a startled him. Well, it’s at this point that he taught me a valuable lesson. I paraphrase:

"Michael, there are many methods of communication at our disposal. There's the phone, fax, mail, and even face-to-face meetings," he said. "If I stopped what I was doing every time a fax, phone call, or unannounced visitor walked through the door, I’d never get anything done.

Now, I realize that phone call can't walk through a door, but you get the point...as did I. So, it seems that 12 years later it’s only gotten worse. With the constant flood of e-mails all day long, it’s remarkable I even have time to write this post. And even more remarkable that you have time to read it! (Get back to work, will ya?)

So, for all of our sakes, I wish everyone a restful, and e-mail-free Memorial Day weekend.