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How to Use Odyssey Analytics Tools to Provide Insights About Your Messages and Recipients.

March 10, 2021March 10, 2021 by Odyssey Support

Odyssey’s secure WebPortal provides numerous analytics tools which clients can access to gain relevant data throughout each stage of the message sending process. These tools can be used to track and gain better insights on strategy creation for your message content, lists and optimal scheduling.

When generating a customer email, SMS or fax list, the quality of the recipients on that list is of primary importance to ensure you reach your intended audience. This is something one should strive to achieve before a list is sent, however, this is not always a perfect process!

Odyssey’s post-transmission details shows you essential basic information such as if your message has successfully sent or failed, as well as gives you specific insights as to WHY it has failed.

Email

For email analytics, the Portal displays if an email is none active (Hard bounce), if it possibly has a transmission error in the receiver’s server (Soft Bounce), if its possibly on your account’s “opt out” list or recipient's system has a filter (Rejected). Our Portal provides a list of addresses and statistical data for each of the above options.

The next type of email analytics data you will see on the Portal is for open and click rates. Even if an email is successfully sent; it will not matter if your recipients do not open the message. This information may be helpful in providing insight into changing your strategy in terms of email and subject composition, into something they feel is worthy of their time to open and read.

This tool will show you how many of your successful emails were opened, links clicked and opt outs. You can also track this activity on the basis of the first 24 hours, first 7 days or the last 12-hour period at the time of your inquiry.

Link details will outline each link present in your email and how many times each has been clicked on, total times and by unique recipients.

This tool can be used to determine where your recipients are drawn to, what parts of your websites are receiving attention or if the links you want to receive attention are actually being clicked.

SMS

SMS based analytics can be more specific to the reason a message is unsuccessful. This is because it draws from data received from the carrier receiving the message This allows you a better understanding of the quality of your list and what measures you can take to clean that list up for future sends.

Here are some examples of various possible outcomes:

Activity details can give you insights on various factors of the interactions from your recipients, such as how many replies your message has received (Answers), How many have opted out and the total of those who either replied or clicked on a link in the message (Acknowledged).

Confirmed Recipients tracks if we have a status of the messages outcome once it successfully reaches the carrier. This does not mean a message has failed or has not been received, just that the carrier has accepted the message and has not provided further information on its final destination.

Why Odyssey’s SMS service can help you regularly communicate with your remote team

December 7, 2020 by Odyssey Support

Some common feelings of remote workers are that of being isolated and the lack proper communication. They want to feel more connected to their office and team.

Likewise, businesses depend on remote workers doing their tasks effectively to be operational, and being able to get questions rapidly answered is key to this relationship.

SMS can be an excellent communication method for this purpose. Most people can more immediately answer a text to the phone they carry at all times, than an email or group chat.

With Odyssey, you can individualize a mass text sent to your team so that each SMS recipient gets a unique response based on their personal requirements.

1. Reach out instantly for a situation that needs immediate attention.

2. Touch base in a way that feels more personal to the recipient.

3. Keep everyone updated on recent accomplishments and growth.

4. Read all SMS replies in a single place.

You can use text in conjunction with other communication streams to ensure your message will be read, even on the trip for morning coffee!

Improve your internal organizational communication with Odyssey SMS

November 27, 2020 by Odyssey Support

Organizations, and the teams within them, often have scheduled meetings to get all of their members on the same page – these can occur weekly, monthly, quarterly or as required.

With more and more teams working remotely, coordination is essential. Odyssey SMS can be used to send a group message to the entire team, with the ability to personalize the meeting link, time, date and other important details for different departments in a single send.

SMS can be used as a quick reference rather than sorting through the countless emails one receives on a daily basis.

Using Odyssey Merge tags, you can input information in one single “list” that is unique to each team or even an individual recipient you would like to contact. Sending one SMS “job” to multiple teams simultaneously, improves efficiency, organization and time management.

Here are a few examples of personalization that can be achieved in a single list with varying information.

“Hello [Department] team, our quarterly meeting will be held on [Meeting date] at [Meeting time] please click this link [Meeting link] to join.”

“Hey [first name], it is time for your performance review. Please meet with me on [Meeting date] at [Meeting time] and use this link [Meeting link] to join.”

The 3 steps to a successful communication plan

October 9, 2017October 12, 2017 by Lester Johnson

Medium or Message?

The Medium or the Message? Which is more important and where should we focus our efforts?

There has been much discussion, and confusion surrounding this subject. The answer is simpler than you think: Both!

In today’s world of multiple communication platforms and mediums, we tend to get swayed or confused on where we need to place our efforts. Which medium? How do we format our content to fit each medium? Must we communicate all messaging across all mediums? What demographic content is right for which medium? With so many questions, where do yous tart?

There has been no other time in history where we have had such a barrage of communication methods available to us. It seems that we just get used to one method, learn how to use it effectively, when something new pops up and the discovery starts again. WhatsApp, Snap Chat, Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, iMessage, to name just a few. And let’s not forget the existing older methods of communication: Email, fax, paper mail, newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and the phone. Are these still even viable or accepted methods to communicate and do they provide a given return on the investment of time, effort and money?

Let's look at this from a different perspective. The following 5 questions are the first step in our quest to determine which method and medium is the right one to use:

Step 1

What do we want to accomplish?
What is our desired end goal?
Where are we now?
What’s available to us currently?
What else is out there that we know or don’t know?

These questions lead us to the next step. Here are 6 reasons why we communicate.

Step 2

Generate awareness of who you are (Enables you to be found, person or company)
Get your message to resonate (Create a connection)
Generate a sense of trust (Create a conversation)
Create a relationship (Validate your brand)
Sell something (End goal)
Sell something again (Start another process which includes some of these steps above)

Now we have a starting point. Now don’t get me wrong, this is by no means easy, however getting these questions answered is vital and results in the creation of our roadmap.

Let’s take these 6 reasons and look at what we should know or do before we begin the task of creating a communications plan. Believe it or not, the information you have just derived from this process will begin your strategy.

Step 3: The T5 of your communication plan.

Theme- What is the overall look and feel? What is the demographic? Who is the ideal target? What is the ancillary audience? What is measured, providing what information and for what purpose? What is the knowledge derived and what power can you gain?
Tactics- How are you going to bring action to your plan, and what are the milestones? What technology will be used? When and how will they be utilized?
Technology/Tools- What technologies do you have at your disposal and what can be used to provide some automation, repeatability, and scalability? Which messaging or communication platforms will be used in this plan?
Term- What is the period or length of this communication project? There must be a defined end.
Talent- What do you have available and what do you need to source? Think about marketing execution, content creation, and process development.

So, what do we know? We know where we are, we know where we want to be, what we want to do and we know what we have available to us (technology/tools/talent). Also be aware that at this stage, we don’t know some things. These will only be revealed as we progress in our plan. This must be allotted for and allowed to occur, as nothing ever follows precisely as planned.

So, what does all this have to do with the medium or the message? Everything!

It tells us that we need to think about how our world is communicating today, and what is the best medium for direct communication. It also tells us that once we figure out the medium, we need to understand how that medium works and what is accepted and what is not! It tells us that we must be clear about our message and the content of that message. Does the message provoke a positive response? Does it provoke an action?

A stone tablet and a chisel, or carrier pigeons were once the prime way to communicate, however we don’t see them in use today.

SMS-Voice-Email, and others; all mediums serve a purpose or we would not still be using them. When we find a better way to communicate, we adopt it and dispose of lesser none useful ones. In summary, when you build out your communications strategy, keep in mind these steps to create success:

⇒ Understand, plan and create a strategy on how you want to use technology

⇒ Technology is great, but it’s just a tool. It is highly sophisticated, but a tool none the less

⇒ Use a medium that fits your message, and then create a message that fits your medium

⇒ Think about how and when you would use specific mediums