DigiPortal is effectively acting as a trusted middleman in a process that reminds me of PGP ("Pretty Good Privacy") defacto industry standard e-mail security application that incorporates a similar process via a key held by a trusted third party. You're ostensibly guaranteed never to receive any Spam based e-mail as spammers will never receive your e-mail, let alone reply to it - most use automated systems that have no human intervention in process. It's relatively painless for you to manage new contacts - if you're receiving in-bound e-mails from a new a person (contact) that you have no existing relationship with, it's easy to accept his/her request to reach you and software also automatically updates your permission list.

ChoiceMail is an elegant solution that works well, is easy to use and solves a problem very cost effectively. There are a few hiccups with software - but, these are minor when you consider significant benefits of product and assuming company will broaden its support for other applications in near term. At present DigiPortal only works with standard ISPs such as Earthlink, ATT, etc. and with specific desktop clients including Outlook Express and Eudora - no web-based e-mail services (HotMail or Yahoo mail) work with software yet and there is no support for AOL at present. My biggest complaint is that they don't support a standard Outlook e-mail - you have to manually import your contact list from Outlook, which can be painstaking depending on number of recipients in your address book. And, their initial focus is on small business user or consumer, as they offer no support at present for corporate enterprise.

Your tactics section lays out tasks and who is responsible for them. What technology do you need? Do you have in-house e-mail capabilities or should you use an application such as nTarget (www.ntarget.com)? How will you build and manage your list? How will you acquire new subscribers? Who will create content, design and distribute e-mail?

After you answer those questions, it’s time to turn to your timeline. Develop a schedule for having your technology in place, building your list, creating content, designing and distributing e-mail. Determine if this will be a one-time mailing, or if it will recur on a weekly or monthly basis.

Your budget may help you answer many of questions above. Small budgets may mean you complete a lot of work in-house.

Finally, it’s time to establish criteria for measuring program. An awareness program may call for some baseline research so you’ll know how you are doing. A relationship management program may measure customer retention. Increased click-through from your e-mail to your website is also a measurable element. Sales-oriented programs might measure total sales from e-mail, or incremental sales increases with individual customers.

No matter what your objective in using e-mail, spend a little time cooking up a plan so your results won’t be half-baked.