Finding the best company to run your email marketing campaign isn’t something to be taken lightly. And while the upside can be immensely profitable, the risks of ruining customer trust can’t be ignored.
After all, the last thing you want to do is invest in your email marketing only to have your customers call you a spammer. So how do you achieve email marketing mastery without stepping on the toes of your most loyal email recipients?
Well, finding the right company to run your email marketing campaigns is a tall order. And let’s be realistic: I don’t propose that I can solve your marketing-vendor challenges in one short blog post. But I can get you started on the right foot…
So if you’re looking at a number of companies to run email marketing campaigns for you, here are some ways you can narrow down the field.
Also read: Should Businesses Ever Consider Daily Deals?
Ideas to Help You Find the Best Company to Run Your Email Marketing Campaign:
1) Audit Your Email List: Before you get started choosing a company to run your email marketing campaign, you should take a cold hard look in the mirror. Because if you want to know where you’re going, you have to take note of where you’re starting. And by looking over your email list with a fine tooth comb you can be sure that your expectations match reality. How fresh are the emails on your list? How did you get them? Why would they want to hear from you? You need to ask yourself the hard questions to make the most of your email marketing campaigns.
2) Are You Data Dependent? The best email marketing campaigns run on data. So the company you choose to run your email marketing campaign should be very data dependent. If you’re suspicious they might not be, ask them how they choose subject lines and calls to action. You’ll find the best email marketing agencies will test, test, test! You should never use companies to run your email marketing campaigns that don’t test their work. The beauty of email marketing campaigns is that you can get so many metrics, like open rate, click through rate and purchasing rate. But if you don’t track your top of funnel metrics, you’re never going to see the revenue growth that dreams are made of, and your email marketing campaigns will fall flat.
3) Templates, Tablets and Layout, Oh My! Tablets and cell phones weren’t always where we read our email. And some companies who run email marketing campaigns seem stuck in this desktop-centric world. But to ignore the mobile internet in your email marketing campaigns is a death sentence. When you hire a company to run your email marketing campaigns, make sure they are set to test compatibility and user experience across all major browsers, screen sizes and devices. If your email message doesn’t look beautiful on every device, you can’t afford to hit the send button.
4) Think Big Picture: If you truly want to make the most of your email marketing campaigns, then the company you choose to manage your email marketing must also have a big picture consideration for the rest of your business. That’s because email is only one channel that makes up a small part of your overall marketing mix. And if the email marketing campaign you run isn’t aligned with your in-store specials or your holiday feature, then you’re losing the opportunity. So, the best company to run your email marketing campaigns is the one that is in touch with your entire business. The corollary here is that if you’re looking to outsource your email marketing campaigns you should be willing to divulge your business goals and operating highlights. Make sense?
Again this isn’t an exhaustive list of suggestions. But if you can’t decide on a company to run your email marketing campaign this should be enough to help you make some forward progress, right?
And that’s what email marketing is all about. You aren’t likely to make millions of email dollars overnight. But if you start small, keep testing and scale up the size of your list you might be closer to that major pay day than you think. If you’re looking for the best company to run email marketing campaigns right now, then why don’t you request our portfolio for some fantastic examples of how we’ve multiplied customer revenue with engaging and compelling email marketing offers.
Author: Jeff Waite
