Email Marketing Companies: 7 Tips For Choosing The Right One
Updated: Sep 6, 2019
Many companies struggle to find an adequate mailing system. How do you make sure your mailing is sent the way you want it? How do you know if your email can be read correctly on a particular browser (such as Safari and Chrome) or an email client such as Outlook and Gmail? An email marketing company can help you.
WHY DO I NEED AN EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY?
An email marketing company is a technical link between sender and recipient. You develop the appropriate content yourself. An email marketing company takes charge of your mailing, solving technical problems.
Not only does it send out your newsletter in an organized and correctly formatted way, it will also take care that your newsletter is legible in the different browsers and smartphones. It also reduces the possibility of your newsletter being sent directly to the spam folder of your recipients.
As a supplement to the delivery system, the email marketing company, offers a detailed report with open emails and the sum of clicks. This way you can see directly how effective your email campaign has been. Linking the software of the email marketing company to a Content Management System (CMS), you can synchronize your database and reports with Google Analytics, for example.
THE ADVANTAGES OF AN EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY
1. With an EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY you save your ICT equipment time. If you do not have a technical specialist in your company, you can leave the work to the EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY paying a little more (linking your database to the EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY). You will only have to write the content of your newsletter. The templates are provided for you by the company and detailed email analytic reports are part of the service.
2. The EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY will send the newsletter so that you do not have to take care of the maintenance and updating of the email marketing software.
3. You do not need any form of hardware or servers, since the EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY have digital solutions (web-based). Through your connection to the internet,
you can access your email activities.
4. EMAIL MARKETING COMPANYs have a good relationship with email clients and Internet Service Providers (Internet service providers) to guarantee distribution averages at
the highest level (including smartphones).
5. Technical issues are facilitated by EMAIL MARKETING COMPANYs such as the Return Path Certification, (DomainKeys Identified Mail) and others.
6. The EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY offers you possibilities of integration with your website, your CMS, and the various social networks. What makes it possible is the API (Application Programming Interface) so that your data traffic is synchronized with the EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY. Most of the manual work is handled by the EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY, such as updating your database in real time, automatically unsubscribing from the newsletter and processing hard bouncers (invalid emails).
7. An EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY helps you to convert your content into compliant html, so that your newsletter template remains readable for the different e-mail clients.
8. You will have a wider ROI (Return on Investment) since the costs of hardware , software, infrastructure and knowledge will be shared with a large number of EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY customers.
9. Perhaps these benefits sound very technical, but an important argument in favour of the use of EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY is that it can represent a solution when your existing technical mailing infrastructure and expertise are not geared to handle the task.
SEVEN TIPS TO CHOOSE AN EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY
1. DETERMINE THE SIZE OF YOUR DATABASE
Do you have a database with less than 2,000 email addresses and do not plan to expand it in the short term? MailChimp could be a good EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY to start. In
MailChimp you can easily create or modify a pre-designed newsletter template and import your database, then send emails quickly and in an organized manner. You can send up to 12,000 emails per month and you can have 2,000 members maximum, you will not pay anything to MailChimp.
The disadvantage is that you will get the MailChimp emblem below your emails (as soon as you become a member, you will have the option to remove the emblem). Before becoming
a member you will have a few limitations when designing templates, reports and linking your database.
A large database
In the case of a large database (more than 2,000 members) it is advisable to choose a professional package. The email marketing company will establish an interface for your company and you will have more options to send your newsletter.
2. PLANS FOR INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION?
Do you have plans to expand to business abroad, or are you already working in other countries? In both cases, a collaboration with an international EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY or a national EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY with experience in other countries is convenient. They will have more knowledge and experience with the distribution of emails abroad.
3. DETERMINE YOUR WISHES AND DEMANDS
Analyse your plans for the future to see if the EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY suits you. Often there are more options than you initially think of. Check your requirements with the EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY or with your own designers. An example of the elements of a requirements package could be the creation of specific segments within your database or the need for more detailed reports.
4. EVALUATE YOUR OWN TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE
In the selection of an EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY you should check if your ICT department (if there is one) has the time and knowledge to take care of linking the API to the CMS (so that the database of your own CMS can be synchronized with the EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY). Do you have big plans with email marketing? Then you should link your CMS to EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY. The manual linking of your CMS to the EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY is not practical.
You do not have the technical knowledge: in this case you should collaborate with an EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY where you can contact the customer service and import and export
your data. It is also advisable to use an interface with a transparent template module , where you can adjust the design of the newsletter yourself.
5. COMPARE THE EXPENSES OF EACH EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY
In the event that you are interested in more than one EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY, do not forget to compare the expenses. These expenses can vary a lot from company to company. The Expenses are represented in CPM (expenses per 1,000 emails sent) and some EMAIL MARKETING COMPANYs ask you for initial and monthly expenses. Do not forget to make a budget comparing the different EMAIL MARKETING COMPANIES.
6. COLLABORATE WITH AN EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY IN YOUR NICHE
If you are in a niche sector, it could be beneficial to collaborate with an EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY that has experience with clients in your sector or with similar clients.
This way, your EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY will have the opportunity to take your requirments and wishes into account, and they would have answers ready for your specific
questions.
7. REQUEST A DEMONSTRATION
With the above advice you can make a decision regarding the different EMAIL MARKETING COMPANIES. Request a demonstration of a few EMAIL MARKETING COMPANIES so you can see which system is most practical and best meets your requirements. Very often there are training days where they explain the interface with the necessary advice.
EXAMPLES OF EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY PRICES
EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY cpsts can be different, since it depends on your requirements. Keep in mind the following expenses:
• Start-up expenses: these expenses depend on the composition of your account.
• License fees (monthly) to access your account, use the helpdesk and obtain a back-up of data traffic.
• Expenses by email sent: the sent email costs are calculated in CPM (price per 1,000 emails sent). The price depends on the size of your database: the larger your database, the lower the price of CPM.
For an EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY with a developed interface, you will pay all the expenses mentioned above. If you have more technical knowledge, you will only pay the CPM price.
(The CPM price range can be from 10 cents to 9 euros).
DESIGN A PLAN TO AVOID LARGE EXPENSES
Think well in advance with how many email addresses you want to expand your database so that prices are not so high in the long term. Also compare the expenses of your own designers versus an EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY that takes care of the technical issues.
Do not forget to look at the additional costs , such as the html writing of the templates. Through your summary of expenses you can determine which EMAIL MARKETING COMPANY is the most value for money and efficient for your situation.