How to Choose an Email Marketing Service?

October 6, 2008 by Butterfly Filed under: Email

Email Marketing Services can be very convenient, but they’re only convenient if they meet the needs of your business. If they don’t, then you’re paying them to do things that are not going to benefit you. This is a waste of money and time, which defeats the purpose as to why you’re even utilizing an email marketing service.

You’re probably looking into using an email marketing service because you don’t have the manpower to spend on email marketing campaigns or you simply don’t have the time to do it. However, you don’t have the time to spend on comparing the hundreds of email marketing services that are out there today. That is why you should look at a few quick tips to help you find the right Email Marketing Service that is going to benefit your business.

Things you need to know

You have to determine if you want a full service email marketing provider or if you want something that is simple and basic. If you want something that is full service, you’re looking at autoresponders, product delivery tools, shopping carts, and a lot more. A simpler service won’t consist of all of these things and it won’t cost as much either.

You also have to take into consideration whether you want your emails to be sent in HTML or in plain text. The truth behind this is that HTML appeals to more people than text. This is because HTML consists of pictures and other interactive items that make the email fun to read.

Here are some other things that you need to know so that you know what to look for:

List Size and Email Volume: You need to know approximately how many emails you want sent per month and then you have to ask the email marketing service how many they can send for you each month. You also need to find out how many contacts you are allowed on your list. Will they allow you room for your list to grow? Companies expand, so you want to be able to add to that list.
Email Personalization: You want to see if it is possible for personalized messages to be sent to your prospects.
In-built Autoresponder System: Most of the email service providers include autoresponder or drip email messaging feature without any additional cost.
List Segmentation: You want to make sure that the email marketing software or service that you are evaluating has good list segmentation filters in order to do target marketing.
Customer Service and Technical Support: You want to know what kind of customer service is available with your email marketing service. You need to know if they have 24/7 support or if they operate on an email ticket system.
Test with Free Trial: You need to see if they will offer you a free trial of their service. A company that offers a free trial is a company that stands by what they do. This also ties into how long they have been in business. A company that has been in business for a while is a company that can usually do this. You don’t want them to leave you high and dry at any point during the service period.
Contracts, Commitments: You need to find out if they’ll let you pay on a month-to-month basis or if they do it on a contractual basis.
Cost of the Service: High cost does not necessarily mean quality; alternately, cheap price does not mean that the product will be bad. You need to weigh the features available in the service and evaluate if you need the same for your business. Do not take a short term view; do some research and make sure that you will be able to use it in the medium term, at least.

Which do you choose?

Many of these programs have tiered programs so that you can choose from one of many packages. Some of these packages may limit your subscribers or the number of messages that can be sent on a monthly basis. These are things you need to look at. Otherwise, you may want to look into running an email marketing campaign in-house if you can make arrangements for the time and the manpower.