Your email marketing service creates an individual link to each customer who receives correspondence from your company. To reach customers quickly and easily with effective email campaigns that reflect your business properly, consider the following when you choose a service.
1. Size of Your E-List
How many people do you want to reach through regular mass mailings? Most marketing services offer pricing tiers related to the mailing list sizes. If your list is relatively static, however, and contains fewer than 100 addresses, you might do just as well with a newsletter configuration through Microsoft Office rather than a Web-based marketing service.
2. Templates
Email marketing services offer templates to design your email. Choose a company that provides a wide range of templates to create a custom look for your email campaign. Find out which images, fonts and color schemes you can use to dress up the template. If you’re not particularly Web-savvy, a good template will allow you to plug in your information and create a professional email with little to no learning curve.
3. Cost
The price of the service is a main concern for most businesses. You want a service that doesn’t cost more than the return you expect from the marketing campaign. In general, the more the service does for you, the more it will cost. It might be worth spending a little extra for a full-service marketing company if you have limited time to set up a mass mailing on your own. On the other hand, you could choose a less expensive option if you have the time and expertise to prepare most of the mailing details yourself.
4. Opt In and Opt Out
Today’s customers deal with mountains of spam on a daily basis, so it’s important that your email list be sent only to people who have asked to be included in mailings. A good email marketing service will offer clear instructions for users to opt in or out of the mailings easily at any time.
5. Branding
If your company’s brand is communicated through logos, colors and images, the email service you choose should allow you to customize your emails to fit your established brand. Some templates allow you to build a miniature email website that looks exactly like your online site and ties directly to your company’s existing brand.
6. In-House or Third Party
There are benefits to keeping your email marketing strictly in house using bulk email software, and there are benefits to hiring a third-party service for your marketing needs. An in-house effort will cost less, but it will involve more time and effort to create and manage the mailings on your own. Third-party services already have the mechanisms in place so all you need to do is enter your list, create your email, and hit the send button.
Most businesses need to try out several methods before they find the most effective marketing tools and practices. Try out both methods and see which works best for you.
