Email marketing is a critical component of any digital marketing strategy. Every company has its preferences and goals for its email campaigns, so it’s important to find the right service provider to help you grow your small business.
Before you sign on the dotted line with the best email marketing agency, consider these ten things to make sure they’re a good fit:
- Pricing
How much does the service cost? Does that price include customer support? Are there additional fees tacked on? How many emails can you send per month? In other words, what exactly are you paying for, and what are you getting? Many companies offer different pricing tiers based on how many emails you want to send or access to certain features not included in cheaper options.
Obvious but important. You likely have a budget for how much you want to spend on an email marketing company, so make sure your choice fits in that budget. Some services offer many features, while others don’t offer much beyond the basics. Price should be one of your key considerations when evaluating tools.
- Ease of use
How easy is it for you to use the company’s software? Can people with varying technical experience get started quickly, or do they need special training and coding knowledge? Investigate the user interface and see how it compares with others available on the market. Some companies allow customers to create templates that can be used repeatedly. Others require you to design each email from scratch every time.
- Features
Do you need all the “bells and whistles”? Or do you need something straightforward and simple to use? That’s going to determine how happy you are with your tool in the long run. Make sure it has the features you need and ones that will enhance your email campaigns.
- Integrations
Do you use much other software in conjunction with your email marketing? Be sure to look for tools that integrate with those systems or fall short of your needs now or in the foreseeable future. Some systems even let you integrate with other types of software, such as eCommerce platforms and CRM systems.
- Email deliverability
The point of an email campaign is to get your messages delivered to the inboxes of customers and prospects, not in spam folders or blocked by servers. You’ll want to look for a business that has a strong reputation with ISPs (Internet service providers) and other email services so you can be confident your messages will be delivered.
- Analytics
Analytics allows you to see how many people are opening your emails and clicking on links, so you can determine how well your campaign is reaching your target audience. You’ll want an email marketing company that provides detailed statistics on the performance of each campaign, plus tools for testing different elements so you can see what works best.
- Make sure they do what you need them to do.
The first step in choosing an email marketing service is to find one that offers all of the features you’ll need to get your message out. Some companies offer more robust functionality than others, so deciding what’s important to you is the first step in finding the right tool for the job.
- Make sure they’re easy to use
There are many new terms and buzzwords surrounding email marketing: deliverability, opt-in rates, bounces, open rates – we could go on! If you don’t know what these words mean or feel like you need a degree in computer science just to read their terms of service, it’s probably not a good fit for your business needs. Check out reviews from other users and ask friends familiar with this type of technology for their opinions on how user-friendly a particular service is before committing to anything long term.
- It should have several different plans available
After the free trial period has ended, you will need to choose one of the plans so you can continue enjoying all of its services. Just in case you need to switch providers in the future, it’s best to choose one with several different plans available. You never know what may happen, so it’s always good to have options.
- It should have an easy-to-use interface
Another thing you need to look at is how easy it is to use the email marketing company platform. If you’re new to email marketing and don’t know much about technology, this is extremely important because a sophisticated interface will only worsen. It would help if you had something simple that anyone could use, regardless of their technical knowledge or experience level.
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