Email Service Providers vs. In-House Email Solutions?

As a value-added reseller of Email Service Providers and email-related services, we at ClickMail Marketing often think about what percentage of email marketers turn to advanced solutions providers to deliver their campaigns, and which firms continue to deliver their email marketing campaigns via in-house tools. A recent MarketingSherpa chart outlines these statistics, following a recent survey of more than 1,000 organizations.

After taking a glance at the chart, I have to say, we weren’t surprised. With the increasingly complex tactical requirements of email marketing, it shouldn’t be surprising that twice as many organizations use an advanced, versus a basic, Web-based solution to fulfill their ever changing and complex email marketing needs. Of the total organizations surveyed, about one-third of these use a full-service outsourced ESP. And B2C channel organizations as well as large organizations are much more likely to use an ESP. This makes sense because in both cases, there is undoubtedly greater scope and complexity of email initiatives, which requires the assistance of outsourced ESPs.

As subscribers become increasingly sophisticated, and the interactivity needs between marketing channels grow, it’s not surprising that there is a greater demand for comprehensive services and email marketing solutions. The evolution of the ESP from a simple emailing platform to a full-fledged, feature-rich offering is only natural given the changing landscape of marketing today. The increasing demand from organizations for these features is a clear validation for increasingly sophisticated tools, such as drip and triggered email streams and the integration of web analytics.

In order to stay on top of your game and ahead of the curve, consider employing the use of an ESP to help you with your email marketing program if you aren’t already doing so. And with over a dozen ESP systems in our portfolio, ClickMail (contact info) offers the nation’s largest selection of ESPs while staying vendor neutral. With a “try before you buy” policy, you’ll be sure to find the right system for your needs. We also provide continuing support and an array of services including email marketing expertise in areas from customization to strategy; integration to email deliverability and optimization. We live for this stuff! ClickMail will help you manage your online reputation and accurately measure your delivery rates, to achieve maximum ROI. We’re also there to give you email marketing expertise, allowing you to keep your campaigns cutting-edge while continuing to improve your overall email marketing strategy. Contact Clickmail today!

Reinforce Trust With These Email Deliverability Best Practices

Recently I’ve been having a very frustrating experience. My emails haven’t been getting through. As someone that constantly writes about email deliverability and the importance of adhering to email marketing best practices, the irony of this recent development hasn’t escaped me. Granted, the emails I’m referring to are personal emails, from my personal gmail account, to someone who is expecting my emails, but this whole thing got me thinking: If I’m not assured my emails are getting through to one recipient who has written back and forth with me, and who, I assume, has added me to their “safe sender” list, how can you, as an email marketer, be sure that your emails are getting delivered to all of the subscribers on your recipient list?

Email deliverability remains one of the greatest email marketing challenges for a reason. The better your email deliverability, the more trusted your email sender reputation becomes, which equals more opened emails, and increased number of click throughs and conversions. All of this results in one meaningful effect to your bottom line: your ROI will climb.

The major obstacles to email deliverability are lack of consumer trust in email, and ISP blocking.

Consumer trust in email is under fire in two ways:

1) Trustworthiness: Recipients are increasingly more wary of unknown or unrecognized senders. They are on high “spam”-alert and scan each email asking, “Can I trust that this email is coming from whom it claims to be coming from?”

2) Reliability: Is email a reliable source of communication? How do I know that what I’ve signed up for is what’s going to actually come to my inbox?

So how does an email marketer reinforce trust in the messages they send?

Content. Content is king when it comes to restoring trust in email, and increasing email deliverability. Make sure that the content of your emails and subject lines don’t contain words that tend to set off spam filters (a few high-trigger words include: millions, easy income, cash, money, and others you’re probably unwittingly aware of. Look no further than your spam folder for a laundry list!). In addition to eliminating spam triggers from your email marketing messages, it’s crucial that you keep your messages relevant and specific to your subscribers. Using advanced email marketing features such as dynamic (personalized) content and triggered messaging, which automatically sends messages based on time and/or actions or inactions that your subscribers perform, means that each message will be tailored for each subscriber’s needs.

Trust = Sender Accountability. You should ensure that your ESP has adopted authentication standards. If the top ISPs in the world block your email because it doesn’t comply with their authentication systems, then you might as well have burned your email marketing budget in a beach bonfire.

Don’t worry, though: as daunting as email deliverability can seem, you should be working with an ESP that will help you. ESPs have been addressing these problems for years and are the experts on email compliance and deliverability. You’re not alone! If you need help selecting an ESP, reach out to ClickMail today.

Data to Gather Before You Switch ESPs

I’d love to tell you your current ESP relationship will last forever. Really I would. However, the reality is that you might outgrow the capabilities of an email service provider, or your in-house email list size could grow to where a different ESP would be more cost-effective. Or something else could change.

The point is, there might come a time when you are choosing a new ESP and you’ll have to make the switch.

If it were as easy as turning off a switch at the one ESP and flipping on the switch at the next, the transition would be mindless. However, it’s not that easy. Obviously, you’ll have the same ramp up time you did when you started with the last ESP, including ramping up a new IP address.

There are two types of data you’re going to want to get from the old and take to the new: your lists and your reports.

When you make the email service provider switch, remember the lists! List data is extremely important. Most of the time, ESPs will completely shut off your account when your contract expires, making it impossible for you to retrieve any data. That’s your in-house email list gone. That includes things like your in-house email list and your opt-out list.

To avoid this, we as an email marketing vendor recommend you have a process in place to move data to your new ESP at least two weeks before your account is shut off. If your data is integrated with a CRM, this might not be necessary.

We’ve also had clients who wanted reporting data as well as their list data. This is a smart email marketing best practice because it enables companies to keep a record of how their emails perform over time…especially to compare to the old email service provider to the new one. Once your account is shut down, that data is also lost. If your old ESP has the ability to produce .xls or .pdf files of this data, start compiling it at least a few weeks before your account is shut off.

You’ll have enough to keep you busy with the transition, ramping up and training. Make sure lost data isn’t a concern.

Tips for Ramping Up a New IP Address

Starting out with a new email service provider (ESP) will likely mean some growing pains as you make the transition. To prepare you for the move, be prepared for the switch to a new IP address too. As with the switch to the new ESP, the new IP address will require some ramping up as well.

Remember that this isn’t an overnight event. Unfortunately, you don’t get to flip a switch and have all the ISPs welcome you with open arms. As with getting to know a new person, getting to know your new IP address—and reputation—takes time. Know that ramping up with a new IP address can take anywhere from a few weeks to over a month depending on the size of your list.

Your sending reputation is IP address based. When you change to a new IP address as you inevitably will when you switch to a new ESP, you must go through this process. The ISPs will simply view you as a new kid on the block at first, and they’ll be suspicious of huge, bulk mailings coming from this new IP address. That’s because spammers will buy a new IP address and blast the heck off of it until they are blocked. By being new and suddenly emailing in bulk, you’ll look like a spammer. However, if you follow these email marketing best practices, you’ll establish a clean reputation from the start.

As you make the transition, you must send out smaller numbers of emails, meaning you’ll probably only be able to email a portion of your list at a time. It may seem extremely tedious to conduct sends every day and limiting to only send to a portion of your list, but if you want to properly season your IP address and have the most optimal reputation—and therefore email deliverability—at the end of the process, give yourself enough time to complete the process thoroughly to eliminate possible issues in the future. Also, during this ramp up time as you’re parceling out your emails in limited quantities, be particularly vigilant of bounces and complaints. Consider it a short-term investment for long-term gain.

Your ramp up time might take longer that a few weeks if your email isn’t perceived as opt-in by the ISPs, so always be practicing email marketing best practices, especially when it comes to signups. Consider revisiting email marketing best practices you might want to hone up on ahead of time.

Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail are the most important ISPs. Each will react differently to your new IP address, and each must be warmed up separately. Your new ESP (or ClickMail if we’re your ESP source) will suggest a ramp up schedule for you that takes into account the rate at which you can build up your quantities per ISP. Follow it.

Get the Best of Both Worlds: Try the Top ESPs for Free

Would you use an ESP if it were free? 

That’s a new option for the SMB market now, according to an article in DM News.

Titled “ESPs turn to ‘freemium’ models to help upsell budget-conscious businesses,” the article by Shahnaz Mahmud describes the effort on the part of email service providers to woo small business with free options in the hopes that they’ll later decide it’s worth paying to use the email marketing platform.

Another option for any business, large or small, is ClickMail’s 30-day free trial offer. You can test drive any of the dozen ESPs we resell for 30 days for free. It’s just like the new freemium models…but better. How? Because you still don’t have to shop around. Even if you’re going to try the ESP for free, first you have to find the ones who will offer you a free option. Do you have the time for that? Then you try them out and either like them or not. Just because you’re getting it for free does not mean it’s the best ESP for you!

A smarter choice is working with ClickMail as your email marketing vendor to help you narrow down your search. Then you can test drive for free the ESPs that are a good fit for you.

In email as in anything else, you get what you pay for. Just because it’s free doesn’t mean it’s good. For you, anyway.

Get the best of both worlds: try ESPs for free, but try only those that are going to work for you long term.

Below is post 1 in our series of 5 posts on the top ESPs we resell and why…because the best ESP is the one that’s best for you. Maybe it’s BlueHornet…

One of the Best ESPs: BlueHornet
Part of BlueHornet’s uniqueness lies in their user interface. It is the most intuitive interface we’ve ever seen among email service providers (ESPs). What does that mean to you? If workflow is a priority and you want to do everything as quickly and efficiently while you’re in the ESP dashboard, BlueHornet might be the best ESP for you.

This kind of easy-to-use interface is also useful when an organization has several people using the ESP, because they can all do so without any worries about level of skill or familiarity. If you are a sophisticated email marketer, you’ll still appreciate the usability because you’ll get everything done faster.

BlueHornet also makes it easy to do the kind of automated drip and triggered emails you know you should for more relevant email marketing…without any integration with a CRM. BlueHornet gives you CRM-like functionality making this ESP one to look at if you’re ready to move into this kind of advanced behavioral marketing.

Why turn to ClickMail to help you choose your ESP? Read the answer here.

Yet there is an email service provider that best fits you and your company’s email marketing needs. You just have to know what matters most to you when choosing an ESP, which strengths are absolutely critical for your business and which weaknesses you cannot endure. This means you have to start your ESP search internally, by delving into what drives your email marketing program goals now and in the future. You must also take a hard look at your company’s capabilities, including that of your staff and any existing technologies you may want to integrate with.

This might sound like a lot of work, but now there’s a resource to help. After a decade of helping clients choose ESPs, we as an email marketing advisor have learned priceless lessons about fitting the email service provider to the business. And we’ve compiled that knowledge into one comprehensive and free to  you email marketing whitepaper: “Choosing the Right Email Service Provider: The top 20 factors to consider when shopping for a top tier ESP.”

This free whitepaper presents 20 critical factors for you to consider when choosing an ESP, including why each factor matters and what to look for. We’ve also included a scoring sheet you can use to evaluate ESPs against these 20 factors. This new email marketing whitepaper will help you take a thoughtful, informed approach to your ESP selection, so you can compare apples to oranges and still make a wise choice.

Whether you’re in the market for a new ESP now or want to see how your current one stacks up, you’ll find this whitepaper an invaluable resource. Download your free copy right now!

The official name of our latest white paper is called Choosing the Right Email Service Provider: The top 20 factors to consider when shopping for a top tier ESP, but around the office, we call it Our Latest White Paper. It’s popular, we ran out of copies at today’s Em@il Summit in Miami, but it has yet to land on eBay for the simple fact that it can be downloaded right here.

At today’s session on HowTo run an effective ESP RFP,  presenter Kara Trivunovic singled ClickMail Marketing out as an example of a company that can take the pain out of choosing the right ESP for you.  With that endorsement, we passed-out every copy of Our Latest White Paper we had with us.

Click here to download your very own copy!

After the jump,  her Top Ten list of things to keep in mind:

10.  Know your organizational strengths and limitations;

9.  Get the IT department and your code monkeys to give their input toward the RFP;

8.  Define why you’re looking for a new solution in the first place;

7.  When writing the RFP, ask open-ended questions (‘how’ and what’) rather leading ( ‘can you’ and ‘do you’) questions: make them explain;

6.  Set reasonable expectations: the RFP process typically takes between two and three months. (NB: We can run your RFP process to completion in three weeks);

5.  Thin out the crowd through external research: try to pick only a few likely vendors instead of 2 dozen ESPs across the board;

4.  Be transparent with both vendors and internal staff;

3.  Analyze the quality of the responses;

2.  Share feedback with all participants, the vendor who won the business and why they won, and those that didn’t and why they didn’t;

1.  Learn from the process: you’ll be doing another RFP some time in future!

Clickmail’s CEO Marco Marini as well as email marketing guru Michael Kelly are on the ground in Miami.  We’ll be liveblogging throughout the entire conference, taking and posting notes so you don’t have to!

If you have any questions or just want to sync-up give us a tweet !