As of today, in 2024 there are 4.48 billion active email users worldwide. It is predicted that by 2025, more than 376 billion emails will be sent and received every day around the globe. For marketing purposes, this means that best email marketing service is a surefire way to reach the maximum number of new customers and keep the existing ones engaged. It works even better than social media!
Email marketing gives an excellent ROI in terms of revenue, lead engagement, and conversions. It is also a reliable way to get feedback on your products and services. Email marketing is not just about sending random emails, there are many different types of email messages you can send to your consumers, including newsletters, promotional emails, invitation emails, catalogue emails, survey emails, transactional emails, abandoned cart recovery emails, and led nurturing emails.
Almost all email marketing campaigns need different kinds of emails to be sent at regular intervals, and the content needs to be dynamic to suit different types of customers. To have a profitable email marketing campaign, you need to have a list of recipients, build according to lead score, send an eye catching personalized message, and keep the audience engaged. Simultaneously, they needs tools to analyse the metrics of the campaign to know about what your customers like and don’t like. For a new business or an established one, all of the above tasks can take up a lot of resources. Hence the entry of email marketing services to make the task easier and more streamlined.
How to chose the best email marketing services for your business?
There are a plethora of options available in the market. Before investing in one, the task is to find out which service aligns with your marketing goals the best. This means spending time doing extensive market research, getting recommendations, going through reviews, and testing the platforms. To help you sort things out, we have listed some pointers to measure the suitability of email marketing services for your business needs:
- Check out their portfolio
The email marketing service portfolio will give you an overview and insight into the work the service does for its clients. You will be able to see the samples of their work and gauge, if it fits your product profile. You will also be able to understand if the email marketing service has experience creating email campaigns in your industry.
- Look for client testimonials
It is quite natural to seek people’s opinion, and hence the reviews are curial for all businesses. Client testimonials are an insight into the email marketing service’s work and performance. You will be able to see both positive and negative work the company does for its clients. You can evaluate how the email marketing service values its clients. Best email marketing services will have a wide rainbow of testimonials to highlight their work.
- Is it simple to use?
Once you have shortlisted from the above two, it is time to check the features of the email marketing services. The purpose of hiring an email marketing service is to save time and effort. An ESP, which has a long learning curve, will not be of any actual use to you and do more harm than good. By leveraging the right tool, you will be able to create, edit, share, and send emails without heavy technical work. Looks for tools like drag-and-drop builders, pre-designed user-friendly templates, easy campaign creation processes, etc. in the trial.
- Segmentation capabilities
Not every email is intended for all customers; hence. you need good list management capability from your email marketing service. Creating lists on the basis of demographics, names, company, locations, interactions, etc., and applying suitable tags is one of the refined features the marketing service should have. This will help your email campaign reach the right people with the right messages.
- Automation
A robust email marketing service will have advanced automation services. Automation is an invaluable tool in the marketing arsenal. Evaluate the different automation features such as triggers, conditions, logic options, timing options, welcome sequences, abandoned cart reminders, and campaign triggers based on customer actions and responses. It will save a lot of time in scheduling and follow-up management.
- High deliverability rates
Key requirement of an email campaign is to ensure that your emails reach the inboxes and not spam folders. A good email marketing service will give high deliverability rates, i.e., your customers will only get the solicited communications. Check for features like authentication methods used, hygiene (removing unwanted or fake addresses), subscription and unsubscribe options, and such.
- Explore integration capabilities
The mail marketing service that you choose should by default have a seamless integration features with CRM, e-commerce platforms, social media, and any other tools you are using. Keeping everything under one roof makes scalability easier. Consider the number and breath of the integration options in the email marketing services. Check for compatibility with payment gateways, and platforms like WordPress, Salesforce, etc.
- Detailed and analytical reporting
Any reliable email marketing service will make monitoring the company’s email campaign performance a simple and transparent task. All you have to do is input the metrics such as open rates, click through rates, conversions, etc., in the reporting tools. This is essential for improving the email marketing campaign. Look for email marketing services providing easy to understand dashboards with key information and integration with tracking tools such as Google Analytics.
- Flexible pricing structure and Scalability
Best email marketing services should save you time, effort, and money. Investing in the email service should not be a bank breaking decision for the business. Enquire about flexible pricing based on the number of subscribers, emails sent, integration features, etc., this is important for scalability. Your email service provider should have the capacity and knowledge to scale as your business and contact list grows without denting your budget. Both pricing and scalability should be transparent and clearly defined.
Think beyond the price. Chose an email service provider that lets you run the business the way you want to and not the one which has tools that require you to conform to their offerings.
Last but not the least, check for customer support and evaluate the security and compliance policies such as GDPR or CAN-SPAM. It is your responsibility to protect customer data and choose an email marketing service that offers enhanced features of data encryption, protection and has compliance with industry laws and standards.
Read Also: 10 Secrets to Crafting an Email Campaign
Written By – Amit Bhateja
Amit Bhateja is the co-founder of enrcloud and helping brands and Unicorns from the last 15+ years and overachieve their Engagement and Retention goals. He is passionate about solving customer problems with modern technology, new age solutions, and consultancy approach. Besides Building ENR, He enjoys reading books, spending time with his family and Teammates, traveling, meeting new people, learning new things, and love to close the business deals.
