Are you struggling to balance email marketing with all your other responsibilities? Hiring an agency to outsource your email marketing may be the smartest decision for your business. But is it really right for you?
Learn about the real benefits and potential risks of outsourcing email marketing before you make a decision. This short but insightful read will give you all the information you need to make your next move a success.
Email marketing is a critical tactic for businesses in some industries. Even for those who don’t consider it a primary tool, it remains extremely valuable. Consumers themselves will attest to this.
HubSpot surveyed consumers about their preferences for promotional materials. Of the respondents, 86% said they would like to receive emails with information about sales, news, or updates.
While email marketing is one of the most accessible tactics with the highest ROI, it is time-consuming and requires specialized skills, including development and design.
When you don’t have the right people on your team or when your campaigns are taking too long to execute, you may start to think about outsourcing your email marketing to an agency. Before you start looking for agencies and asking for quotes, consider the benefits and risks you may face if you choose this route.
What is email marketing?
First, let’s understand what email is when it’s used as a marketing tactic. Most people use email for daily communication, so understanding its role and applications will help you determine what exactly you plan to outsource and what the corresponding responsibilities will look like.
Email marketing is any email that is designed to promote your business, drive sales, or increase customer engagement. But it doesn’t always mean promoting discounts or products. Email marketing campaigns can take the following forms:
- Newsletters
- Welcome letters
- Birthday and Anniversary Letters
- Special offers
- Abandoned Cart Emails
- Letters at every stage of the buyer’s journey
- Content marketing, such as notifications of new blogs, eBooks, white papers and case studies
How does outsourcing email marketing to an agency work?
Your relationship with the email marketing agency and the contracts you sign will determine all the details regarding how exactly the outsourced collaboration will work. However, when considering this format of interaction, evaluate whether you want the agency to perform the following tasks on your behalf.
- Analysis of target audience and formation of segmented mailing lists
- Setting goals and key metrics for campaigns and email marketing in general
- Deep audience research to gain insights and test engagement tactics
- Increase personalization to increase email recipient engagement
- Create templates and tailored campaigns that are tailored to your audience
- Support in the strategic development of future campaigns and emails
- Analyze reports to assess performance and identify areas for improvement
Some companies keep the strategic part of the campaigns in-house. Others prefer full control. You decide how to structure the process and what aspects of marketing and email development to outsource.
Benefits of Outsourcing Email Marketing to an Agency
Let’s take a look at the benefits that companies can gain by outsourcing their email marketing to an agency. Since it all depends on the specific contract, the benefits may vary. However, this list will give you a general idea of what you can expect from such a partnership.
1. Attracting expertise that your company does not currently have
Small companies often have a generalist marketing team, which means that these employees must be familiar with a variety of marketing tools without specializing deeply in one area.
Hiring an agency allows a company to quickly expand its expertise without having to hire full-time, highly specialized staff with the corresponding salary.
A side effect may be a reduction in job function email list burnout among your current employees, as well as more time for more interesting tasks, such as researching audience needs. In such cases, outsourcing email marketing can have a positive impact on other areas of marketing as well.
Meanwhile, your emails become more on-brand, more personalized (because your team now has time to do so), and your engagement rates increase thanks to click-through optimization tactics.
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2. Ability to handle heavy loads or start quickly
Working with an agency gives you the freedom to quickly increase the volume of email campaigns. You won’t have to azerbaijan business directory spend a lot of time looking for specialists, conducting interviews, preparing documents, and organizing onboarding. Instead, you can immediately involve the agency in developing a strategy.
After all, the hired team already has the necessary skills and experience. Even if you don’t have an email marketing or automation system yet, specialists will help you choose the best solution and set it up correctly so that you get the maximum return on investment.
Plus, you have extra capacity to handle high-intensity promotions, like during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, or seasonal fluctuations in demand that are specific to your business. Whether you’re a landscaping company that’s most active from May to October, or a CPA that’s at its busiest the 20 most in-demand professions during tax season in the spring, an agency can be key to effectively managing the peaks and valleys in your promotion plan.
3. Information and reports
When marketing teams are overwhelmed, what often suffers is what really matters to getting meaningful results from email campaigns: analysis and reporting. Without understanding what worked in the past, it is impossible to build a good strategy for the future. This negatively affects efficiency and can lead to weak results in future campaigns.
Agencies use the best systems and tools for reporting. They can afford these solutions because they work with different clients like you and can justify the investment while having someone on staff responsible for the analysis and conclusions based on the data.
4. ROI
Many companies don’t understand why marketers love email so much. They try to run the best campaigns they can on their own, but they don’t see the ROI that the experts talk about.
However, after starting to work with the agency, they finally see the numbers and budgets start to add up.
A well-designed email strategy makes all the difference. By using an agency, you can get a higher return on investment, even after taking into account the cost of the team that will manage this area for your business.
Risks of Outsourcing Email Marketing to an Agency
Despite all the benefits, working with an email marketing agency can also be associated with certain risks. The higher the quality and professionalism of the agency, the lower the risk, but it is important to be aware of possible pitfalls.
1. Less control
When you hire an agency to develop and implement your strategy, you give up some control over the process. In many cases, this can be a plus, but for your team, it will be a significant change at first.
Clear communication, clear goals and pre-set expectations help reduce discomfort during the transition period.
2. Difficulties in communication
Marketing moves fast, which means your communications need to be just as fast, if not faster. Constant and open communication is critical when outsourcing email marketing.
Additionally, time differences can be an issue, making interactions difficult, and the lack of face-to-face meetings can create a sense of distance.
By establishing clear communication guidelines, you can overcome these obstacles.
3. Lack of understanding of your own marketing
The more you rely on outside resources, the less you can understand your own marketing programs. This can become a problem if you can no longer finance the outsourcing or if the relationship with the agency deteriorates and you end the contract.
To avoid this, stay on top of what’s going on in your email campaigns and maintain clear communication as described above.
4. Agencies that make big promises but don’t back them up with action
At the introduction stage, an agency may claim that they will achieve impressive results for you. But after signing a contract and starting work, it may turn out that they are not able to deliver everything they claimed.
To avoid this risk, read reviews and choose your partner carefully to make sure they actually have the experience and expertise you require.
Email Marketing Agency You Can Trust
New Light Digital is your trusted resource for email marketing outsourcing. We have worked with many companies across a variety of industries and are ready to help you grow your business through strategic communication with your target audience. Sign up for a free consultation to get started today.
