When to Outsource Your Email Marketing
Should you outsource or do your own email marketing? It may make sense to manage your email program entirely in-house, while other companies outsource this marketing piece to an agency that specializes in email. If you need help deciding the best path for your organization, read on.
Evaluate Your Goals
What do you want to accomplish in the short- and long-term? Is email going to be a small or large part of your marketing strategy? What metrics and data do you want to track? Once goals are defined you’ll be able to determine if you have the ability and resources in-house to achieve the results you want.
Take a Realistic Look at Your Time
Do you have dedicated resources in-house to support these goals? The more time and effort you put into your email program, the more powerful it can be for business. Your marketing department may not have the bandwidth to handle consistent email sends, and the post-send activities of analyzing results and optimizing the next campaign.
Hiring a FTE vs. Outsourcing to an Agency
If you have a small team it may be difficult to manage a full-scale email program, and you may need to hire and train an additional employee dedicated to this effort. An email agency is ready with the knowledge and staff to ramp up (or dial back) your program quickly, which saves you from having to hire or cut staff.
Outsourcing can also enhance the efforts of your marketing team while allowing them to focus on their core tasks, especially if your vendor offers additional services such as list strategy and production.
You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
A dedicated email firm is solely focused on creating successful campaigns, while also tracking analytics and evaluating customer data to provide you with valuable insights to help your business grow.
If you’re keeping things in-house, a few more skills your team will need include:
- Email best practices
- Knowledge of most current tech
- Copywriting
- Graphic design
- HTML coding
- Data analysis
- List administration
- A/B testing
It’s Not All or Nothing
Many email agencies will offer levels of service from setting up your marketing department for success on their own, working in tandem with your staff to execute campaigns, to full-service, strategy-to-delivery monthly retainers. Follow the suggestions in this post to reach your goals.
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Vertex Communication Group, headquartered out of Frederick MD, is in a unique space within the digital marketing arena. With over 15 years in the industry, Vertex can supplement marketing teams by offering full-service email marketing to include strategy, design, production, QA, execution and delivery.