Almost any kind of business, small or big, can benefit from using an email marketing service. Email marketing services helps create new customers for small and medium enterprises as well as create loyal, highly engaged customers for bigger businesses.
Small businesses can use email marketing to let people know about their products or where their products can be bought. They can use email marketing to let people know about their brand and what else they have to offer.
Big businesses on the other hand can use email marketing to catch up with their customers. This can mean updating them on the changes made on their products or giving them a discount coupon to get them to buy more products. Big businesses use email marketing to introduce new products and services too.
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What is an Email Marketing Service?
Email marketing services are basically any kind of email that businesses sends to their customers and potential customers in the hope of enticing the customer to buy more products. These emails contain information about the business such as new products, reminders, information about products, and other similar types of communication.
The aim of an email marketing service is to create direct connection between the customer and the business via the use of an email. Through this email, the connection could convert the customer from a single purchaser into a repeat or loyal customer. This translates to bigger sales, building trust between customers and businesses, and so much more. It is because of this and many other reasons why any business, big or small, should know how to choose and buy the right email marketing service.
Important Features of Email Marketing Tools
Email marketing services have unique features that businesses can take advantage of. Some of these features include:
Scheduled Email Deliveries
Scheduled deliveries allow businesses to send out their marketing campaign materials to their customers and potential customers anytime they need to. This is useful especially when they know when their target market will be online and checking on their email.
Email Delivery Reports
Using an email marketing service costs money so businesses always want to find out if their investment is paying off. They find out via reports on how many emails have been received, delivered, and used. Email delivery reports also include undelivered mail, spammed, and other statuses regarding email delivery.
Manage Contact List
Letting businesses manage their contact list is one of the most basic features that email marketing services offer. This feature allows businesses to arrange their contacts according to different groups and criteria.
Email Templates
Email templates lets businesses create similar marketing campaigns without the need to keep writing and formatting their email every time a new campaign comes up. They need only to change a few texts, add new images, and they’re good to go.
Autoresponders
Autoresponders are short emails that businesses send to customers to let them know that their actions have been acknowledged. Imagine having to send replies to thousands of customers one by one just to tell them that their request has been processed. It’s time consuming and not cost effective at all. Autoresponders deal with these types of emails easily and usually without human intervention.
Campaign Tracking
Being able to track which campaign is working is one of the most important features of an email marketing service. This lets businesses know which marketing campaign to continue and which ones are not worth wasting money on.
Creative and eye-catching email designs
Some providers offer customers a chance to make their marketing campaigns designs beautiful and eye-catching so the customers will be enticed to click and do whatever the email is saying. This kind of service can come at a higher price but can be a great asset for any business looking to get noticed by its customers.
These are just some basic features that almost all email marketing service offers. Some email marketing services offer more. Make sure to study the different features before signing up with an email marketing service to see if it will suit the business needs.
Email Marketing Pricing
As with any kind of business, the pricing for email marketing varies depending on the features they offer. The usual price of a basic service can range anywhere from $20 to $30 a month. This package can include:
- A certain number of sent emails or list of customers per month
- Integration with different e-commerce platforms
- Email templates
- Marketing campaign builders
- Segment contacts
- List management and
- Customer support
The great thing about basic service is that it gets you started. As a small or medium enterprise, this kind of service frees up a lot of time that people in the company spends sending and answering emails so the business can grow. Basic services like these are also cheap but can really make a difference in the way a business reaches out to their customers.
If more features and more add-ons on email marketing service as what’s needed, paying more per month is almost inevitable. The more expensive email marketing services have added features that make reaching out to more customers easier and faster. They offer automation tools, reports that can easily be crossed references, more emails sent per month, more elaborate and highly customizable email templates, and so much more. For this kind of service, a premium fee of up to $300 should be expected.
More expensive email marketing services are used by bigger companies who have the budget for large scale outreach to their customers. They also usually have a longer list of customers to send to so they really need this kind of service. Lists of customers can go as much as 25,000 or more. Having an automated email service like this helps them handle the massive number of emails they get so they don’t miss out on answering anything.
Tips on Choosing the Right Email Marketing App
When choosing the right email marketing service the choice usually depends on the business needs. Don’t just choose the popular service just because it was the first thing that popped up on the search results. Some of the best email marketing services and lesser known providers offer a whole lot more for the same price that the more well-known provider so make sure to study different offers from different email marketing providers.
Here are some things that every business should look for when choosing the right email marketing service provider.
Tip 1 – The cost
The cost is always one of the biggest driving factors when choosing the right email marketing service but don’t let it be the only reason for buying. Setting a budget helps because this means there’s no going beyond the company’s capacity to pay. Strike a balance between the company’s budget and needs. If there are things that needs to be added, think about how big an impact this additional cost will make and if it is truly worth it.
Tip 2 – Is it easy to use?
One of the many reasons why a piece of technology, no matter how helpful it is, does not get used a lot is because the instructions on how to use it is very difficult to follow. This is the same for email marketing service. No matter how fast it will make every email arrive on the customer’s inbox or no matter how sophisticated the reports from the provider turns out, if the people in the business cannot use it or if it is not user friendly there’s a good chance that no one will really use it. Find a provider that will make things easier.
Tip 3 – Features and functions
The features and functions of an email marketing services will depend on how much the business is willing to pay. Choose the features that the business will need and go from there. List down the most critical and least critical and compare them with the service provider’s list of offers. The basic functions should also be easily available no matter what price the business is paying.
Tip 4 – Customer support
An email marketing service provider offering 24/7 support is a good thing to have especially if the customers come from all over the globe. This means that if the user has an issue with the product, the service provider can address it easily and quickly. The customer service support staff should also be highly knowledgeable about the email marketing service to ensure that they can answer whatever questions user throw their way.
Buying an email marketing service does not have to be hard or expensive. Just always remember to get the one that suits the business’ needs. Study different providers, compare their offers to the prices, and match them with the company’s needs. Use these tips and information about email marketing service to get the best one.
