Email marketing is a vital tool for most businesses, yet many grapple with how to effectively launch and manage campaigns, especially when just starting out. While specialized software can simplify much of the process, a crucial decision often arises: **should you outsource your email marketing or keep it entirely in-house?**
There isn’t a single universal answer. Some organizations thrive by managing everything internally, while others find immense value in partnering with external experts. Often, the most effective strategy involves a balanced, hybrid approach. To make the best decision for your company, consider the following key factors:
Define Your Email Marketing Goals
What exactly do you aim to achieve with email marketing? Who is your target audience, and what actions do you want them to take?
Before diving into any campaign, it’s essential to have a clear understanding of both your short-term and long-term objectives. Will email marketing be a sporadic effort or a consistent, integrated part of your strategy? What specific metrics and data points do you intend to track?
Once your goals are crystal clear, you can accurately assess whether your internal team possesses the capabilities and resources to meet these objectives, or if external software and services are necessary.
Assess Your Team’s Available Time and Bandwidth
Does your current team have sufficient time and capacity to dedicate to a robust email marketing campaign?
Email marketing can be incredibly powerful, but its success directly correlates with the time and effort invested. Many marketing teams, regardless of size, are juggling multiple projects and may simply lack the bandwidth to give email the attention it demands.
Outsourcing email marketing can free up your internal team to focus on their core marketing responsibilities. This strategic move is becoming increasingly common. According to the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA) National Email Benchmarking Report, email service providers (ESPs) report managing 32 percent of their clients’ email campaigns.
Beyond specialized software, many ESPs also offer comprehensive strategy and design services. These full-service providers can be an ideal solution for small to mid-market companies that don’t have the extensive manpower of a large marketing department.
Consider the Size and Structure of Your Marketing Team
If your marketing team is small, or if you don’t have a dedicated marketing department at all, developing, implementing, and managing a successful email marketing campaign on your own can be a significant challenge.
Companies with larger marketing teams might feel more confident handling email marketing internally, but even they can benefit from additional resources or expert guidance. For instance, your marketers might excel at crafting compelling messages but may lack specialized knowledge of advanced email tools or strategies.
Evaluate Your Team’s Email Marketing Expertise
A recent national email client report indicates that 79 percent of marketers manage their email marketing campaigns in-house. However, a majority of these professionals rate their competence level in email marketing as intermediate.
This raises an important question: how truly competent is your team in all facets of email marketing? If your team has only a foundational understanding of email marketing tools and strategies, exploring outsourcing options that can enhance your capabilities and develop your team’s skills might be beneficial.
Here is a list of essential skills your team will need to succeed in email marketing:
- Copywriting that converts
- Graphic design for visually appealing emails
- HTML coding for custom templates and responsive design
- Data administration and list segmentation
- Analyzing performance metrics (e.g., open rates, click-through rates)
- A/B testing for continuous optimization
Perhaps your team members have experience and comfort in many areas of launching an email campaign, but no one is quite ready to add “proficient in HTML coding” to their resume.
Stephanie Hecklinski, a sales executive at Walker & Associates Insurance Agency, shared her experience:
“We have a very talented marketing team. When we set out to launch a new email marketing campaign, we thought we had the skills and knowledge to do it on our own, but when we came up with a list of the insights we wanted to gain, which included learning more about our current customers and best practices to gain new ones, we knew we could use some help. Outsourcing our email brings in help from field experts and allows for our team to stay focused on our core marketing work.”
Many ESPs offer pre-designed email templates that save time while allowing you to send professional and creative emails. They can also create custom email templates for an additional fee. Beyond creative assistance, an ESP can track crucial analytics and delve deep into customer data, transforming your email marketing into one of your most effective business growth strategies.
With detailed analytics, you’ll gather extensive customer data to better tailor email messages and conduct precise A/B testing, ensuring you send the right messages at the optimal time.
Embrace a Combined Approach
Outsourcing doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing decision for companies of any size. You might choose to handle certain tasks internally while enlisting an external firm to focus on specific goals or pain points. For example, you might need a detailed analysis of subject line performance, or assistance in identifying which social channels are most effective for connecting with your customers.
You have the flexibility to divide and outsource marketing tasks in numerous ways. An external firm could establish a robust process for campaign reporting and then provide adequate training for your internal employees, enabling them to confidently implement and manage it going forward.
Email marketing is a cornerstone of an effective marketing strategy, crucial for generating new leads and potential sales for your business. If orchestrating your own email marketing efforts feels overwhelming or beyond your current capabilities, explore how leveraging a third-party’s software and services can help you achieve your objectives.