Are email marketers truly receiving the level of service essential for their brand’s email channel? This crucial question was at the heart of a 2012 retail email marketer survey conducted by Bluehornet. The findings delve into whether current service levels meet the needs for robust business operations, and the answer, for many, might be surprising.
What “Service” Really Means for Email Service Providers
The term “service” is exceptionally broad within the email marketing industry. Many companies that provide commercial email delivery for marketers are referred to as email service providers. This can range from purely delivering large volumes of commercial email to offering comprehensive software and tools for creating, segmenting, sending, and tracking email campaigns. In this context, the software itself is often considered a service (SaaS – Software as a Service).
The Bluehornet report was based on a survey of 78 retail email marketers attending the IRCE show in Chicago. All surveyed marketers were actively working with an email service provider. The research aimed to uncover the perceived value of “full service” to these marketers and illuminate the dynamics of their relationship with their ESPs.
The Impact of Full Service on the Bottom Line
The survey revealed a significant insight: less than half of the 78 retail email marketers indicated that their current ESP’s service level was highly valuable to their email program’s bottom line. An additional 39.5% found it only somewhat valuable.
What do these statistics imply? For some retail email marketers, the lower or non-existent added value could stem from not fully utilizing their Email Service Provider’s offerings. Alternatively, many marketers are actively seeking value elsewhere or managing their email operations entirely in-house. However, considering factors like account manager response times, these lower satisfaction ratings might originate from deeper service deficiencies.
The Growing Need for Comprehensive Email Marketing Service
There’s a clear distinction between self-service email marketing software and the advanced, value-added services offered by full-service email marketing providers. Often, email marketing teams are lean, sometimes even a “one-person show.” With online marketers’ attention increasingly fragmented across numerous channels, they must rely more heavily on the support from their email marketing agency or ESP to effectively execute their campaigns. Therefore, understanding what the “service” component truly means to marketers driving their brand’s email program is more critical than ever.
The Critical Role of Response Times
Response time is often a direct indicator of the service level provided by an email marketing agency or Email Service Provider. Anyone who has faced an immediate, critical issue—such as problems with sending campaigns—knows that prompt resolution is paramount. It can be incredibly frustrating when you can’t reach a human contact from your supplier during an urgent situation. The Bluehornet survey specifically inquired about the time it takes to receive a response from a person (not an automated reply) for support-related issues.
Maximizing Value from Your Email Service Provider
Considering these findings, particularly in the context of average response times, it’s clear that many marketers are not receiving the proactive support they need. For marketers who prioritize newsletters and email campaigns, the best advice is to critically evaluate their current email newsletter provider. Seek an ESP that can genuinely match the value and level of service they require, and actively encourage proactive engagement from their side. To gain a clear understanding of an ESP’s full-service capabilities upfront, it’s highly recommended to consult dedicated Email Service Provider evaluation tips to guide your decision-making process.