I think the entire email marketing fraternity would agree on one thing – that email template production can be a time-consuming and arduous task. So is there a way to accelerate and simplify it? According to experts, outsourcing email campaigns can shorten the production cycle by 33%, making it a practice which saves time, money, and manages costs for the companies. Research has also shown that if you outsource your email campaigns, you can drive better results than in-house teams.
According to Litmus’ 2019 State of Email Survey, 3 out of 10 (31%) marketers outsource email work some of the time.
Here are the top 10 tasks that brands choose to outsource to email agencies.
This brings us to the question “When should you consider outsourcing your email production and operation tasks?”.
The answer lies in certain warning signs that you see in the execution of email marketing.
Let’s delve deeper into these subtle hints you might be failing to notice.
1. You Are Spending Too Much Time On Your Email Campaigns
Quite often, you might not be having the required talent or expertise in-house. Consequently, your team might have to work overtime and burn the night oil. On the other hand, if you have an efficient email production team to take care of your email campaigns:
1. You can free up time and handle other important responsibilities, thereby helping you with better time-management
2. You get work done by professionals who are trained to deliver high-quality work within the designated time frame
3. You don’t need to supervise and this ultimately increases productivity while bringing better results
2. You Are Not Able To Deploy The Email Campaigns On Time
So many companies find it daunting to adhere to their email marketing calendar and fail to send emails on time. Also, they have a longer approval process that leads to delay in email production and several last-minute changes. Let’s understand this with an example: Suppose you have an Easter email campaign to be deployed on 12th April 2020. It is recommended that you have the final approval by the 8th of April, 2020. This will give you enough time to test the email for flawless rendering and make any changes if needed. Therefore, outsourcing to an email production and operation team for the timely deployment of your email campaigns is a good idea.
3. You Are Spending Too Much On Tasks That You Can Easily Outsource
According to reports, 82% of marketers spend between 0% and 20% of their marketing budgets on email. However, the ideal budget for email marketing is 16% of your total marketing.
If you want to execute email marketing in-house, you have to consider several aspects like hiring the right talent, training them, and managing their total cost to the company, including taxes, paid leaves, and overheads. Certain email marketing tasks like design, coding, automation setup, and campaign management can be carried out without any business know-how. Therefore, you can easily outsource them to an email operation team.
As an example, an email developer would cost you an average of $65,000 annually. An email template production agency on the other hand wouldn’t cost you more than $20,000 per year if you are looking for similar tasks as well as you get expertise.
4. You Are Unable To Build A Sizeable Email List
Despite all your efforts, if you are unable to build your email list, it is time you consider hiring an outsourcing agency. An agency can:
1. Help you with strategic planning of your email campaigns
2. Support you like a consultant
3. Share lead generation tactics suitable for your business
4. Help you focus on your business growth rather than other trivial matters
5. You Are Struggling To Keep Pace With New Technologies
With rapid technological advancement, it has become imperative to stay in the know of the latest innovations that are coming in the way of digitalization. Small and medium-sized businesses often face the challenge of not being able to invest in these technologies due to a shoestring budget and therefore, have to compromise on the quality. For example, AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is already launched in email, but there are many companies that are unable to use it due to a lack of knowledge and expertise. Outsourcing would:
1. Give you the privilege of using such technologies in your emails
2. Do so at a nominal charge, allowing you to cut down your expenses
6. You Get Too Many Spam Complaints Or A Higher Bounce Rate
Email deliverability is a tough nut to crack. No wonder, 14% of email marketers rely on another company or agency to manage email deliverability. Although you can keep track of the bounce rates, unsubscribes, or spam complaints through the email service provider, you may fail to identify deliverability issues if there isn’t a significant impact on the email performance. If you outsource to an agency:
1. You can get a complete email marketing as well as a template audit and understand where you are falling short.
2. It will help you make the most of your email marketing strategy as well as improve campaign performance.
7. You Do Not Have The Subject-Matter Expertise Of Managing APIs And Data
One of the important technical tasks in email marketing is API and data management. 10% of email marketers get required assistance with platform and API management in addition to data management whenever they outsource. 8% of companies outsource analytics, customer data insights, and performance monitoring. In case the ESP offers limited features, email marketers can always choose to go for outsource their email marketing to an agency.
8. You Are Overburdened With Work During The Peak Seasons
During winter holidays and spring break, it is quite likely that you are overwhelmed with email template production. At such peak business periods, outsourcing is the best option, not because of incompetent resources but due to lack of time. According to Litmus, one out of ten email marketers chooses to seek help from an agency in such times.
9. You Need To Rely On A Lot Of Freelancers To Execute Your Email Campaigns
It is a prudent decision to outsource if you depend on several freelancers or do not have any ongoing email-related tasks in your company. For example: If you need one-off redesigns or have a special project to deliver, it is advisable that you should outsource the tasks. This holds in case of ESP integration and migration too. You would not need to execute such tasks that often. Therefore, it is better to take help from an email production and operation agency rather than hiring an in-house resource and spending too much time and money over it. 19% of companies outsource on landing a special project, email template redesign, integration, and migration.
10. You Are A Big Company With Complicated Workflows To Execute
More often than not, companies have to send out triggered campaigns to their mammoth subscriber base. Outsourcing would work like having an extended team that will help you:
1. Create accurate workflows, without messing up
2. Set up the complex workflows, thereby making the process seamless for you. For example: If you are a social media giant, you might have to employ several workflows like welcome emails, birthday emails, re-engagement emails, emails for other subscriber activities, and other tailor-made emails. An outsourcing agency can make it all a breeze for you
Wrapping Up
When it comes to effective email marketing, you must have expertise in lead generation, copywriting, graphic design, HTML coding, data administration, A/B testing, and performance analysis. If any of these skill sets are missing in your team, it is better to outsource the tasks to a reliable email production agency rather than doing it on your own. This will not only save your time and resources but also contribute to faster profitability. Most of these tasks require technical expertise rather than knowledge about business operations and outsourcing becomes a blessing for the seamless execution of such projects.
If you are looking for an extended team for email template production, automation, campaign management, and data integration or migration, DIDO can be the perfect execution partner for you.