Netresult Web Design

How to Choose the Right E-mail Host for Your Marketing Campaign

Why do I need an E-mail campaign?

It is generally agreed by most people involved in Internet marketing that in order to build traffic to your website you need the following:

• Fresh, original content on your website – and lots of it
• A position at or near the top of the first page in search engines
• A good Alexa rank and PR
• A database of subscribers to whom you can market by E-mail.

Why?  Because your potential customers will decide when they want to buy, and that might not be the first time they visit your site, or the second, or third.  People buy when they are ready and not before.

Stay in touch and become a friend

An E-mail marketing campaign allows you to keep in touch with your potential customers, and to offer them advice and information about the product you hope to sell them.  It also gives you the chance to become a trusted ally – an expert they can trust, and the first name they think about when they have reached their buying decision.

How to choose the one that’s right for you

Okay, you may say, if that’s why I need an E-mail marketing campaign, how do I know which one to choose?

The decision generally falls into one of two categories; either you use the facilities afforded by your hosting company and organise things yourself, or you pay to use the services of a commercial E-mail host.  Which way you decide to go will depend on many factors, not the least of which is your budget.  However, for most people who are serious about E-mail marketing, the commercial option is the way to go.

E-mail marketing companies are sometimes referred to as auto responders or E-mail service providers (ESPs).  An ESP is a company that hosts an E-mail marketing service on their specially optimised servers, so all you have to do is create the E-mail content and decide when to send the E-mails, normally by using a familiar browser interface.  The ESP handles all the technical issues for you and will usually provide details on the results of your E-mail campaign.

Ideally, your ESP should be able to tell you how many were undeliverable, how many were opened and how many people clicked on the link in the E-mail – usually linked to an external website.  Many E-mail hosts have additional features, such as the ability to see who did what, but whether or not, a detailed report is a great benefit in helping you measure the effectiveness of your overall E-mail marketing.

Keep it Legal!

As legislation in the USA and Europe make it illegal to send out unsolicited E-mail, all commercial providers should insist that your list-building efforts comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.  In a nutshell this Act says that every subscriber must have opted-in to the list, and that every E-mail you send out has an unsubscribe link clearly displayed.  In order for the marketing to work, it is also a requirement that all E-mails are sent from a valid, working E-mail address.

It is commonplace for the subscribers to opt-in to receive E-mails from you by clicking a validation link in the E-mail they are initially sent.  If you are ever tempted to buy a list, don’t – I can’t think of a quicker way to lose your reputation, credibility and possibly even your business.

Features and benefits

You should consider the following features before signing up to an E-mail marketing service:

• CAN SPAM compliance
  • Any ESP that you choose should require customers to opt in to your list
• Private IP address
  • Make sure you are not sharing an IP address with another business – you may find that spam complaints against them gets you blacklisted by a major ISP. This could not only prevent your E-mails from being delivered, it could mean you can’t get off it – through no fault of your own.
• Support and tutorials
  • No point having a flashy sports car if you don’t know how to drive!  Before you sign up to a service, make sure they have good customer support facilities and tutorials on how to use the service.
• Reporting
  • You should be able to access a number of reports so you can see how many E-mails were delivered, their open-rates and click-through rates.
• Segmenting
  • You should be able to split-test by using different criteria to target segments of your list with content relevant to them
• Storage space
  • Make sure you know how much space you are allowed for storage on the ESP servers – some charge extra when you go over your limit.
• Reliable service
  • Make sure your ESP has reliable high-speed connections to the Internet and a hardware redundancy policy.
• Cost
  • Some ESPs charge a monthly fee based on the number of subscribers on your list, others charge a fee based on the number of E-mails you send.
• Ease of Use
  • Is the service easy to use? Check out their website to get a feel for it and remember to try before you buy if you can – most will give a free period.

Tags: autorespponder, email marketing

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 10th, 2011 at 5:19 pm and is filed under Blog, Email Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.