9 questions to ask when choosing an email marketing solution

June 2008

Modern email marketing services and solutions support database integration, segmentation and various other tricks and techniques for improving the targeting of outgoing messages.

Email promotions and offers generate immediate action through sales, downloads, inquiries, registrations, etc.

Informative email newsletters send people to offline stores and events, build awareness and contribute to branding.

There is no question that email marketing provides the biggest return on investment for your internet dollar. To help you get started using this channel we have created a list of questions to ask yourself and your provider.

1. What will it cost me?
   Build a simple model of what the service will cost you over the next 12 months using these questions
   • Am I charged for by the number of people on my list?
   • Am I charged by the number of email messages I send?
   • Is there a setup fee?
2. What are my obligations?
   Do I have to sign a long term contract?
   How is the software delivered? Is it delivered over the internet or do I have to install and maintain the software myself?
3. Can I try it?
   Your time is probably more valuable than the money you will spend on the software so make sure you find it quick and easy to use. Complex software means you may be paying for features you will never use or worse, there may be features you need that are not part of the solution you purchase.
4. Does it have metrics and tracking?
   Marketers love testing, measuring and improving so you will probably want to track
   • Click-through rates
   • Open rates – reliable open rate data is becoming harder to obtain
   • A/B testing – can you split your email list?
5. Can I have a template that matches my brand?
   How easy is it for you to make a nice looking email? Does the provider put their logo at the bottom of emails?
6. What about customer support?
   Having customer support after the sale is crucial. Can you talk to the software providers and can you quickly get answers to your questions? Can you contact support 24/7 to quickly get you question answered?
7. Does it comply with the NZ anti-spam legislation?
   This is a no brainer because you do not want to break the law. Most of the big providers are compliant with NZ anti-spam but you should check with the provider because you are the one held liable for violations. A quick reminder, legally, every email needs a quick method to unsubscribe and must include a physical address for your business and a phone number.
8. What about bounced emails?
   Bounced emails are emails that bounce-back from the recipient and are not received. There are a number of different reasons for bounces and the software should identify the reason for the bounce and have a process for handling serial bounces.
9. What about unsubscribes?
   An important task of the email marketing software is managing your subscribers and handling unsubscribes in an quick, easy manner that doesn’t take up your time. The quickest way to annoy a potential customer is to send them an email after they have unsubscribed or to make the unsubscribe process difficult.

For those of you that love the figures - Research conducted by the US Direct Marketing Association shows that email marketing generated a return on investment of $51.58 for every dollar spent on it in 2006 and the prediction for 2008 is $45.65. It outperforms all other direct marketing channels examined.

Email marketing works; don’t let technical jargon put you off getting started, arm yourself with this list and take your first step towards greater returns.

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