7 things everyone forgets to ask their email marketing vendor

• Updated on: 2017-06-21
• Read original article here

At times, selecting an email marketing vendor can feel like walking around a Moroccan souk. Display a slight interest and providers will descend on you from all angles, promising you the world in a language you don’t fully understand. So how can you cut through the noise and find out who can deliver?

First you need to understand your business needs. Platform reviewer G2 Crowd lists the five most important features of an email marketing platform (according to customers) as:

To seasoned marketers, none of these will come as a surprise. Sending emails in high volume is the essential function of an email service provider (ESP). Mobile optimization has been a key concern for years, with 54% of emails now opened on a mobile device, compared to just 16% on desktop. The time and cost savings of automated emails are well established, and accurate reporting is a fundamental part of testing and optimization.

There are over 100 ESPs on the market, of which almost all will offer these features as standard. If you’re after a new ESP or just want to sanity check your current one, you can certainly rule out any providers that don’t hit these criteria. But how can you differentiate among the ones who do? How can you be sure you’re paying for the functionality your business needs before you commit?

Vendor websites can make big claims about innovative features, but the everyday functionality is just as important. Some backburner features to quiz potential vendors on include:

There are several other non-feature-related aspects of a vendor that are worth being inquisitive about:

Make a list of essential features before doing your research. This will help you avoid ‘shiny object syndrome’ and keep your real priorities front and centre.

Some features sound great in a sales pitch, but go largely unused – either because they’re actually not the useful (who needs SMS messaging functionality?), or because they require too much time or investment to extract the benefit (multivariate testing, for example).

Talk to customers in your industry. Each sector has its idiosyncrasies, many of which will not become obvious until you’re six months into your email strategy. Speaking to those with hands-on experience will let you see into the future: those features you thought you’d use may turn out to be irrelevant, or not function in the way you imagined.

Don’t settle for case studies – see if the ESP can connect you with a real customer. Most customers will be happy to talk candidly about the platform, and will give you a much better sense of how effective it is than the salespeople.

Get demos from your shortlist of providers. This is obvious, but make sure you understand exactly how it looks and how to interact with it. Bear in mind that interface is as important as functionality.

An ESP that’s clunky and unintuitive will make your life hell. If you’re transitioning away from an old ESP, bear in mind that you’ll need to train your team to use the new software. Ask the provider if they offer one-to-one onboarding or e-learning resources to help bring everyone up to speed.

Enjoyed this article? Here’s another you might find interesting. It’s about tech innovations in B2B email marketing, but a lot of it applies to B2C as well. Check it out here.