In one of our previous articles, we talked about how to build email marketing within a company. And if it is not so difficult to start sending letters to subscribers, then for the active development of this channel more time and effort is required.
But what if there are no extra resources, but you want to use email marketing to the maximum? Today we’ll talk about email marketing outsourcing: how to act in this case and what results to expect.
Why outsource work with mailing lists?
It's simple: sometimes this is the only option. The most conservative estimates suggest that for a high-quality, systematic and active work in this direction a team of several people will be needed.
Usually the need for hiring is formed gradually: the more actively the company wants to engage in email marketing, the more professionals you need to attract. Not always hiring a specialist in the staff is a suitable solution, and then outsourcing comes to the rescue.
Outsourcing options: agency vs freelancers
First of all, you need to determine the format of outsourcing - to attract an agency or find a lone specialist who will completely take over the direction of mailings.
It is important to understand here that, in essence, these two options are pretty close to each other. The agency employs all the specialists that may be needed in preparing the mailing list: from copywriters and designers to A / B testing specialists and analysts. A freelancer will also not be able to perform the entire scope of work alone, he will most likely be a mailing list project manager, involving his colleagues in the task.
As a result, one way or another, the team will work on mailings, only in the case of an agency it will be easier to verify the experience of the people participating in the project. But agency rates are likely to be higher than freelancers suggest.
In order to achieve efficiency from email marketing as a promotion channel, the company in any case should have an employee in charge of this project. It will be he who will set the tasks for the agency and freelancers and control them.
The step-by-step process of starting outsourcing email marketing
Consider the steps required to run outsourced mailing lists.
Step # 1: arranging project communications
In principle, the launch of email marketing with the involvement of external specialists is similar to building an in-house process. With one important exception: after the formation of the “team” from the responsible company and agency / freelancers, it is necessary to agree on communication. Namely, which programs will be used, how the project will be monitored, etc. Among the most common communication and control solutions are Bitrix24, Slack, Asana, Trello.
Step # 2: preparing a strategy
The second most important step is developing an email marketing strategy. Before you start creating and sending letters, you need to decide on the goals of communication - they can be very different: from sales growth to user training. Having goals will help you formulate the KPI of each particular newsletter.
The strategy also prescribes all groups of the target audience and messages that will need to be conveyed to them. An integral part of any strategy is a description of steps to increase the subscriber base, as well as a technical description of the newsletters themselves.
Step # 3: create a mailing plan
Once you have decided on your goals, KPI and key messages, it's time to move on to planning specific mailings. At the very beginning, creating large-scale plans for several months ahead is impractical: life will inevitably make adjustments to them. Therefore, to make the content plan more realistic, you should not do it for more than two to three months.
Over time, when all processes are debugged and cases of interruption in the timing of the preparation of mailings are minimized, we can move on to longer-term planning.
Step # 4: content preparation
Now you are completely ready to start the newsletters. It remains only to develop letters. At this stage, the agency or your team of freelancers prepares materials in accordance with the approved plan - write the text of the mailing list, typeset the letter and send it at the appointed time.
An important point: if a company sells some relatively complex product or service, then it will be extremely difficult for external specialists to write a high-quality text on your topic from scratch.
Most likely, you will have to dive deep into the creation of content, organize interviews with company experts who will be able to answer questions and give comments on the draft letter before sending it. The stage of collecting input data for the preparation of content is one of the most important, as well as time-consuming and lengthy.
Step # 5: analyze the results
Each newsletter needs to be analyzed. Therefore, outsourcing specialists must provide a report on the implementation / non-compliance of KPI with a specific letter. This is necessary not only to evaluate their work, but also to understand whether the targets were initially correctly selected. It so happens that expectations have to be adjusted already in the course of work.
Possible risks
The involvement of external specialists always carries not only advantages, but also certain risks. In the case of freelancers, they are well known: the level of commitment of many specialists is low, they can disappear at the most crucial moment. Therefore, you need to look for those with whom it is comfortable to work.
When dealing with agencies, timing issues often arise. A good agency has dozens of projects like yours and limited staff. Therefore, your tasks may not be a priority. The only solution is to insist on a dedicated account manager, with whom the person responsible for email marketing will have direct contact. He will be able to regularly “kick” the manager and achieve compliance with deadlines.
Conclusion: email marketing outsourcing checklist
In conclusion, let's talk again about what you should know before involving outsourcing specialists to solve email marketing problems. As you can see, it is unlikely that it will be possible to outsource the work with mailings completely. It is necessary not only to control the work of specialists at each stage, but, in fact, to manage the project, organize communication. Only in this case, you can ensure the regularity of sending letters and keep the quality of the content at a decent level.
This checklist will help to avoid mistakes and form the right expectations at the start of cooperation.
- Get started on your own . Today there are a large number of convenient and inexpensive email marketing systems. Some, like our DashaMail service, are tailored to the needs of small and medium-sized businesses and allow you to close the main aspects of creating, testing and analyzing the effectiveness of mailings. It’s better to start work on your own - this way you will recognize your audience and understand the topic at least at the basic level. Outsourcing email marketing is best with at least some insight into mailing lists.
- The most important thing in outsourcing is a responsible employee within the company. In order for outsourced email marketing to work effectively, there must be a person responsible for this area within the company. It is this person who will “kick” agencies and freelancers, and only this scheme has the right to life.
- Communication and control are very important . Before starting active work on the project, it is necessary to select and implement communication and control tools. Doing this already along the way is not worth it: you will lose a lot of time and the overall efficiency of the process will decrease.
- Strategy, planning and experimentation are key elements of success. In order for your newsletters to consistently show good results, you need to develop a sound email marketing strategy, coupled with a content plan, plan activities and constantly experiment. Only in this way can you not only create realistic goals, but also understand which of them really have practical significance.
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