Email marketing is still a very useful tool for almost every sector. Emails have a 20% open rate and a 3.3% click-through rate. This is far superior to social media, which has average click-through rates of less than 1%. This disparity exists because 77% of people of all ages prefer email marketing for permission-based advertising. Because they’ve subscribed to your list, you know they want to see your emails. That’s why email marketing has a far higher ROI than social media advertising: 59% of marketers say that their best ROI comes from email.
An Email Service Provider helps increase an email marketer’s efficiency and production. However, many SMBs continue to send emails using their email clients, such as Gmail or Outlook, even though they are not specially built for designing and executing email marketing campaigns. ESPs like Mailchimp also have some free plans, and you can also use the Mailchimp templates from their library.
In this post, we will discuss the pros of leveraging an ESP over your standard email client. Let’s begin:
What is an ESP
An email service provider (ESP) is a sort of email service created specifically for marketers to reach out to individuals using email addresses as a form of consent-based marketing. ESPs serve as the go-between between your company and the people who want to see your content over emails.
ESPs make it simple to create beautiful, customized emails. Furthermore, ESPs will assist you in implementing strategies like personalization and segmentation of your mailing list and add functionalities like interactivity to your messages.
6 Advantages of Using an ESP
There are several advantages to employing an Email Service Provider. Some of them are listed below:
#1 An ESP Can Help You Avoid Getting Banned
When you send bulk emails using your ordinary mail client, you risk being labeled as a spammer. Such action is unusual for a standard email client and can be viewed as suspicious. Once you’ve been detected as a spammer, all major ISPs will restrict your whole company domain from sending any email, whether single or bulk. That might spell the end of your marketing effort and be a difficult problem to resolve.
When using an ESP to deliver marketing messages, however, all of this is prevented. ISPs view ESPs as good senders since they specialize in delivering bulk email and they also facilitate IP warming exercises. To drastically lessen the chance of getting blacklisted, you may send your email marketing campaign through an ESP.
#2 List Management
Manually adding subscribers, discarding dormant leads, and segmenting people in your mailing list is a major undertaking; errors are frequent, unavoidable, and may cost you a lot of time. ESPs offer excellent solutions for automatically building and maintaining email lists, and they also aid in marketing campaigns. Unsubscribes are handled in the same manner. For instance, when a subscriber hits the unsubscribe link in your email, they are removed from your mailing list automatically. In general, an ESP will allow you to build segments based on standard and custom automation workflows, making the process effortless.
#3 Analytics Is Built-In
Tracking the performance of your email marketing campaign from a Yahoo or Google email account is challenging, and you may still miss out on most details. ESP tools provide built-in statistics that show you which emails are successful and which are not, guiding you on how to maintain boosting your client engagement and retention rates. Without analytics, you’re essentially emailing blind. These metrics show how many of your emails made it to the recipient’s inbox, how many of those emails were read, and how many links in the body of your email were clicked. An ESP will give you full access to your email analytics with multiple filters to help you make the most out of campaign data.
#4 Tools For Campaign Creation
Most ESPs will give you tools that will allow you to create unique, aesthetically attractive email campaigns that will stand out in your subscribers’ inboxes. Most of them include templates that you can utilize and many feature drag-and-drop editors that make it very easy for email marketers. For instance, Mailchimp templates can be customized for different segments using content blocks, thereby reducing your workload significantly. You can create multilevel nested automation workflows that allow you to reach your subscribers with relevant emails based on triggers and campaign plans.
#5. Scale Up Quickly And Easily
Every email platform has a restriction on how many contacts you may email at once. As your company expands, you’ll want to be able to send emails to hundreds of people at once. Email marketing service platforms can support thousands of contacts and allow you to send bulk emails to a large number of recipients all at once. You may simply scale up your business with an email marketing platform without fear of hitting a brick wall.
#6. Email Legislation Compliance
Because all major ESPs comply with email regulations, including the CAN-SPAM Act, you, as an email sender, will be made to do the same. Examples include correctly gaining permission from your subscribers, stating your identity as the sender, including an opt-out button in your emails, and a variety of other things. So, by adhering to the standards of your ESP, you are ensuring legal compliance. Some ESPs are stricter than others, which is a good thing. Keeping bad addresses off your email list, having up-to-date permission, and adhering to email best practices are all things that every marketer should strive for.
Summing Up
With segmented subscriber lists, automated campaigns based on triggered events, and a simplified email delivery system, an ESP may help you improve your email marketing approach.
Furthermore, an ESP can assist you in interpreting your data and performing A/B testing, ensuring that you constantly send the most relevant emails possible. Choosing the proper email service provider (ESP) helps guarantee that your email marketing efforts have the best possible effect and offer the best possible outcomes every time.
Author’s Bio: Kevin George is the head of marketing at Email Uplers, which specializes in crafting Professional Email Templates, PSD to Email Conversion, and Mailchimp Templates. Kevin loves gadgets, bikes & jazz, and he breathes email marketing. He enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on email marketing blog.