B2B email marketing continues to play a major role in business today.
In fact, 73 percent of marketers consider email marketing to be core to their business, with 60 percent calling email a critical enabler of products and services.
With so much riding on the success of your email campaigns, you need to know that the email marketing services you employ are working for you, rather than against you. Here are seven key points to consider when evaluating your current—or future—provider.
1. Can They Handle Cold Contacts?
Email marketing services should first and foremost allow you to send email to your contact list. But if your email service provider (ESP) isn’t equipped to handle purchased email lists, your ability to turn cold contacts into warm B2B leads is limited.
Most ESPs will suspend your account to avoid putting their entire operation at risk. Not only does this hinder your ability to generate leads now, but it also prevents you from leveraging purchased lists moving forward, cutting you off from a limitless supply of qualified leads.
2. Can They Clean Your Data?
Most ESPs are unwilling to deal with purchased lists because they don’t have the ability to properly clean data. If your ESP isn’t scrubbing data, verifying email addresses and removing bad data and spam traps, then you’re putting your reputation at risk. As bounce rates rise and deliverability rates plummet, you may also find yourself blacklisted due to compliance violations.
3. Are You Being Protected?
Your email marketing services should be 100 percent CAN-SPAM and CASL– compliant to ensure safe lead generation from purchased email lists. In addition, your corporate domains and IPs should be protected. If your service provider leaves your domains and IPs open to blacklisting, your email marketing services are working against you.
Keep in mind that most ESPs are using shared IPs for their clients, which means that one bad list could spoil the process for everyone. No matter how clean your data is coming in, you’re always at risk due to circumstances that are entirely out of your control. Does that sound like an ideal situation?
4. Can You Perform A/B/n Multivariate Testing?
Without this feature, your email marketing services are severely limited. A/B/n multivariate testing allows you to gauge the effects of multiple unique variables, such as email subject lines, on your high-volume email campaigns. Knowing which variable combinations are proving successful gives you the ability to tailor your message for optimal results.
5. Do They Provide Real-Time Data and Analytics?
If your email marketing services aren’t providing real-time reporting and analytics, you’re going to have a tough time gaining insight into the preferences of your customers. As a result, your ability to maintain engagement levels will suffer. Plus, this data analysis allows you to track important variables such as open and click-through rates, metrics that are invaluable in putting together a successful email marketing strategy.
6. Is Email Segmentation an Option?
Your ability to properly build segmented lists and targeted email campaigns also depends heavily on real-time data reporting and analytics. Segmentation allows you to send the right email to the right person at the right time, which is imperative if you want to optimize your ROI.
7. What About CRM Integration?
Do your email marketing services integrate seamlessly with your existing marketing, sales and recruitment software? You want a solution that efficiently and effectively directs leads into the appropriate funnels, while also updating data.
If you’re finding that your current email marketing services are working against you, Clickback can help. Download our free demo to learn more about our Email Lead Generation software!
