Things to Consider When Picking an Email Marketing Platform
When it comes to choosing an e-commerce platform, some people will care solely about the price and some of the platform’s superficial features. More thought should go into choosing a service, however, as the choice you make could have much more of a repercussion than you might imagine.
Some tools will make it easier to succeed with tons of easy to use tools and resources. Others will not offer as much but have much more in terms of functionality. It’s up to you to look at the various options on the market and see which one works the best for you. Let’s take a look at some things you should be looking at when picking an email marketing platform.
Main Features
There is a series of basic features that you should be looking for the minute you look at a platform. For one, you want to make sure it abides by Can-Spam Compliance rules. You should also check how GDPR friendly the platform is.
Another thing you want to look for is segmentation. Being able to segment your list based on demographics and previous actions will be one of the biggest factors that will influence your campaign’s success, so you have to use a platform that will allow you to do so effortlessly. A great tool will also make it possible to use tags to automatically categorize certain types of contact without having to do so manually. This will also allow you to speak directly to certain groups more easily.
Another very important feature is how many emails you can send. Most will have a monthly or daily limit, and some might be much lower than what you’d expect. The difference between similarly priced platforms can be staggering too. Some will offer you in the tens of thousands of subscribers on their base package, while some will only get you a few thousands, so this is something you’ll have to be on the lookout for if you ever intend to scale up.
You have to look at how they charge you for subscribers as well. Some will charge you by the number of subscribers you have in total, while others will charge you based on your lists. So, if you have one person on 2 lists, you’ll end up paying twice.
Last but not least, you also want to look at support. If you’re new, you want a platform that will be reliable and be able to reach easily. Some platforms have a pay to call system, which may not be the best for you. Make sure that you choose a service that has a reputation for stellar service and that you can easily access via email, live chat, or phone 24/7.
Integration
One of the most important things you should be looking at when choosing an email marketing platform is how well it integrates with other tools. This is especially important if you’re using a CRM system. You don’t want to have to constantly update your list and add emails manually. Instead, you want a tool that will allow you to manage both customer and campaign data easily, with ready access to key metrics such as click-through and open rates so you can assess how well your efforts are working.
Response Handling
This is a feature a lot of people tend to overlook, but one that’s very important. You want to know how, and how well, the particular platform you’re thinking of using is handling response. Depending on your list, you might have lots of responses to deal with, and a system that allows you to send automated responses seamlessly will be important in that case. However, this isn’t something you have to be worried about if you have a list of under 1500 subscribers as you should be able to handle most of it manually.
User-Friendliness
This one is extremely important if you’re just getting started with email marketing. You want a tool that will allow you to create, send, and manage emails easily. You also want a tool that will allow you to get a look at the health of your campaigns.
For instance, a lot of people might hesitate between tools like MailerLite and Mailchimp when they’re first looking for a tool, but there’s a big difference when it comes to how easy they’re to use right out the box. If you want to see the real difference between MailerLite and Mailchimp this review by PieSync goes into detail.
For one, it states that MailerLite is a big winner with companies with under 50 employees and that its easy-to-use pop-ups and landing pages are a reason for it. They also mention how lightweight MailerLite is compared to MailChimp.
How easy the tool is will have a big effect on how efficient it will be. It will also be easier for both you and your entire team. For more info look at this mailerlite review.
Deliverability
This is one of the most important things to look for when picking an email marketing platform. There is absolutely no point in picking an e-commerce platform if your readers can’t see them, and the tool that you use will make a big difference there. This is because some have a much better reputation than others.
You see, email companies have a list of IPs that shouldn’t be trusted, and this is in large part what dictates what will go into inbox and what gets into spam. So, you want to go with a service that has a good deliverability score and also offers dedicated IPs. These will allow you to use an IP unique to your list and make sure that it stays in good standing with email providers.
These are just some of the main features you should be looking for when shopping for an email marketing platform. Whatever you do, make sure that you look at as many options as you can, and take the time to do your research before you make a definite choice.
