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Choosing an Email Marketing bulk emailing service for the UK market.

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Why email marketing.

Email marketing has long been recognised as an effective and relatively inexpensive method of communicating with a served community – be it customer base, contact list, membership group etc. In more recent years, probably as recognition of the rapidly growing percentage the population using the internet as the prime means of purchasing develops, organisations increasingly see e-marketing as the principal marketing tool. Business to business and business to consumer selling lends itself to e-marketing and the growth in email marketing service providers is significant, particularly in the UK market – one of the most ‘internet intensive’ markets in the world.

The issue now presented to organisations already sold on the concept of email marketing is which email marketing service provider to choose.

 

Choosing an email marketing company.

Interrogate any search engine with the key words ‘email marketing uk’ or just ‘email marketing’ and a sizable number of choices of email marketing service providers will be listed. Obviously, this list will encompass organisations that will cover a broad spectrum of competence, quality of service, reliability, geographic location even legal prudence and financial soundness. And the order of listing will not provide much significance in correlation between search engine ranking and the suitability of choice. To enter into a supply agreement – even for a single campaign, with an email marketing service provider should demand careful consideration of the merits and demerits of a potential supplier. The difference in effectiveness between the best and the average email marketing service provider can be enormous and is paramount to the quality of result achieved and, indeed the reputation of the sender. Remember that it is your organisation’s name on the bottom of the emails and a poor quality delivery and/or content will reflect on you not the email marketing service provider.

So what should be the key points of differentiation in making a choice of which email marketing service to use? Below is my list of differentiators to apply, remembering that the important action is to ask the questions, don’t just scan the website.

 

  1. Where are you based?

If you’re operating in the UK market then there are significant benefits in dealing with a UK based email marketing company.  Of course we all know that the internet is global but consider the benefits of a UK located supplier; governed by UK law, registered in the UK, likelihood of being fully signed up to anti spamming laws and protocols (this is important to the reputation of the email originator), logistics of delivery, product support and contactability. Email Blaster UK by example is located in South Northamptonshire adjacent to the Silverstone F1 circuit and technology park.

 

  1. Where are your servers located?

An important point if the answer to question 1 is UK, are you just dealing with a UK sales office. Where is(are) the data centre(s)?  The data centre will contain the servers that physically transmit emails via a fibre optic line to the internet. A sizeable email marketing service provider will have multiple racks of servers – by example Email Blaster UK have over 50 servers with associated network hardware all wholly in-house owned and maintained. This represents a massive investment that by itself says something about the substance and permanence of the company. Whilst it may be true that the location of the server makes little difference in this world of global internet, this is a technical point. When it comes to delivery reputation, anti-spam and firewall status and relationships with internet service providers, server location address is significant. It is the server location that appears on trace reports and a Central England-note address carries weight when assessing the credibility of a bulk transmission than does some worldwide locations with reputations for spamming or other nefarious  internet activities. The email marketing provider’s office may be in the UK but where are the servers located?

-note; Email blaster UK’s principal data centre is located in Central England.

 

  1. Is your software licensed from a third party or an in-house product?

Some UK providers use email bulk marketing software licensed from a company located outside the UK – often the USA. Whilst there is no reason why this should indicate an inferior or inadequate product, it does indicate that software development staff will not be easily accessible and that help desk services will be provided by trained support staff. Companies that offer in-house developed software will be able to offer flexibility and adaptability to the user that has special requirements – for example an unusual template or a response feature not routinely offered, as well as fast response to problems. Technical support other than routine will be immediate when all of the software development and help-desk staff are co-located, whereas difficult technical issues presented to a UK help-desk with an overseas licensor could involve 24-48 hour turn round.

And the more important factor is the continuous improvement of in-house product that may be difficult to access for a licensed product. Email blaster UK offers software entirely developed in-house and subject to continuous improvement. The V3 version of Email Blaster will be introduced later this year.  All software development staff are co-located with the help-desk.

 

  1. Do you offer complete contract flexibility?

Users may be looking for easy in, easy out contracts, a single campaign sign-up or the financial benefits of a longer term contract. It is important to determine the flexibility of contract and the up-front charges that tend to tie in a user; non-returnable set up fees, long term contracts, heavily loaded single campaign charges. Ideally you want; no tie in charges, no set-up charges, contract flexibility.

 

 

  1. Do you provide a full range of support software email products?

Basis email marketing software offered by service providers will collate, prepare and transmit bulk email campaigns but little else. More advanced services will provide list cleaning and content polishing systems that filter an email list to remove corrupt and false addresses and improve the layout, text and general appearance of an email to improve both its appearance and likely delivery performance. Also, a large library or user friendly templates to use for the best email content quality is a vital component of a good email marketing service.

 

In summary, when making a buying decision for an email marketing system for the UK market, contact candidates and ask the 5 questions;

  • Where are you based?
  • Where are your servers located?
  • Is your software licensed or in-house?
  • Do you offer contract flexibility?
  • Do you provide a full range of peripheral email products?

 

 

Michael Peters

Email Blaster UK

 

 

 

Benefits of Email Marketing.

Benefits of Email Marketing.

 

You are a marketing manager considering methods of advertising a product. Imagine being offered the following;

  1. An up-to-date list, with contact details, of all people with a direct interest or potential need of your product or service.
  2. Feedback from everyone who has looked at your marketing literature of their level of interest, objections, likes, dislikes etc.
  3. The opportunity to refine and update the list continuously on a month by month basis.
  4. The continuing ability to directly market to the refined list of interested customers/potential customers with confidence that the marketing is accurately focused.

As can be shown (below), Email marketing offers all of the above benefits and compared with other direct or indirect methods of marketing, the comparison is disproportionately in favour.

Compared with the obvious alternative method of direct marketing – post mailing, this more traditional method does not bear comparison. What feedback, other than an actual order can be derived? How many letters were opened, how many binned, what proportion were read in totality.

And, of course, indirect advertising – paper media, TV etc., achieves little or no direct feedback and indeed isn’t expected to.

 

Email marketing as offered by the market leading email marketing software service providers can achieve all or most of the 4 benefit points above. The key features of a good email marketing system that will deliver the benefits set out above are;

List cleansing (List Doctor)

An email marketing campaign is as good as the quality of the email address list. Whilst users of legitimate email marketing services will have lists generated using the internationally approved opt in/opt out protocols, it is inevitable that an address list that has not been checked for errors, corruptions false addresses, opt-outs etc will contain a significant percentage of false addresses. Market leading email marketing systems will include in the software as a user benefit, list cleaning software that will achieve all of the foregoing and more. Email Blaster UK’s List Doctor uses a range of sophisticated (and secret) techniques to weed out addresses that are unlikely to hit, may be blocked as spam or may prompt a negative response. The result is, that with continuous use, a list will improve with time to reach a level of delivery and performance that fulfils the benefit 1 above.

Email Analytics.

All sent emails elicit a response that enables an analytical assessment of a broadcast to be generated. Hard bounces, soft bounces, opened, spammed, active email response etc. All of this data can be derived and analysed, specific to each address. The result is a refinement of a list such that choices of future email targeting can be made. The quality of email marketing services analytics is crucial.  And of course, no other form of direct marketing achieves this quality of contact specific feedback. Postmen do not generally knock on the door to enquire as to whether or not a received mailshot has been opened or thrown away.

 

List Refinement.

Mailshots are repeatedly broadcast to an address list with no means of refinement of the list other than opt-out responses, which very few people ever bother with. The result is a very poor true delivery rate, in a situation where the result at the end of the mailshot is completely invisible. Not so with email marketing. Using the cleansing (List Doctor) and broadcast analytics offered by service providers such as Email Blaster UK enables continuous refinement of a list when repeat usage is employed. It is far better to use an email list as a means of regular more subtle marketing than a one off blast. The greater the repeat use, the better the list will become, most of the refinement using software such as List Doctor running silently behind the  panel without any activity by the user. Use of high quality templates, enabling sophisticated graphic presentation to be achieved, can be employed to much greater effect when broadcasting to a receptive email list. Email Blaster UK has recently announced the addition of a much extended range of quality templates to its arsenal of software.

 

Target Refinement.

And of course, using the benefits of List Doctor, Market Analytics etc enables the user to consider changes to a targeting strategy based on the feedback from earlier email blasts.

Research suggests that UK companies spent approximately £300m on email marketing in 2011, rising to about £500m by 2016, a growth rate of 65% over the 5 years. Clearly the email marketing UK marketplace is a very active place to be and email marketing is undoubtedly seen by Business to Business and Business to Consumer marketeers as the most effective method of direct marketing. This is primarily driven by the fact that, compared to mailshots, email campaigns are much cheaper. But, once the associated benefits of feedback, targeting, list improvement, quality templates and better focus become apparent with regular use, email marketing is seen as by far the most effective method of targeted marketing.

Mike

Email Blaster UK

 

Email Marketing UK – View and Manage Your Mailing Lists

Easily view and manage your email marketing mailing lists using our new feature “my mailing lists”. This section enables you to view all your lists in one place as well as having access to the all the handy features such as list doctor, de-dupe and adding new subscribers.

My Mailing Lists

View your email marketing lists

The my mailing list feature gives you the opportunity to search across your whole database for a single email contact. You might also wish carry out the following activities:

  • Scan for duplicates
  • Create a new list
  • Delete a list
  • Create a newsletter sign up form
  • add individual contacts
  • import a database

Managing your contacts is an integral part of making sure every campaign you send reaches the right person. Further to that if you have the right message and a great landing page, you will get the result you want from this easy to use medium.

Email marketing is a great way to keep in touch with existing clients and create new business opportunities if executed in the right way. Getting your contact list clean, up to date and relevant to your messaging will ultimately increase your ROI.

To find out more call 0845 263 7266 or email us.

Benefits of Email Marketing

Email marketing has grown significantly in popularity with businesses wishing to develop a more reciprocal relationship with their clients and grow new business opportunities. If you are still not convinced by this medium, take a look at the many benefits email marketing can bring to your business:

Upselling opportunities

It is much easier to sell to existing customers than to develop new ones, so use email marketing to communicate your latest offers and new products. With a well designed template and clean database of clients, you can send regular notes to your clients reminding them that you offer a wide range of products and services that they may not even be aware of.

Build a mailing list

Every business needs a good list of prospects and these can be gathered using your web site. Once you have built up a list of potential clients, they can be emailed to (if they have given their permission) and start becoming purchasers. By keeping in touch with people that have enquired through your website, you can develop regular dialogue with them, resulting in eventual sales. Set up your email marketing campaign today.

It’s cheap!

Let’s face it in these tough financial times we all need a more cost effective way to market. Email marketing can fill that gap, if carried out using a good up to date fully opted in list and a great looking template. Email your database with great offers and helpful tips and ideas and you will reap the rewards. Use a hosted system to send your emails and you can track who has opened your email and how many clicked through to your website or landing page.

It’s fast!

Email marketing is a quick way to reach out to new clients. Direct mail campaigns take much longer to plan and execute and the response time is much longer. With an email you can get straight in front of the person you want to target with your latest offers instantly. If your recipients have asked to receive your email communications, you will have their full attention on the day you want them to read it which can make all the difference when it comes to response.

For more benefits and client testimonials visit our website or call us 0845 263 7266.

Get your email opened in the first place

You have spent time and energy writing great copy and having a very pretty email template designed for your next campaign. You are now ready to send your email. Wait a minute, what about the subject line? The bit that is the first thing your subscriber will see in their inbox and decide whether to read or delete.

The subject line is the most important aspect of your email. Without giving it great consideration, the email won’t get opened and may just hit the spam box. The best way to find out if your idea of a subject line will work is to test it out on a small element of your database first. Think of two separate lines and send your email to two small separate test lists. Compare the open rates and use the most opened line for the rest of your campaign.

The following is a checklist of things to avoid when composing your next subject line:

1. Avoid the word “Free” or any use of £££ signs

This will find its way straight into the junk folder or worst be intercepted before it gets as far as that by a spam filter.  It also looks like spam and will be avoided like the plague.

3. Make it enticing and intriguing

Invite the reader to find out what you are offering and make sure the content of the email delivers on the promises of the subject line. Email marketing is all about engaging with your subscribers and providing them with great offers and information that they want to receive.  Make sure your subject line conveys this message.

4. Avoid using “newsletter”

This is a very common subject line when email marketing and really won’t get anyone’s mouse clicking excitedly. Try to capture the nature of the email content in the subject line rather than naming it too generally.

5. Don’t deceive

Try to stay away from “your enquiry” or “reply to your message” as a subject line. These will encourage an open but will just as quickly lead to the delete button as the reader soon realises the email is not related to the subject line.

Keep any emails that you receive with really good subject lines. Inspiration is always useful when composing an email and tried and tested methods are a good place to start.

For more information on creating the perfect subject line visit the knowledge base or our tips pages. To start email marketing to your subscribers call us on 0845 263 7266.