How to Choose and Email Service Provider—Or Are They Called ESPs Because They Know Something We Don't?

---by Mar Junge, Principal, c3PR

When I launched the enewsletter for the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Public Relations Society in January 2003, there were 100 email addresses in our database. At first it was no problem sending two emails to 50 names pasted into Outlook’s BCC box. But as bulk filters got stronger, I soon found myself sending out three emails with 33 names each, then five emails with 20 names each, then ten emails with ten names each. And even then, sometimes the email would go through to only a few names — which ones I had no idea. It often took me two hours to email a single edition!

I did some soul searching and asked myself: (1.) Exactly what am I trying to accomplish for the chapter? (2) How much is our reputation worth? The answers sent me on a quest for the best email service provider (ESP) we could afford. Today, we have more than 500 email addresses on our list. The communication value is priceless, my emailed meeting reminders have helped double attendance at our events and chapter membership has increased by 70 percent. If your company’s reputation is important, you can’t afford NOT to use an ESP. To anyone just starting their email marketing journey, keep in mind these three caveats:

1. It will take you TWICE AS LONG to get up to speed as you think it will.
   Clients (and bosses) are often resistant to investing in a service that they used to get for free.
   
2. You’re going to need to do your homework and demonstrate the return on investment.
   
3. If you don’t learn about email marketing and take action now, you’ll lose a competitive advantage that will be hard to regain.

A Home-Grown Solution Gone Wild

One of my favorite “Murphy’s Law” stories is from Marketing Sherpa’s 2004 Book of Marketing Wisdom. Sean D'Souza is a marketing professional who marries age-old psychology to modern technology, (See psychotactics.com for more on “Unlocking the Mysteries of the Business Brain).Here’s his story:

“One day I managed to send out over 7,000 emails in less than an hour. In effect, I accidentally sent out 35 emails to each of the 200 people on a particular list. I was new to email. I didn't have any software and no budget to send out email through an email service provider. So we wrote a little do-it-yourself program that sent out an email to each individual address, without revealing the whole 'cc' list. We were so proud of programming prowess! All the names of the recipients were on that list, and the server picked them up one by one, sending the email to each individual. Which Was Fine in Theory. None of the recipients could see the other people on the list. They didn't know that it had gone to 199 other people. But we hadn't thought through the complete process. One unforeseen bug dialed Murphy's number. When a recipient hit reply, our program sent their message to everyone else on the list! All it Took Was One Person to Hit the Reply Button It just so happened that the first person who did, also attached a personal note to me. This personal note then went to all 200 people on my list. A client who got to work early saw it, and emailed me to say that she was getting my personal mail. She too hit reply and sent her reply to 199 other people she didn't know were on the list. Soon everyone began complaining by hitting reply, and thousands of emails danced our server dizzy. As if that weren't enough, the Take-Me-Off-Your-List Brigade started their charge, effectively turning a sunny day into a raging cyclone! Not to belabor the story, we fixed the problem in an hour. But by then, the dastardly deed had been done.”

Selecting the best ESP

If you want to avoid the hassles Sean and many other marketing professionals have endured, think about retaining an email service provider. Before you start your search, first assess your email volume needs. For example, do you need to send HTML messages to thousands, or just a simple text message to a few hundred?
Next, determine the mission-critical priorities of your email. Is deliverability to every single address, every time, on time, important? What about protecting the security of your mailing list? Do you send personal financial or highly confidential medical data?
Be realistic about your own or your company’s capabilities. Are you html-challenged, and if so, do you have IT people and webmasters who can help you out? Will you be satisfied with standard email templates or do you want unique newsletters that really stand out?

As with most everything else in marketing, it comes down to a question of time or money. Do you have the time or talent to write email copy? Design attractive emails? Analyze results? Test your message? Develop meaningful surveys? Or will you need to buy out these services? If you do want to outsource, do you want one-stop-shopping or would you rather outsource services to individual specialists? The chart below can help you analyze your needs.