When it comes to your email marketing and digital campaign, the initiative’s success relies a lot on the expertise and experience of the agency.
An in-house team will usually have difficulty managing all the aspects of an effective digital campaign. They lack the training or resources to deliver tangible ROI.
An email marketing agency will have a better strategic approach and a professional email design service (to help create branded emails), thus increasing your customer engagement and conversion rates.
However, the trend of in-house vs. agency has been surging for years. But if you need a hand deciding which is best for you and your company, here are five reasons to choose an email marketing agency over running your in-house campaign.
Let’s get started from the basics!
Why Choose An Email Marketing Agency?
An email marketing agency will have more resources, which means it can offer various services and expertise. For example, if you’re looking for help with paid advertising, an agency may be able to provide that service in addition to other services such as copywriting and design.
Agency teams usually have experts who can identify best practices for implementing email marketing strategies and tactics.
In the battle of in-house vs. agency, many in-house teams may not access these experts or know what works best in different industries or verticals.
5 Reasons To Hire An Email Marketing Agency
You can use email marketing from customer retention and building brand awareness to driving sales and increasing web traffic. However, it’s too complicated for most businesses to manage in-house.
Here are five reasons why you should consider outsourcing your email marketing efforts:
1. Email Marketers Are Experts
One of the most significant advantages of hiring an email marketing agency is that they have experience with all aspects of the process, such as writing compelling copy, designing eye-catching graphics, and optimizing landing pages, so they convert well.
They also have connections with reputable companies to help you get your message out there.
2. Your Focus Is On Your Business
You don’t want all your employees spending their time writing emails or managing subscriber lists. They should focus on other areas of their job, like sales or customer service.
Hiring an email marketing agency will save you money, too — since they know best practices for sending emails and getting responses, they can do it more efficiently than you can on your own.
3. Better Results
The key to successful email marketing is engaging readers and getting them to take action.
To drive results through their campaigns, experienced email marketing agencies will improve engagement with each campaign they send out for you. It will boost sales over time and improve customer loyalty.
4. Compliant With Industry Standards
In the past, it was easy to get started with email marketing. However, that has changed over the years as you must follow industry regulations and standards.
If you want your business to get off on the right foot with email marketing, then you need an expert to create compliant templates for your business.
5. Access To Advanced Technology And Data Analysis Tools
An experienced email marketing agency will access advanced technology and data analysis tools that allow them to test different messages and strategies.
These tools include A/B testing software, email personalization engines, landing page builders, Pop-up builder, Coupon creators, and more.
Pros and Cons Of Hiring An Email Marketing Agency
Hiring An Email Marketing Agency: Pros
If you’re hiring an email marketing agency, you can expect to get more than just the basics.
1. Bring In Fresh Ideas
A good email marketing agency will know what works and what doesn’t and bring in new ideas you might not have thought of.
You might be surprised by how agencies have worked with companies similar to yours for years and can bring valuable insight into your industry.
2. Deep Knowledge Of Industry Best Practices
Another benefit is that an agency will know the best practices for your industry, so they can offer suggestions to help your business grow.
The experts at the agency will know what works best, what doesn’t work at all, and how to make sure your emails stand out from the crowd.
3. Excellent Skill Sets
An email marketer might be great at creating beautiful emails, but he probably doesn’t know much about SEO, conversion optimization, or landing page creation.
By hiring an email marketing agency, you get access to these skill sets without having to hire them separately (and pay for them).
4. Improved Flexibility
With an agency, you can hire more people than if you were to hire just one person. So, you can focus on what you do best while they handle everything else.
They’ll create and send your campaigns for you based on your specifications, so all you have to do is review them before they go out the door and make sure they’re up to par with your brand guidelines.
5. Higher Creativity
Agency professionals have years of experience and have likely worked on dozens or hundreds of projects before yours. It means they’ll be able to bring out the best ideas from their team members and come up with something truly unique for your campaign.
Hiring An Agency: Cons
1. It Takes Time To Find The Right Fit For Your Business
If you’re looking to hire someone who can take the reins of your email program and run with it, finding the right partner could take some time — especially if you’re working with multiple agencies.
2. You Might Be Paying More Than Necessary For Services You Don’t Need
Typically email marketing agency pricing is based on the size of a client’s list and the frequency of messages they send. Some could offer services that others can’t provide to your company or vice versa, but it doesn’t mean they’re all created equal regarding price or quality.
3. You Have Less Control Over Your Brand Voice And Content Strategy
An agency will usually have its style guide and preferred writing style. Sometimes, it can cause problems when you try integrating their content into your brand’s style guide and tone of voice guidelines.
4. You Don’t Have Time For A Learning Curve
If you don’t have a background in marketing or a lot of experience with email marketing, it might take some time to learn how to create effective campaigns and get the most out of them. If you hire an agency, they’ll likely be able to get up and running more quickly than you can.
5. Your Brand And Image Could Suffer If Not Handled Correctly
Suppose you hire an agency that doesn’t understand how to market your company correctly. In that case, they could tarnish your brand’s reputation by sending out emails that don’t align with what customers expect from your business.
How To Set Expectations and Goals When Working With An Email Marketing Agency
Setting clear expectations and goals is essential when working with an email marketing agency. Otherwise, your campaign could flounder — or worse, lose you money.
Here are five tips for setting practical goals and expectations:
1. Make Sure Everyone Is On The Same Page Before Starting
If you’re working with an agency, everyone involved in the process must be on the same page. It means that you should have a clear idea of your goals for the project and that your agency should also be sure about what they want to achieve with it.
2. Ensure That Your Goals Align With The Agency’s Capabilities And Priorities
The most important part of this process is ensuring that your goals align with the agency’s capabilities and priorities.
If you want to use a particular technology or service, ensure that the agency has access to it. If you have a specific budget or time constraints, make sure they’re aware of them upfront so they can work within those parameters.
3. Set Up Specific Metrics So You Can Measure Success (Or Failure)
It can be challenging to judge the success of a campaign when you don’t have specific metrics. You should set up particular metrics so the agency can measure the success and know whether their efforts were worth it.
It will give them more confidence in making future recommendations that may take some time before they bear fruit.
4. Provide Feedback Throughout The Process
Remember that this is a partnership between two companies, so both sides need to be willing to give feedback and receive it for it to work well.
The agency will want ideas about how best to achieve your goals and may ask for input along the way if things aren’t going according to plan; likewise, if you’re not happy with something, tell them so!
5. Be Prepared To Be Flexible When Things Go Wrong, Or New Opportunities Arise
Emails are a long-term strategy, not a quick fix. If you have unrealistic expectations about how quickly your business will grow, you’ll be disappointed when you don’t see immediate results.
When starting with an email marketing agency, you must set realistic goals that you can achieve in the long run rather than expecting immediate results.
In-house vs. Agency: Final Thoughts
An email marketing agency can be a great asset to any company looking to make its inbound marketing strategy to the next level. But before hiring, it’s essential to know what makes certain agencies better than others.
So, if you think an email marketing agency could help your business grow, look for these five qualities when shopping around.
