Email Marketing - Hosted vs Inhouse solution
With the high costs of outsourcing your email marketing to a hosted solution (one that bills per email sent) - is having an internal email marketing solution viable and if so what solutions are available to fulfill inhouse email marketing needs?
Good Answers (1)
Scott and Andy make some great points. I'm the founder of Australia's largest ESP but I'll try not to be too biased in my answer.
If you have a large budget, at least two ( ideally three) full time dedicated resources and can wait 3-6 months to get started then in-house is an option to consider. If you take this path I'd recommend lots of research before you start to build anything or tie together the various tools you'll need. Once you've built your capability you'll probably need to dedicate a full time tech to maintainence and monitoring and generally looking at developments in the email marketing space. It's very dynamic and small changes can make a big difference to your results and online reputation.
Alternatively, a good, enterprise-class ESP will have you ready to go in under a week and will take care of a multitude of headaches that as a Marketing Professional you shouldn't have to worry about. Right from the start you'll be working with a solution and a provider that is tried and tested. Moreover, if you choose well, you'll be equipped with the very best functionality from day one (not to mention regular updates and enhancements).
I've obviously worked with many clients that have faced the same dilemma as the one that confronts you. Three years ago I'd say that 70% of them went the inhouse route. These days it's the opposite. Interestingly, a large number of the people that went inhouse are now looking to outsource - it's just too hard to maintain and do well.
I think if you did a full cost benefit analysis on inhouse V outsourced you'd discover that outsourced is not as expensive as you might think. Additionally, you don't have to pay on a per email sent basis. There are many commercial models out there that might appeal to you more.
Feel free to contact me directly if you'd like more detail or a maybe a meeting to discuss. Always happy to help...
More Answers (6)
Scott Hazen M.
UNIX/Internet technologist
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Do you know what a feedback loop is? How about how to do bounce processing? Do you have someone on staff who understands a 4xx error, a 5xx error and what the difference is? Is your list less than 100,000 addresses? Do you know the difference between opt-out, single opt-in and double opt-in? Is the term deliverability meaningful? If you answered "yes" to all of those questions, you might, just might, be ready to do your e-mail marketing in-house. Otherwise, go pay an ESP, because they know how to get your e-mail through, how to help you practice good list hygiene, and what to do when your business is phished.
Robert B.
Consultant in corporate communications, strategic planning and business development, turnarounds and start-ups.
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I use constant contact, it is a reasonable monthly fee per email address, not how many emails are sent. You can send ten a day if you want, it is the same cost per month, they use a double opt in and have a re opt in with each mailing and an opt out. I think they are an excellent service.
Andy F.
Director, Platform Management, Force.com at GSI Commerce
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Reputable email marketing firms are expensive for a reason - email marketing can be fairly time consuming and has many gotchas. As long as you understand that doing it in-house should cost as much or more than outsourcing it (because you don't have the economies of scale the hosting firms have), I think there are good reasons to bring it in house. I have done both and IMHO when you have a decent budget, and management that appreciates the magnitude of the effort, in-house is the better option. There are lots of tools that will queue up and send quantities of email for you, but the real issues are the ones that Scott raises in his response to your question. Well, the issues he raises and RBLs, ISP relationships, email content qualitity, etc, etc.
Good luck!
Peter F.
Owner, slowprint.com | Information Design | Exquisite Letterpress Printing | Creative vs Tech Cultural Facilitator
Check out myemma.com. The fees are very reasonable for moderate (under 100K) lists, it seems to me. Also their web based interface is well designed. I'm not connected with them at all!
(emma is an acronym for EMail MArketing)
Links:
I have countless examples where my clients have embarked on developing an inhouse solution only to find months down the track that your have uncovered more questions than answers. A reputable ESP will keep up to date with new trends in spam analysis in addition to some of the areas already covered by this discussion. Bear in mind that the technology is constantly evolving. What you buy now will be outdated before long.
We explain more of this on our website (linked below) as well as providing a list of 20 questions to ask yourself before making the jump.
David Birchall
Links:
In most cases, an ESP will do a better job. I think the key thing is to do research; many ESPs are considered "spammy" by other people, and there are certainly some that I have historically blocked on sight, meaning I would never see your mail if you use them.
The thing is, if you do it yourself, you're very likely to screw up, and then YOU get blocked, which is arguably worse.
