Getting The Most From Your Email Service Provider

Your Email Service Provider may be the best friend you never knew you had. Your ESP (Yahoo, Hotmail, Google, etc.) has the ability to create templates, send engines, subscriber lists, statistical reviews, spam testing, and analytics, all of which can dramatically assist in an email marketing campaign. It's critical important that your company understand the importance of forging a valuable relationship with an ESP so that you can use its various features and services. Here are few things you should expect from your Email Service Provider right out of the logic gate:

Have your email lists segmented

This is essentially customizing emails by demographic and other factors in order to provide more robust marketing campaigns. Your ESP should be able to assist you in targeting your contacts with relevant information. This is important for a wide variety of reasons, as targeted emailing plays an extremely valuable role in online reputation management services, SEO, and brand management.

Separate your IP address from other companies

A good ESP will be able to ensure that your company is not sharing an IP address with one or more companies, which can be disastrous if one of those companies gets spam complaints. An ESP can and should equip you with a private IP address.

Have a strong network infrastructure supporting you

Your ESP should be able to provide several high-speed network connections that will protect your company from faulty hardware and spotty Internet. Request that your ESP use a click-tracking tool to safeguard your emails.

A/B testing

This is a form of trial marketing in which different versions of an email are sent out in order to gauge which tactics are most effective. This involves testing different kinds of content, subject lines, links, media, etc. Often times extremely minor distinctions can lead to better click-thru rates and your ESP should be able to help you hone in on these distinctions.

Transparent data

Make your ESP an information journalist so that you get frequent updates concerning deliver-ability, open-rates and click-thru's. Any Email Service Provider worth its salt has this information and you deserve to see it.

The point here is that your Email Service Provider is not an empty vessel through which you send emails to clients, colleagues, and associates. Your ESP should be integrated into functionality of your company so that you can improve the success of your email marketing and the overall security of your digital information. The first thing you should do is to get in contact with your ESP. If they are unable or unwilling to comply with the above features, it's time to find a new partner.