Working with email marketing consultants #2: Who?
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If you're ready to get outside help with your email marketing (see Part 1), how do you judge your options? What makes a suitable email marketing consultant?It goes without saying that you need to consider all the usual issues when selecting a vendor: price, type of service offered, testimonials, communication style, working arrangements etc.
But what do you need to look for specifically in an email marketing consultant?
Simms Jenkins, CEO of BrightWave Marketing and Dylan Boyd, VP Sales & Strategy at eROI were kind enough to pass on some tips for us...
Specific email experience critical
Topic-related expertise is a must, obviously, but the temptation might be to go for a generalist online marketing consultant, rather than an email marketing specialist.
There are two risks here.
First, email has its own nuances. Take HTML email design, for example. It's not like web design. Anybody who thinks they can simply apply web design concepts to email is likely to come up with a template that simply does not work for email.
Second, mistakes have a bigger downside in email. A bad AdWords campaign just loses money or misses out on a few clicks. Poor email practices can lead to serious brand damage, blacklisting and other problems.
So even if you hire a big interactive agency, make sure the dedicated expertise is there. Simms asks:
"How important is email marketing to their business? Is their core strength email marketing or is that something that receives two lines of copy on their website? Many times interactive marketing firms answer 'yeah, we do that' just to get the business."
He adds:
"How many email campaigns have they managed? Specific results, awards and what comes up when you Google them? Is it info related to an FTC investigation or links demonstrating leadership and authority in the email industry?"
Watch for bait and switch
One trap to watch for is getting a pitch from an email marketing expert at, for example, a consulting agency, but the person you'll actually work with is not an email specialist. Simms notes:
"Ask who will be working with me on my account? How often do we talk? Is my reporting a quarterly powerpoint with opens and clicks or meaningful analysis of the email program's impact on business goals?"
"If it is a coordinator job and the sales and executive team disappear after the agreement is signed, you may be in trouble. Do you get just a 1800 number and a help desk email or do you get regularly scheduled meetings with an experienced email marketing veteran?"
Dylan also emphasizes the importance of specialist skills, noting that your consultant must have a...
"...deep understanding of not only email but behaviors in the browser for landing pages and programs. What is the experience or expertise of the consultant/agency? What relevant industry experience do they have for the types of programs you are interested in?"
Big picture skills
This makes the further point that an email marketing consultant must also understand how email fits in with other elements of your business, particularly landing pages (conversion), branding and complementary marketing channels.
These days, a good consultant should, for example, understand the possible synergies between email and social media marketing. Simms says:
"Can they complement email campaigns with other tools like SMS or Facebook?"
Where to get recommendations
By definition, it's hard to tell if a consultant has the skills you need. All your usual business networks can help with recommendations, but here some specific suggestions for finding email marketing specialists:
Email Marketer's Club (social network for email marketers)
Email Marketing Roundtable (discussion list for email marketers)
Campaign Monitor forums (good place to find an email designer)
So, do you have any tips for us on finding a good email marketing consultant?
(See Part 3: how do you make the relationship work?)
List of consultants and services | Tags: email marketing consultants
Permalink | March 13, 2009 | 2 comment(s) - add yours!
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2 Comments:
Hi Mark - Here's a few more do’s and do-not’s to bold on to your list.
Things You Shouldn’t Do:
1. Don’t limit your search geographically. Yes, the most expedient way to build trust is in face-to-face relationships, but that doesn’t mean trust can’t also be built on separate coasts or continents for that matter. Keep in mind that what you’re looking for is the correct fit. Restricting your search from the outset to a defined geographic area is unnecessarily limiting. With your marketing budget and ROI at risk, the stakes are just as high. In this day of the email and WebEx, communication is easy and instantaneous.
2. Don’t screen out professionals based on size. If you’re a small company, you shouldn’t rule out working with a gun-for-hire simply because they offer more services and have more experience than you need; sure, you may not be a huge profit center for them but perhaps they have the precise expertise you need. Similarly, larger clients shouldn’t exclude small agencies or independent professionals from their consideration. Talented people at the helm of small shops may have more experience than a localized email marketing professional or the mid-level staffers that would be assigned to you at a big full-service agency. It’s the attention, expertise, and ideas that matter.
3. Don’t make industry experience a must-have. Marketing pros with a lot of category experience might be subject to industry group-think. No one group or individual will ever know as much as you do about your industry, so you should hire them for what they do know: the art and science of email marketing.
4. Don’t ask for (or entertain) speculative work. Speculative campaigns or tests are the bane of the agency business, the same holds true for email-centric ones. Spec campaigns are like steroids, they often over-inflate the presenters’ capabilities. But the biggest reason not to ask for spec work is that the best prospects–the ones you really want–won’t do it. They don’t have to.
5. Don’t avoid questions about your budget. Don’t let anyone tell you that money (or budget) doesn’t talk. Each agency or outsourcer has certain client budget minimums, arrived at through experience and predicated in part by the economy and their current client load. That’s why it’s important, for the sake of conducting an informed review, that you have some idea of what your budget is or should be.
So how should you select an email marketing consultant?
1. Do determine what you need. The worst thing you can do is hire for a job and then not let them do it. Do you need someone to lead or someone to follow? A firm that can develop strategy or an expert at execution? A consultant that likes to have fun or one that’s all business?
2. Do initiate a conversation. Send the prospects an e-mail, or give them a call. Spend a few minutes on the phone together and you’ll get an immediate sense of chemistry and interest. Ask them about their history, who their current clients are, what their core capabilities are.
3. Do invite them to review a handful of case studies. Keep in mind that you’re not looking to see if they have good outcomes to report (all of them will) but to understand the thinking behind how they arrived at their solutions. You’ll learn about their process, what it is, how it works, and how it might fit your company and culture.
When you find a good fit, discuss with them the best way to ensure a long and successful relationship. Come to clear agreement on your expectations for compensation and services. Then fire the starter’s gun and let them work.
By 
Indiemark, on
01 February, 2010
Wow! Thanks Indiemark for all the great advice! Plenty in there for all forms of consultancy, too, not just email marketing services.
By 
, on
01 February, 2010
