What is Email Consulting?
Email consulting does not involve an individual who advises on how to sort contacts and rules in Outlook, it relates of course to email marketing consulting services.
When it comes to email marketing, businesses have two sets of options widely available to them; Email Service Providers and Marketing Agencies. Email consultants are the middle men, which legitimises the question: Why do they even exist? This will lead to the next question, When are they needed?
The answer to this question is twofold. First, there are a great number of companies trying to provide email marketing tools and fully managed marketing services and it can be difficult to see through the various sales pitches. And, when confronted with the increasing need for internal resources an evolving email marketing program generates, businesses might find managed services costly.
This is where email consulting is often the better option that enables businesses to continue improving their email results efficiently.
When it comes to email marketing, businesses have two sets of options widely available to them; Email Service Providers and Marketing Agencies. Email consultants are the middle men, which legitimises the question: Why do they even exist? This will lead to the next question, When are they needed?
The answer to this question is twofold. First, there are a great number of companies trying to provide email marketing tools and fully managed marketing services and it can be difficult to see through the various sales pitches. And, when confronted with the increasing need for internal resources an evolving email marketing program generates, businesses might find managed services costly.
This is where email consulting is often the better option that enables businesses to continue improving their email results efficiently.
Why use a consultant rather than an agency or hiring in-house resources?
The truth is it will depend on the consultant and the agency or employee you hire, but nevertheless lets take a look at this more closely.
Email Consultant/ Consulting Company:Great experience and know how at a price and for a limited time but with a focused approach on startegy keeping technical implementation in mind.
Email /or Marketing Agency:
Responsive and resourceful a marketing agency can provide access to great skills and fully managed services and support but typically on contract.
Full-time Employee:
Fully dedicated resource which could mean picking up on more opportunities but could be expensive due to the variety of skills needed in a single individual.
Why use an email marketing consultant? Let's be clear, as we've seen above email consulting is not the best answer for everyone. However to businesses in need of help to define or re-define startegy and approach, the consultant can provide impartial advice and has the experience to forsee the pitfalls and seize key opportunities efficiently.
In many ways a consulting company (and not a consultant) might be able to provide the best of both worlds to their clients due to the added resources and flexibility of pricing.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Email Marketing Consulting
The pros and cons of using email consulting services when compared to a marketing agency or full-time employee.
ADVANTAGES:
1. Whilst your campaigns will not be fully managed, consultants enable you to identify opportunities and provide support and structure to the development and improvement of an email campaign.
2. The consultant might not have a stake in your success however a bad consultant will struggle to find work, so when an agency will aim to keep you happy the consultant will aim to make you succeed.
3. A consultant is impartial; not having an interest in the solutions implemented means you truly get an unbiased expert opinion of what is in your interest.
4. Compared to even specialised agencies; when you hire a consultant you deal with the expert directly, when you hire an agency you deal with your account manager.
5. Whilst the costs might be higher, on a per hour basis, than an agency; the consultant does not upsell services to you and can even provide advice on whether the cost of a given service is justified.
DISADVANTAGES:
1. Agency services are generally more complete as they offer the opportunity of entirely letting go of your email marketing campaigns for a fully managed solution.
2. A dedicated in-house resource will provide more flexibility and can ensure no opportunities are missed due to the close relationship with a single email campaign.
3. Consulting companies often only concentrate on providing advice, leaving their clients in need of additional email related resources having to spend more money elsewhere.
4. Consulting companies provide expert advice at a cost, you could get multiple emails fully managed for the price of a consulting package covering at most a couple.
5. Consulting services require entering a partnership with the consultant, entering the relationship with the wrong mindset could mean you do not make the most of it.
1. Whilst your campaigns will not be fully managed, consultants enable you to identify opportunities and provide support and structure to the development and improvement of an email campaign.
2. The consultant might not have a stake in your success however a bad consultant will struggle to find work, so when an agency will aim to keep you happy the consultant will aim to make you succeed.
3. A consultant is impartial; not having an interest in the solutions implemented means you truly get an unbiased expert opinion of what is in your interest.
4. Compared to even specialised agencies; when you hire a consultant you deal with the expert directly, when you hire an agency you deal with your account manager.
5. Whilst the costs might be higher, on a per hour basis, than an agency; the consultant does not upsell services to you and can even provide advice on whether the cost of a given service is justified.
DISADVANTAGES:
1. Agency services are generally more complete as they offer the opportunity of entirely letting go of your email marketing campaigns for a fully managed solution.
2. A dedicated in-house resource will provide more flexibility and can ensure no opportunities are missed due to the close relationship with a single email campaign.
3. Consulting companies often only concentrate on providing advice, leaving their clients in need of additional email related resources having to spend more money elsewhere.
4. Consulting companies provide expert advice at a cost, you could get multiple emails fully managed for the price of a consulting package covering at most a couple.
5. Consulting services require entering a partnership with the consultant, entering the relationship with the wrong mindset could mean you do not make the most of it.
When to use an Email Consultant
Now we have seen the pros and cons of email consulting, let's try and help you determine whether you need an expert or not.
1. Are you googling "Email marketing consulting"? If you are then you have probably self identified the need for the service, perhaps you are having problems with your system, your deliverability, or your templates, consulting could very well be the right option for you indeed.2. Have you not started email marketing? This is a critical stage for businesses, one that might be dangerous to leave in the wrong hands as the future costs and potential opportunities of email marketing will vary greatly based on your first steps and tools; use a consultant.
3. Do you feel like you've exhausted your options to optimise and improve your email campaigns? Possibilities with email marketing are incredible, a consultant can help you determine whether you should invest anymore and if yes, where it can have the greatest impact.
Supplement; not a good time to call an email consultant:
- Need to buy a list of email addresses
- Need someone to generate content for your newsletter
- Need someone to press send every week or month
- Need to update an email design
(some will provide these services, ensure you get more if they charge more)
Important!
ImpartialMail provides email marketing consulting to small and medium sized businesses. We offer strategic marketing advice but also its implementation and all the key email services a company might need to do efficient email marketing.
What do you think? Share your view!
Taking your current company as an example, imagine you're in charge of the next email marketing big move, what would you do?
Would you go for an email consulting service?
It's likely, I know the benefits of consultants!
ImpartialGreg says:
...obviously! I believe 90% of the time companies get better value for money from a consultants than any other solution.
Unlikely...
kooboo says:
Well, I prefer to try the email marketing tools like KoobooMail firstly. Because an email consultant may not know your product or service well, and if he/she makes wrong guides, you may make your subscribers misleading.
Quick Win
Email Consulting is a Quick Win by definition: a flexible on demand email expert service
There is no commitment with consulting companies yet they'll still do their best so you come back for more!
Email Marketting Consulting: Conslusions
The key takeaways of this article about why and when to use email marketing consulting services.
Email marketing consulting is not the right solution for everyone, it could even be a waste of both time and money if the consultant does not offer all the services you need. However, email consulting can provide incredible value for money by limiting unecessary costs, optimising your email campaigns but also your workflows and processes, and finally empowering you to continue improving and managing your email marketing program in-house.
Other Email Marketing Articles
A few email marketing articles by ImpartialMail
Email Marketing Report's Mark Brownlow wrote a three part article on working with email consultants which you might also find interesting:
http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/iland/2009/03/working-with-email-marketing.html
http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/iland/2009/03/working-with-email-marketing.html
The Author: ImpartialMail Ltd.
Expert Email Marketing Advice and Services
ImpartialMail is a consulting company that was registered late in 2011, by Greg Fournier. The company specialises in advising small and medium sized businesses in the UK on email marketing.The company was created on the basis of 2 simple principles:
- Empowering businesses to do it alone
- Helping businesses to start email marketing
We are not just another email marketing agency, ImpartialMail strives to empower businesses over service providers through impartial email marketing advice and services.
ImpartialMail Ltd.
Tel: 08009788759
Email: info@impartialmail.com
Starting Email Marketing by Greg Fournier is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Email Marketing Consulting: Comments
Please feel free to leave comments or tips here.
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naheedahsan
Feb 24, 2012 @ 9:55 am | delete
- thanks for sharing
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