5 Benefits of Hiring Email Marketing Resources for the Holiday Season

The holiday season is now knocking at our doorsteps. Which means that it’s that time of the year again when email marketers across the world can be seen hunched around their teams, burning the midnight fuel in a bid to charm audiences, existing and prospective alike. And well, why shouldn’t they? $1.3 trillion– that’s the figure US holiday retail sales are expected to reach this year. What’s more, eCommerce holiday sales are estimated to touch $236 billion. Now, those are some hefty numbers, irrespective of what scale you are using. 

It goes without saying that if you play your cards right, you stand to make your brand very profitable during this season. But, this is easier said than done. With so much up for grabs, the competition to claim the same is also immense. Add on top of that the ever-evolving nature of holiday email marketing trends, and the resulting workload can make it impossible for you to even catch your breath. So, what can one do to effectively navigate the demanding nature of the holiday season? Two words- seasonal staffing.

In this blog, we discuss 5 major benefits of onboarding temporary email marketing resources for your holiday email campaigns. Read on to find out!

1. Reduced Workload of Existing Staff

Now, putting in some extra hours once or twice every month is reasonable. But, if you are made to do so regularly over a period of 1-2 months, your mental and physical well-being is bound to crash and burn. So, whatever you do, don’t subject your staff to persistent long working hours to deal with the increased workload of the holiday season. The subsequent stress and exhaustion will breed a host of health problems. Not to mention the increased dissatisfaction and decreased workplace morale.

This is why hiring temporary staff during busy seasons is crucial. Not only will that reduce the workload of your full-time staff, but it will also increase your team’s overall productivity. As a result, your turnaround time will increase, and staying on top of your customer’s demands won’t seem like an overwhelming affair. 

2. Flexibility to Hire as per Your Requirements

The incredible flexibility that comes with hiring temporary email marketing resources is a big reason why many brands are so fond of this model. You’ll be working on your holiday season campaigns for a period of  3-4 months at best. It only makes sense that you hire resources only for that time window, doesn’t it? I mean, why should you hire a full-time resource for seasonal email campaigns? Additionally, while roping in temporary resources, you don’t necessarily have to abide by the elaborate string of formalities that are non-negotiable while onboarding a permanent employee. Thus, you can hire them on short notice and get started right away. 

Typically, organizations deny their employers from availing their rightful leaves during the holiday season out of fear of being understaffed. This, subsequently, fosters strong feelings of discontentment among the staff. Such a situation can be easily avoided by embracing the seasonal staffing model. It lets your employees enjoy their much-deserved leaves whilst also ensuring that your project remains on track at all times. An absolute win-win, isn’t it? 

Lastly, should you ever feel that any of the temporary resources you have onboarded through an offshore agency has long-term potential, you can always talk to the agency and see if you can continue with the resource for a longer duration.

3. Cost Efficiency

Do you know what the average cost of hiring a full-time email developer in-house in the US is? $65,861/yr. The figure goes up to $78,188/yr for email automation experts. The point I’m trying to make here is that in-house recruitment is not a wallet-friendly affair. Let’s say you decide to assemble a full-time team, comprising email developers, designers, campaign managers, and automation experts for your holiday campaigns. So, for the holiday season, alone, will easily cost you in the range of $85,000-$90,000. And this excludes the expenses that will go toward their skill development.

The important question is this: What happens once you are done with the holiday season? Even though you’ll no longer have any work for them, you’d still have to bear their paychecks. Consequently, your organization will be both, overstaffed and strapped for cash, an extremely unenviable combination. 

Now, let us look at the costs involved in hiring temporary email marketing resources. Allow us to cite our own example. At Email Uplers, you can onboard pre-vetted and trained campaign managers starting at $1750/month for Non Enterprise ESP (Enterprise ESPs being Salesforce, Marketo, Braze, Adobe Campaign, and Eloqua). These professionals are fluent in 50+ ESPs and are certified in Marketo and Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Other resources such as email designers, developers, and automation experts can be onboarded around similar price windows, too. This brings your holiday season expenditure to approximately $28,000- $35,000. See the margin of savings in this case? 

4. Access to Professionals With Niche Expertise

While hiring temporary resources, you have the freedom to look for talent with niche expertise and leverage their specialized knowledge to boost your campaigns. Let us consider this discussion in the context of holiday season itself so that you have greater clarity. For your holiday email campaigns, wouldn’t you much rather prefer onboarding a campaign manager who has proven experience running holiday campaigns in the past? 

Moreover, introducing such professionals to your team can prove to be a great learning experience for them. It can help them acquire skills and unlock perspectives that can improve your daily operations by leaps and bounds. 

5. Time Efficiency

When you put out a recruitment call, a large chunk of your time goes into scanning through all the resumes that come your way, isn’t it? Normally, that’s alright, but with a thousand things already on your plate, as is usually the case during the holiday season, you’ll be hard-pressed to prise out that kind of time. So, is there some way where you could onboard the best person for the job without putting any time into filtering the CVs?

Yes! By hiring resources from offshore agencies. All you need to do is provide them with your requirements. Upon receiving it, they’ll identify the most suitable candidate and share them with you. Pretty convenient, you’d agree?

The time efficiency, however, is just not confined to this aspect. You see, when you induct certified and reliable resources, you don’t have to really guide them on the execution side of things. They already have full clarity regarding what is to be done. This allows you to invest your time in other critical tasks, such as chalking out the strategy, shaping the customer journey, and the like. 

What Kind of Email Marketing Resources Can You Hire?

Depending on your requirement, you can choose from among the following types:

Email Designers 

An email designer will help you with:

• Creating a design language for your holiday campaigns that will usher in increased engagement, interaction, and, ultimately, sales. 
• Using layout, graphics, color, and typography in the most optimal manner.
• Abiding with email accessibility design practices.
• Rolling out communication that is consistent with your brand identity.
• Leveraging the latest design technology in the market.

Email Developers

Listed below are the various ways in which email developers can boost your holiday campaigns.

• They take care to develop email templates that render across all devices and email clients. Additionally, they can create dynamic email templates too. 
• They help resolve complex coding issues.
• They make sure your campaigns abide by CAN-SPAM and other similar email regulations.
• They integrate email templates with the client’s ESP/CRM.

Campaign Managers

An email campaign manager takes care of the following responsibilities:

• They deploy your email templates in the ESP.
• They plan out your email calendar (and maintain it, as well).
• They prepare complex segmentation frameworks.
• They set KPIs and define goals for your campaigns.
• They look into building seamless customer experiences across channels.
• They design robust email campaign reports and use them to track your campaign’s performance.

Automation Experts

An automation expert can contribute to your holiday season campaigns in the following ways.

• They are responsible for importing and segmenting lists. In the process, they also look after your email data hygiene.
• They setup, execute, and manage your email automation programs.
• They design multi-channel automation programs.
• They manage copy, coding, design, deployment, and automation testing.
• They monitor the deliverability of your emails.
• They look into the analysis and performance optimization of your workflows.

Wrapping It Up

If you are starting to feel bogged down with your holiday email marketing preparations, you know what to do now! Hire a temporary email marketing resource and maximize your productivity. Remember, we are rooting for you, always!