The Different Angles to Consider when Hiring an Email Developer

In today’s competitive business environment, every decision of the multitude an average organization takes counts – every day, and all through the years. Those that are taken at the beginning of each year assume all the more importance. An important decision that every firm takes with the first turn of the new calendar is hiring. Several factors are weighed in taking the calls involved in rolls expansion across departments and at different organizational levels.

As far as your email marketing function goes, the hiring decisions you make will have to be based on the requirements of all your campaigns but will also have to consider individual ones. One of the key decisions to make is: Do you want to leverage home-grown talent or reap the benefits of external expertise? In-house or offshore – what would be your safest bet?

What Type of Email Developer Should You Bank On?

As you’d know, billions of emails are sent every day – for different business needs and to different stakeholders. Marketers continue to swear by the efficacy of this marketing technique which, when broken down, really stands out for its simplicity and success. The latest statistics shore up the bang-for-a-buck aspect of email marketing: For every pound spent on this marketing avenue, you can count on an average return of £42 (DMA, 2019). Though the actual benefits are innumerable, the positive monetary trade-offs alone persuade marketers to go all-out in their email marketing efforts these days. 

The success of these efforts hinges, for the large part, on an email developer. (At the risk of stating the obvious, without the actual email and its various components worked out, everything else would be a non-starter.) 

An email developer, like every other resource these days, can be an external expert dedicated to your workflow and campaigns, or you may consider getting one on the company rolls. Which way should you lean? What would pay off for your unique requirements? Here are some things to consider that can help you make this decision.

Offshore or In-house Email Developer: Sample these Situations

When trying to decide on bringing in an external email developer versus hiring a company resource, you’d be best served to view your email marketing campaign scenarios from varied angles.

# How much can they take on their plate?

You have to assess the bandwidth required to execute your campaigns before bringing an email developer on board. You will have to chalk up their average daily, weekly, and monthly responsibilities as you see them. The advantage with an offshore developer in this regard is they are often equipped to take on more and complete every task that comes their way within the specified deadlines. On the other hand, an internal resource may be spread thin and may not be available to work on your campaigns if they are already hard-pressed.

# What kind of perspective should they bring to the table?

There are significant differences in the perspectives and views of offshore and in-house developers, based on the experience they have garnered over time. An in-house email developer is essentially trained to think in line with internal processes which, in a way, is a positive. But often, they might not be able to take a different/unique position that may contribute the x-factor to your campaigns. In some situations, they might actually be held back by tunnel vision and cannot think out-of-the-box. An external expert, however, usually comes with a broad range of experience on the back of working with multiple marketing professionals like you. They are unconditioned in their views and opinions and can bring a fresh spin to your email marketing efforts.

# How much of a free rein would you like to give them?

Continuing from the above advantage, an offshore email developer is often trained to handle their tasks independently with little guidance. While they will always have to look to you for that initial brief, they can take over from there and execute the first and elemental part of your campaign with confidence, ease, and success. So, you can hand over the planning and detailing aspects to them and move on to chart out your next campaign. This will save you a lot of time that would otherwise be spent in hand-holding and managing the minutiae. Bear in mind that an in-house developer might often be constrained by their responsibilities and individual goals and might have to be directed by their immediate supervisor.

# How much training would they require?

It can bear restating that one of the biggest pluses of an offshore email developer is the sheer range of experience and expertise they bring with them. Very rarely would they need to be trained in any aspect of their work or individual tasks. You would only need to share the brand guidelines and run them through any tools you can offer for their trade. Rest assured, they would be adept at handling the software too. When hiring an in-house developer, however, you will have to gauge their familiarity and expertise level before handing off the workflow. Often, they would need considerable training, which can be on-the-job. You will have to consider your own and the organizational bandwidth to extend training and continued mentoring to them.

# How long would you need them?

The hiring of an offshore email developer offers flexibility on many fronts. One of these is their availability. You can decide to hire a dedicated external resource per individual campaign needs, which will allow you to pivot with any emerging scenarios. You may also be able to bank on an offshore email developer for a long-period contract and assess their fit with your process and the organization as you go along. But, keep in mind, you actually have little control over their continued availability to you; they are, after all, someone else’s hired resource, or they may be a freelancer who has a greater say over their work. An in-house developer, on the other hand, is a resource that you essentially hire for the foreseeable future, if not ‘in perpetuity’.

4 Hard Questions to Ask Before You Hire

Here are a few additional things that you should consider before swinging towards either an offshore or an in-house email developer. These are framed more from a marketer’s personal perspective and considering organizational constraints.

• How much money do you have?

An offshore developer would be your best option if you have limited funds and cannot predict your future campaigns’ needs in the present. But, external expertise can also prove to be expensive if weighed against each campaign, so choose wisely.

• How much time do you have?

As mentioned before, an in-house developer would often need more time to be trained and onboarded properly. Often, though, this investment pays off in the longer run. If time is a constraint, you should look towards external expertise that can get the job done quickly and with little micromanaging on your part.

• Do you have the software and know-how set up?

A key advantage with an offshore developer is that, more often than not, they come with the software. This benefit can be touted up as an additional charge. So, if your organization has already invested in setting up the niche tools and techniques, you can consider hiring an in-house email developer who can make better use of these. 

• Do you have an in-house team already?

Coordination with every other campaign stakeholder is a key part of an email developer’s daily job-list. They will also have to report to you. This is an easier task for an in-house developer, especially if you have already onboarded the other resources needed for your email marketing function. On the other hand, if you have outsourced every other part of the function, you will be better served with a dedicated, offshore email developer, too.

Wrapping up

So, there you have it – some of the definite scenarios and factors that you can weigh to get a clear idea of the pros and cons of an offshore developer vis-à-vis an in-house developer. At the end of the day, you will have to take a call on the kind of resource you wish to hire for designing your emails based on your requirements and the organizational set-up. In different scenarios, they can both help save on time, efforts, and money and deliver the ultimate goal you will be eyeing: the success of every single email marketing campaign you roll out.

Looking to hire a dedicated offshore email developer who brings experience, expertise, and energy? We can help with certified experts.