Not too long ago, Really Good Emails found that 80% of email teams consist of three people or less. Often, the job of email marketing gets “pawned off” on too few people as an “add-on” rather than as a dedicated role.
Now, if your ESP is Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC), you might assume that email marketing is child’s play and that anyone can work with it, even if they’re not a Salesforce email specialist. Sure, SFMC is user-friendly yet comprehensive, feature-rich yet easy-to-use. The platform provides a plethora of world-class tools – including built-in AI – to help you simplify email marketing. From customizable Salesforce templates and real-time email marketing capabilities, to advanced A/B testing and customer journey mapping – SFMC provides all the functionalities you might need to consistently deliver memorable email marketing campaigns.
According to a recent Oberlo article:
- 81% of SMBs rely on email marketing for customer acquisition, 80% for customer retention
- Open rates for welcome emails are 82% compared to just 21% for all emails, indicating that they have great potential for customer reach and engagement
And that’s why….
Email marketing – even with SFMC – is too important for demand-generation, customer engagement and brand-building to simply relegate it to a non-expert or non-dedicated team of resources.
What are the other advantages of hiring a dedicated team of email marketing experts?
The expertise your brand needs
On the surface, email marketing may seem easy. After all, how hard can it be to put together an email marketing campaign, right?
Wrong!
Designing a stand-out email marketing campaign for thousands of subscribers is not the same as writing 1-on-1 emails to a single prospect or lead. Even campaigns that seem “simple” require a lot of thought, planning and execution effort.
Everyone has different skills so if your team consists of shared resources who often multi-task, this may actually work against you. Your writer may not be a good brand strategist, and your brand strategist may not be the best designer. But dedicated writers, brand strategists and designers can focus on their particular area and bring the synergies needed to quickly design and launch a campaign, regardless of its goal, budget or audience type.
And if SFMC is your chosen ESP, you will also benefit by hiring a dedicated Salesforce email specialist. This person can help solidify the brand’s place in a hyper-competitive market and boost results in the short and long term. They can also:
- Compile, maintain and purge email lists
- Proofread copy and key messaging
- Send graphic requests to designers
- Track and analyze campaign results
- Optimize and personalize email copy, design and layout
Emails with personalized subject lines (e.g. with the subscriber’s name) generate 50% higher open rates
Fast on-boarding with minimal business downtime
Non-expert resources tasked with running the brand’s email marketing campaign will need some time to learn, figure things out and get up to speed. Email marketing is a highly dynamic area, so this onboarding time is an opportunity cost that can be very steep.
On the other hand, a dedicated resource team may seem like a pricey “investment” to begin with, but the returns almost always justify the added expense. These personnel are already well-versed in specific areas, so their learning curve is almost flat, and they need little or no onboarding to start working on a new project.
They can jump straight into delivering results by:
- Identifying and finalizing the email marketing strategy
- Creating a campaign plan with scope, resources and activities
- Identify the automation tools required to kick-start the campaign in the shortest time possible
- Segment the audience to ensure that the right email goes out to the right subscriber at the right time
- Quickly resolve issues and drive business growth
A Salesforce email specialist in particular can also help build relationships with all stakeholders (e.g. cart “abandoners” and disengaged customers) with memorable email campaigns that stand out from the crowd and boost the brand’s value.
Measurable results
It’s impossible to tell if an email marketing campaign is successful if its results cannot be measured. A dedicated resource team can deliver measurable results so you know exactly how your campaigns are doing, where the gaps are, and what actions you need to take to address those gaps.
Email marketing generates $42 for every $1 spent. This translates to an astounding ROI of 4200%. This is why 9/10 marketers use email marketing to distribute content organically.
But to get this ROI, a cobbled-together team of non-experts is not enough. Often, this team will feel like they’re stumbling around in the dark – and the (poor) results will prove it.
But a dedicated resource team has seen it all. They have an entire tool chest of skills and knowledge to help them maximize campaign effectiveness. They can deliver stellar work that increases conversions, and track and present important metrics and KPIs that convey the success of email marketing initiatives. This team can also help drive qualitative results through email marketing, whether it’s boosting positive word of mouth, or building a strong brand identity.
Support business scalability
As your business grows, your email marketing is likely to grow with it. Can your team of bits-and-pieces resources effectively handle the increased responsibilities of larger, more complex campaigns?
Are they prepared to create unique, non-templatized emails with the “human” touch that address the audience’s fears and anxieties following a crisis like COVID-19?
A dedicated team of Salesforce email specialists and campaign managers, developers, automation specialists, copywriters, designers, data analysts, etc. can leverage their expertise and skills to quickly scale up your email marketing initiatives. This gives brand managers and organizational leadership the confidence to “think big” with email marketing. With experts in the driver’s seat, they can launch more complex or frequent campaigns for larger audiences, and invest more time in research, design and post-campaign analysis.
This team will also take care of end-to-end project management, and manage daily operations like:
- Selecting and customizing the right Salesforce templates for welcome emails, thank you emails, post-purchase emails, gift guides, special offers, etc.
- Setting SMART goals that maximize the chances of campaign success
- Automating campaigns with SFMC Einstein AI
- Optimizing text, graphics, CTA, etc., and create mobile-friendly emails
- Performing A/B testing on multiple versions of a campaign
- Identifying KPIs and track email performance
- Documenting lessons learned and best processes for future campaigns
Now that you know the value of a dedicated email marketing team, here are some tips to help you go ahead and do the hiring!
Tips to select a dedicated resource team for your next SFMC email campaign
Before jumping into the hiring process, it’s important to understand the specific pain points you’re trying to address with this decision. Ask questions like:
- Why do I need a dedicated Salesforce email specialist, developer, campaign manager, automation specialist?
- What results do I expect them to deliver?
- Do I have the technical setup to support this team and my brand’s email marketing goals?
Next, set SMART goals for this team:
- Specific: What is the objective of each email campaign? Grow the subscriber base? Increase conversions? Enhance brand value?
- Measurable: How will you measure each goal? Which KPIs best capture these results?
- Actionable: What actions are needed to achieve these goals?
- Realistic and Time-bound: Is the goal achievable in a certain amount of time? Long-running campaigns and promotional initiatives usually take at minimum a few weeks to deliver results. Have you accounted for this time?
You should also identify the roles and responsibilities for each team member, and set up its managerial/supervisory hierarchy:
- Who will do what?
- Who is the first point of escalation?
- Who will take care of project management?
- Do you need to add a QA step to the process?
- Who will manage team communications?
The right team will consist of expert resources who understand the brand’s aspirations and work together to translate those aspirations into practical and achievable plans. They can take care of every aspect of email management, from audience segmentation and Salesforce template customization, to timely deployment and post-deployment analysis.
The bottomline is that a dedicated, expert and proactive email marketing team like Email Uplers can deliver better results than a reactive team of part-time resources.
Wrap Up
Many brands understand the value of email marketing, but are unsure how to unlock that value. If you want to do email marketing right and are struggling to get good results with a haphazard team of non-dedicated resources, it may be time to think differently, because investing in a team of dedicated email marketing experts can produce massive returns for your brand.
Looking for a one-stop execution partner for your next SFMC email marketing campaign? Get in touch!