8 signs that indicate you need to hire a dedicated HTML email developer

Developing pixel perfect emails that render well across all email clients, screens, and devices is a rare skill that requires technical expertise. If you have conceptualized a beautiful email but it does not look good in the subscriber’s inbox, all your efforts will be futile. That’s where a professional email developer can help. 

A well-designed html email template has several advantages as mentioned below:

1. It builds a good brand reputation. 
2. It helps to track the email campaign performance and optimize the strategy accordingly. 
3. Such an email is accessible and easily readable for everyone. 
4. It will convey the purpose of your email more effectively and increase the open rate and click-through rate

How to create an HTML email: An overview

First of all, the email is conceptualized and the email designer creates a graphics file. This graphics file can be in psd, pdf, ai, or sketch format. The developer then codes this file into HTML email that can be deployed through the ESP. 

Nowadays, ESPs also come with a drag-and-drop email template builder. The user only needs to drag-and-drop the email elements and it is ready for deployment. However, if you want to create an attractive, tailormade email from scratch, you can count on email developers. 

So, how will you determine whether you need to hire a dedicated email developer? Here are some signs you must look for:

1. Recruitment is an exhausting task

Recruiting is an intricate process that involves too many resources, time, and effort. It will also mean you have to perform background checks, carry out interviews, and work on monthly payroll, quarterly incentives, and yearly appraisals. Many times, you are unable to find the talent you are looking for, even after registering on LinkedIn and all the job portals. All these can get too exhausting and hamper your productivity. You can, instead, hire a dedicated development team and outsource your email template production tasks. It will give you access to a huge talent pool that is in line with your email marketing needs. You only need to assign the job and ensure timely delivery from the dedicated developer. Needless to say, it is more affordable and cost-effective when compared to in-house recruitment. Small businesses running low on budget and resources should definitely hire a dedicated developer. 

Cost of hiring an in-house email developer:

• Entry-level email developer – from $43,875/year
• Intermediate level email developer – approximately $65,000/year
• Senior-level email developer – up to $110,500/year

While hiring a full time developer can cost you $6500 per month in the US, you can outsource to an agency for about $149 per project based on the scope and type of project.  

At Email Uplers, you can hire a resource for $2500 per month and save up to 40% of your expenses.  

2. You do not have enough office space and infrastructure

You need to fulfill several prerequisites to hire an in-house email development team. Firstly, you will need enough office space and infrastructure to accommodate the professionals. It will come with additional expenses of staff training, upgrades, hardware and software tools, overheads, and employee engagement programs. Imagine the expenses of those ergonomic tables and chairs, desktops or laptops, headphones, speakers, air conditioners, etc. As overwhelming as it sounds, it can get even more taxing when you actually go out to purchase them.

The monthly bill for overhead costs can look something like this:

• Rent: $1,200
• Insurance: $350
• Property taxes: $180
• Office supplies: $100
• Utilities: $200

All these expenses will add up to $2030 every month, amounting to more than $24000 annually. 

You can consider hiring offshore dedicated developers to save on all these costs. It will also cut down on the utility bills of electricity and Internet connection. Outsourcing to an offshore developer will release you of all these worries and let you focus on business growth. 

3. There are more of seasonal jobs in your kitty

Productivity is a major concern when you have an in-house team working for you. There are many companies that have a seasonal flow of work. During the holidays, you could be having a huge overflow of tasks and resource crunch. On the contrary, during the slack season, you could have surplus resources with negligible work. If such scenarios are commonplace for you, opt for a offshore dedicated developer model so that you do not have to reschedule the tasks for the entire team. It will help to prevent overstaffing as you can pay as you go for the short-term projects. Consequently, it will avoid any workflow disruption.  

4. Flexibility is most important for you

As email development entails a number of interconnected steps, modifying a single one can mess up the entire process. Consequently, it will butt in on the smooth flow of tasks. There might be a sudden increase or decrease in the number of emails to be produced. With a dedicated development team, you can scale it according to your requirements. It will give you the option to hire on a per project basis or hire a dedicated developer. Also, they will conform to your internal processes without any hassles. Eventually, it will save time on recruitment and training the professionals to match your expectations. 

5. You have constantly evolving client needs

Do you dread losing out on a client just because your professional does not have the necessary expertise? That’s where a dedicated team can help. They are familiar with the tools and advanced email development techniques that are needed to provide high-end services. Based on the skillsets you require, you can hire entry level to senior level dedicated developers without getting into the complicated recruitment process.

6. Your emails are not fetching the expected results

Despite putting in all your hard work, it is possible that your emails do not perform well. If this is the case with you, you must consider hiring a dedicated email developer who can help you out. They can assess the previous email campaigns and figure out the issues with the campaigns. 

These issues can be:

1. Failure to comply with the anti-spam guidelines like CAN-SPAM, CASL, GDPR, CCPA, and advanced privacy features of iOS 15.
2. Compatibility issues with different email clients.
3. Emails not getting delivered in the subscriber’s inbox.

A dedicated email developer will help you overcome all these challenges by creating an email that follows all the best practices. The seasoned developers at Email Uplers watch for all the factors that can influence inbox placement, accessibility of your emails, and campaign performance.

For example:

1. Use of web-safe fonts
2. Formatting of the email copy
3. File size of the email
4. Visuals added
5. Alt-text with the imagery
6. Hyperlinks in the email
7. Provision of fallbacks
8. Color contrast 
9. Proper flow with semantic tags
10. CTA design and placement

If you are unsure about the nitty gritties of these elements, hiring a dedicated email developer will be the safest bet for you. They will create the best possible templates for you, considering all these aspects of email designing. 

7. You are looking for someone who can work with different ESPs

A dedicated email developer has hands-on experience working with multiple ESPs like SFMC, Braze, HubSpot, Mailchimp, and Klaviyo, to name a few. If you are looking for someone who can set up your email campaigns across diverse ESPs, outsourcing to a dedicated email developer is the best option. They can take care of your email automation workflow according to your sales funnels and customer journeys irrespective of your marketing platforms. Also, they help you to create dynamic or modular templates that are aligned with your marketing objectives. While hiring a dedicated email developer, you get an option to choose from certified professionals. For instance: Email Uplers gives you an option to hire Marketo certified associates and SFMC experts from their huge pool of expert professionals. With email developers having more than a decade of experience, we can help you get started in just five days. 

8. You like a results-driven approach

Sometimes, in-house teams can get complacent as they have a steady flow of income through the monthly paychecks. Agencies, on the other hand, rely on client testimonials. Their growth and profitability depends on how the campaigns perform for the clients. Therefore, they are more results driven. Since they are working with different clients belonging to diverse industries, they understand the competition better.  They will design up to date email templates that are compliant with the latest technologies and industry standards. They perform meticulous testing of the emails so that they render well, irrespective of the email clients and devices. To put things into perspective, the email developers at Uplers carry out testing in 40+ email clients, 15+ devices and all the popular web browsers. We take care of upgrading their skills at regular intervals so that they can stay abreast with the latest functionalities of ESPs. Our professionals stay in touch with the industry experts to make sure that they do not miss out on any latest email marketing or design trends.

Wrapping Up

Recruiting for the right technical skills can be one of the trickiest things for a business; it can get daunting to identify and onboard the smart ones. That’s where an offshore dedicated team of professionals comes into the picture. You get the liberty of “evidence-based” hiring by looking at their portfolio and knowing their exact expertise without any ambiguity. So, if you are facing a ‘recruiter’s block’ and unable to find the right match for your business needs, get ready to shift to a dedicated developer model and save big.

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