{"id":24792,"date":"2021-03-12T18:19:03","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T12:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/email.uplers.com\/blog\/?p=24792"},"modified":"2024-06-10T13:21:42","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T07:51:42","slug":"5-key-advantages-of-outsourcing-your-next-sfmc-campaign-to-an-external-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/email.uplers.com\/blog\/5-key-advantages-of-outsourcing-your-next-sfmc-campaign-to-an-external-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Key Advantages of Outsourcing your Next SFMC Campaign to An External Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If your brand relies on Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) for email marketing, this imaginary conversation may resonate with you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boss: Steve, we are expanding our email marketing program for the upcoming holiday season. How many additional people should we hire?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salesforce Marketing Cloud email specialist<\/em><\/a> (Specialist): We\u2019ll probably need an additional 4 developers, and at least one automation specialist and SFMC architect.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boss: Great! Let\u2019s start the hiring process.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specialist: No, hold on. Will we need these new resources on an ongoing basis?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boss: No. Why?<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specialist: Well, these resources are expensive. Hiring a junior email marketing specialist will cost around $68,500 annually, a junior marketing automation $87,250, and a junior marketing operations specialist $89,000. Senior people will cost considerably more. Then there\u2019s the time we\u2019ll have to spend on interviews.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boss: Well, we need to start soon, so we can\u2019t waste time on internal hiring. And we don\u2019t have the budget for expensive resources.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specialist: Why don\u2019t we outsource our SFMC campaigns to a specialist agency?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boss: Hmm, let\u2019s review the advantages of outsourcing an email marketing specialist agency before we make a decision to expand in-house.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite its user-friendly features, SFMC is still vastly complex. To effectively manage these complexities and get the biggest benefits from this ESP, the right SFMC email marketing team is absolutely critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While an in-house team does have its advantages, outsourcing offers even more benefits that cannot be ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 out of 10 marketers<\/strong><\/a> sometimes outsource email work. Here are 5 reasons why!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#1: To Get High Open and Click-through Rates<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

55% and 48% of marketers<\/a> believe that open and click-through rates are effective metrics for gauging email success. And yet, many brands struggle to realize high rates with an in-house team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An outsourced agency of Salesforce Marketing Cloud email specialists will know the strategies to boost open and click-through rates. They will start with audience segmentation. They will create different segments by demographics, personal interests, behavioral or historical data, etc, decide whether to create data filters or SQL queries in Email Studio,<\/strong> or create more precise segments using Audience Studio<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They will also test the impact of subject lines on open and click-through rates using SFMC tools like Einstein Copy Insights<\/strong>. Then with Einstein Send Time Optimization<\/strong><\/a> (STO)<\/strong> in Journey Builder,<\/strong> they will predict when each contact is likely to engage with your email in the next 24 hours, and adjust send times accordingly. Your in-house team may struggle with these important aspects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#2: Build Engaging, Personalized Campaigns<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s subscribers are bombarded with marketing emails, so they don\u2019t have the patience for generic emails. They either delete such emails or mark them as spam, which affects the  results of email marketing campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By outsourcing, you can avoid these issues because the expert external team will create campaigns that connect with subscribers at a more personal level. They will create personalized subject lines, greetings, and copy that offers a unique value proposition using Einstein Content Selection<\/strong>. This copy may include personalized incentives, will be well-structured, contain effective CTAs, and have  a user-friendly design that effectively persuades readers towards a particular action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agency will take advantage of SFMC Content Builder,<\/strong> Salesforce email templates<\/a> and dynamic content blocks to quickly create responsive emails. They will also define specific rules and different content for different audiences to ensure that the right message goes out to the right subscriber. They won\u2019t waste time on HTML coding or AMPscripts and get campaigns out faster.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Let<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

They can also create interactive<\/em> content that can generate 2X more conversions than \u201cpassive\u201d content <\/a>. These emails can deliver a more engaging and friction-free experience to your audience, get qualified leads, and boost sales and profits. An in-house team, especially one that\u2019s young and inexperienced, may not be aware of the right strategies to get these benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#3: Improve Email Deliverability<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Email deliverability is not always easy to manage. That\u2019s why 14% of email marketers<\/a> outsource this area to a specialist company or agency, and you should too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can outsourced resources help improve your email deliverability?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For one, they will effectively leverage Einstein Engagement Scoring<\/strong> in Email Studio<\/strong> to segment subscriber lists and then deliver to the most engaged users first. They will generate predictive models that indicate each subscriber’s likelihood to stay subscribed, open an email, or click on links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best agencies will also know that send frequencies can impact deliverability rates, especially during busy times. So they will leverage Send Throttle <\/strong>in Email Studio<\/strong> to spread out email sends and ensure that subscribers don\u2019t get annoyed \u2013 or worse unsubscribe. They will also work with Einstein Send Time Optimization (STO)<\/strong> in Journey Builder <\/strong>to determine optimal send times \u2013 even for \u201cbatch\u201d sends \u2013 when subscribers are most likely to open your emails and engage with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agency\u2019s anti-spam experts will use SFMC<\/strong> Content Detective<\/strong> to review email content, and edit the specific triggers to minimize the chances of your email being marked as Spam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, they will establish a good reputation with ISPs to improve email deliverability, and warm your IP address by gradually increasing the volume of emails to improve your open and click-through rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#4: Collect, Leverage, and Clean up Subscriber Data<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you know your CRM data can come handy when it comes to building different kinds of campaigns? Your in-house team may not be aware of this but the specialist team definitely is!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SFMC Email Studio<\/strong> gives you a consolidated view of your audience and triggers customer segmentation with data extensions. The outsourced team can customize them to store particular types of customer data such as contact details or purchasing history. They will apply relevant filters to build different customer segments and send targeted messages to each. They will also leverage your CRM data, Email Studio <\/strong>and Content Builder<\/strong> to create great content that resonates with your audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To maintain email list hygiene and increase your chances of campaign success, it\u2019s important to know about the unsubscribes, spam complaints, and emails that landed in the spam folder. The outsourced specialists can be priceless in this regard. They will also help you update your list and improve the chances that people will click on emails by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n