Any external expertise is only as good as the internal insights, which serve as a starting point. In other words, what you are going to get will only be as good as what you are prepped to give. Enhanced and constant inputs will unfailingly generate effective and improved outputs. To support and supplement the symbiotic relationship between your team\/organization and the external agency you have hired, you have to be present every step of the way\u2014from the brief to the launch, and after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are 7 probable mistakes that can lead to glitches with your outsourced email marketing and tips to minimize the slips between the drawing board and the inbox.
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/email.uplers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Need-help-with-managing-your-deliverability-issues-.png\")
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n\n\n\n1. Starting Without a Baseline<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nYou have onboarded the external experts, and you\u2019re rearing to explore a new route for your email marketing. While that\u2019s all well and good, we hope you have a basic map in place. If you don\u2019t know where you are in terms of achieved results, it\u2019s going to be difficult to see where your future campaigns are going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, never start without pinning down the pros and cons of your email marketing game to date. Brainstorm with your team to figure out what has worked and what hasn\u2019t. Delineate every single area of success as well as the lacunae, and identify what needs to be done to enhance and eliminate those, respectively. These steps should ultimately help you produce a wishlist and an overarching roadmap for an outsourced email marketing function. These would also serve as the base points in your brief to the email marketing agency you are looking to hire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many businesses are concerned with losing their brand voice when they are planning to outsource content marketing<\/a>. With more people involved and many moving parts, the best way to achieve uniformity is by including your brand voice and style guidelines in your brief to the agency. This will help ensure your brand voice stays consistent and successfully produces positive brand recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n2. Settling for a Poor Fit<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nChemistry is everything\u2014in life and in marketing. If you and the email marketing agency are not in sync, to begin with, it will get extremely challenging to find common ground on anything. Make sure you speak the same dialect of the marketing language\u2014whether it\u2019s numbers, customer centricity, or trends. Be thorough while sizing up your choices, and do not shortlist a team\/agency that seems vastly different to what you\u2019re looking for in experience, values, methods, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may not always be able to get a perfect fit, but don\u2019t worry if the alignment is not 100%. You can always work on it. Remember to pause, assess, and tweak the path of parallel progress every now and then. This is all the more important if you have an in-house team working along with the outsourced experts. Make sure they are on the same page\u2014right from nailing down the smallest objective of an individual email to identifying the biggest metric of campaign success, as well as every measure in between. The fewer the hitches and hiccups, the smoother and more cohesive your campaigns are going to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Ignoring the Learning Curve<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nIf you think your contribution to an outsourced email marketing function stops with a one-time hand-off, you couldn\u2019t be more wrong. The journey of outsourced email marketing<\/a>, from the basics to delivering bang for the buck, is rarely smooth without sufficient efforts, especially in the beginning. (Big tip\u2014automation is better applied to your email marketing itself, not to the outsourcing of it!)<\/p>\n\n\n\nDo not rush the steps in the beginning and skip the part of getting comfortable with each other\u2019s way of working. It\u2019s always going to take some time for you and your outsourced agency to pin down and mirror or complement patterns. Whether it\u2019s your thoughts on the first template or your larger plans for follow-up campaigns, remember all of it is only in your head, to begin with. So, make an effort to transfer your vision and be patient while the experts catch up to your modes and methods. At the same time, you can\u2019t be oblivious to the SOPs and the pulse of your outsourced team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Having Constant Communication Gaps<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nSo, you have set the ball rolling on your outsourced email marketing journey and are raking up results and marking off the first few milestones. The templates are turning up in time and are on point and in tune with your requisites. The first couple of drip campaigns are grabbing eyeballs and pinging encouraging numbers in CTRs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nYou and your external experts should, obviously, celebrate these results, but do not take the foot off the pedal; not just in terms of efforts but also the scale of synchronization. Never fail to keep communication channels open. If you don\u2019t share your perspectives, or invite their inputs on what worked and the things that could have been better or went wrong, you will quickly find yourself at creative deadends. At every step, bank on the numbers to chart a collaborative way forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Leveraging a Poorly Optimized Technology Stack<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nStrategy, plans, and goals are only going to take you halfway to your goal in the modern-day email marketing paradigm. Technology is more than the last-mile delivery channel in this day and age. If your outsourced team\u2019s technology stack is not in line with your requirements or is outdated, everything else is likely to fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Settling for a Poor Fit<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nChemistry is everything\u2014in life and in marketing. If you and the email marketing agency are not in sync, to begin with, it will get extremely challenging to find common ground on anything. Make sure you speak the same dialect of the marketing language\u2014whether it\u2019s numbers, customer centricity, or trends. Be thorough while sizing up your choices, and do not shortlist a team\/agency that seems vastly different to what you\u2019re looking for in experience, values, methods, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may not always be able to get a perfect fit, but don\u2019t worry if the alignment is not 100%. You can always work on it. Remember to pause, assess, and tweak the path of parallel progress every now and then. This is all the more important if you have an in-house team working along with the outsourced experts. Make sure they are on the same page\u2014right from nailing down the smallest objective of an individual email to identifying the biggest metric of campaign success, as well as every measure in between. The fewer the hitches and hiccups, the smoother and more cohesive your campaigns are going to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Ignoring the Learning Curve<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nIf you think your contribution to an outsourced email marketing function stops with a one-time hand-off, you couldn\u2019t be more wrong. The journey of outsourced email marketing<\/a>, from the basics to delivering bang for the buck, is rarely smooth without sufficient efforts, especially in the beginning. (Big tip\u2014automation is better applied to your email marketing itself, not to the outsourcing of it!)<\/p>\n\n\n\nDo not rush the steps in the beginning and skip the part of getting comfortable with each other\u2019s way of working. It\u2019s always going to take some time for you and your outsourced agency to pin down and mirror or complement patterns. Whether it\u2019s your thoughts on the first template or your larger plans for follow-up campaigns, remember all of it is only in your head, to begin with. So, make an effort to transfer your vision and be patient while the experts catch up to your modes and methods. At the same time, you can\u2019t be oblivious to the SOPs and the pulse of your outsourced team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Having Constant Communication Gaps<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nSo, you have set the ball rolling on your outsourced email marketing journey and are raking up results and marking off the first few milestones. The templates are turning up in time and are on point and in tune with your requisites. The first couple of drip campaigns are grabbing eyeballs and pinging encouraging numbers in CTRs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nYou and your external experts should, obviously, celebrate these results, but do not take the foot off the pedal; not just in terms of efforts but also the scale of synchronization. Never fail to keep communication channels open. If you don\u2019t share your perspectives, or invite their inputs on what worked and the things that could have been better or went wrong, you will quickly find yourself at creative deadends. At every step, bank on the numbers to chart a collaborative way forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Leveraging a Poorly Optimized Technology Stack<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nStrategy, plans, and goals are only going to take you halfway to your goal in the modern-day email marketing paradigm. Technology is more than the last-mile delivery channel in this day and age. If your outsourced team\u2019s technology stack is not in line with your requirements or is outdated, everything else is likely to fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you think your contribution to an outsourced email marketing function stops with a one-time hand-off, you couldn\u2019t be more wrong. The journey of outsourced email marketing<\/a>, from the basics to delivering bang for the buck, is rarely smooth without sufficient efforts, especially in the beginning. (Big tip\u2014automation is better applied to your email marketing itself, not to the outsourcing of it!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do not rush the steps in the beginning and skip the part of getting comfortable with each other\u2019s way of working. It\u2019s always going to take some time for you and your outsourced agency to pin down and mirror or complement patterns. Whether it\u2019s your thoughts on the first template or your larger plans for follow-up campaigns, remember all of it is only in your head, to begin with. So, make an effort to transfer your vision and be patient while the experts catch up to your modes and methods. At the same time, you can\u2019t be oblivious to the SOPs and the pulse of your outsourced team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, you have set the ball rolling on your outsourced email marketing journey and are raking up results and marking off the first few milestones. The templates are turning up in time and are on point and in tune with your requisites. The first couple of drip campaigns are grabbing eyeballs and pinging encouraging numbers in CTRs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You and your external experts should, obviously, celebrate these results, but do not take the foot off the pedal; not just in terms of efforts but also the scale of synchronization. Never fail to keep communication channels open. If you don\u2019t share your perspectives, or invite their inputs on what worked and the things that could have been better or went wrong, you will quickly find yourself at creative deadends. At every step, bank on the numbers to chart a collaborative way forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Strategy, plans, and goals are only going to take you halfway to your goal in the modern-day email marketing paradigm. Technology is more than the last-mile delivery channel in this day and age. If your outsourced team\u2019s technology stack is not in line with your requirements or is outdated, everything else is likely to fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n4. Having Constant Communication Gaps<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
5. Leveraging a Poorly Optimized Technology Stack<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n