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E-Marketing URGENT - Need Help Fast!

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Need Help With Selecting An Email Marketing Agency
Posted By: Email Marketer* on 12/9/2006 5:08 AM (CST)	500 Points
Hi everyone, I'm in the process of selecting an agency to handle copywriting, design and HTML coding for our email campaigns -- not the actual broadcasting of the email. My biggest challenge will be to find an agency that knows what email marketing is about - how coding for the web differs from coding for email - which coding & design practices work in terms of enhancing deliverability etc... I've come up with a bunch of questions to ask the agencies to determine their knowledge of email marketing and would like your input on this list: 1. How do you keep track of the latest email marketing trends and best practices? 2. What is the most important trend today? 3. Which is the main challenge when it comes to designing an email? 4. What is the right balance between text & images in an email? 5. In what way does coding for email differ from coding from the web? 6. If you would only have time to test your email campaign in one email client, which one would you choose and why? 7. What experience do you have in email creative and design for businesses in our industry? 8. What project management process do you follow for campaign management and production? 9. What experience does your team have in publication management and direct marketing? 10. Tell me about some campaigns you’ve run that were more than “batch and blast” 11. What can you do from a copywriting, design and coding point of view to ensure that an email doesn't end up in the spam folder - or isn't blacklisted? 12. Do you use a spamcheck tool? Which one? 13. With which email best practice do you disagree? Why? 14. What affects deliverability the most? Do you think this list is comprehensive enough to determine the agency's knowledge of email marketing? I'm also thinking of giving the agencies on my shortlist a number of tasks to test their skills. I'm looking for practical examples of tests that I could have them do to test their copywriting skills and their design & coding skills. So any suggestions on this topic are welcome as well. Thanks a lot in advance for your help. An Email Marketer PS. I will only consider agencies that have copywriters who are native speakers in Dutch and French.

Posted by: Vincent	Accepted Answer
12/9/2006 6:50 AM (CST)
Hi, Are you asking if all your questions should be part of the 'interview' or meeting, or as a written RFP (request for proposal)?

Posted by: Inbox_Interactive	Accepted Answer
12/9/2006 7:10 AM (CST)
These all sound fine, but as there are not always going to be "right" and "wrong" answers to many of these questions, you're going to be spending an awful lot of time trying to interpret and differentiate the responses. For example, when you get ten different answers as to what affects deliverability the most, then what do you do? You said, "My biggest challenge will be to find an agency that knows what email marketing is about - how coding for the web differs from coding for email - which coding & design practices work in terms of enhancing deliverability etc." I don't know why that is such a big challenge. Are you looking only at larger agencies in which email marketing is just a small piece? Why not look only at agencies that do only email marketing and that have a strong client list and have been in business for a while? To me, that's the best indicator: a number of long-term clients and glowing references. As for "tests," your concern seems to be deliverability, but you said you're not going to ask the agency to handle deployment. While there's no doubt that content and layout and coding has an impact on the "spamminess" of an email, I think non-creative factors still play a very important part with respect to getting the message to the inbox. If you plan to test their different creative abilities, you need to be sure that you do a fair comparison. You can't just send Agency A's message one day and Agency B's message another and say, "Well, A did better than B, so A must be the better agency." Testing such as this needs to be done in a very controlled, fair manner. Good luck with the search. Paul

Posted by: Email Marketer*	Author Response
12/9/2006 7:58 AM (CST)
@Vincent: these questions will be part of the interview @Paul: I'm located in a small European country. To my knowledge there are litte to no agencies on our market that specialize in email marketing - the ones that do offer email marketing support, offer it as a small portion of their portfolio. I'm not looking for a right or wrong answer to these questions, I'm just looking to see how they will respond and how they will justify their answer because I need to get a feeling of how much they actually know... and how much effort I will have to make in teaching the agency in the basics of email marketing. I am aware that the non-creative factors play a very big role when it comes to deliverability, but you can trust me when I say that we have that covered in the best possible way :o)

Posted by: Email Marketer*	Author Response
12/9/2006 7:59 AM (CST)
the reason why I'm looking to outsource is mainly because I can't handle the volume any more...

Posted by: KathySmithFilms*	Accepted Answer
12/9/2006 9:21 AM (CST)
Do you want bids and would you like copywriters to contact you? How do they get a hold of you to apply? It sounds like you are going through expansion. For your in-house standards, I suggest the posts be written up for your qualifications and correction division so that you can be in control of who is positioning their agency or name with the value you have established. If this is potential work there are certain experts here on Marketing Profs that are amazing if available. Good luck, Kathy

Posted by: Email Marketer*	Author Response
12/9/2006 9:35 AM (CST)
Hi Kathy, No I'm not looking for bids - I've already made my selection of local agencies that have received (and responded to) a request for proposal. The help that I'm requesting here has to do with the final phases of the selection process: making sure I test the agencies properly on their knowledge & skills... Sorry for not being clear enough :o)

Posted by: MOSimmons	Accepted Answer
12/10/2006 1:03 PM (CST)
Agree with Inbox_Interactive, you're not making your life an easier with some of these questions that seem subjective in nature. Because you are handling deployment (via campaign monitor, contant contact, etc.) you're giving your agency and out should the campaign not meet its objectives. How do you track click-through for individual targets? And how detailed is that report? Do you A/B test subject lines and copy until you've maximized campaign effectiveness? Please walk me through that process. Is html the best format for email marketing? Is it more effective to send short, text only messages that invite targets to an online conversion site, portal or brand building community? Which agency is thinking about metrics? Email is a numbers game driven by statistics as much as by creative. How will this agency help you refine your campaign based on an analysis of your results? Good luck...

Posted by: Email Marketer*	Author Response
12/10/2006 2:13 PM (CST)
hmmm... I'm not looking for a strategic partner to help me optimize my campaigns - I'm looking for an agency that can 1) write decent copy and 2) can put the copy in a properly coded html document that I just need to upload to our email system, test and deploy. Strategy and analysis will be handled in-house. So it's mainly operational work that I expect from them. Until now this is what I've been doing myself -- and I can't handle the load anymore. We can discuss deployment, testing and analytics here, but that's not the point. I'm on top of all of that. I just need someone to give me some advice on how to test agencies to see that they really can deliver what I need. I'm thinking of giving them a task to complete so that I can see how good they are in copywriting, email design and coding. The questions may be too subjective - but I do need to get a feel for how much they know about email marketing. But maybe I'm missing the point?

Posted by: Inbox_Interactive	Member Response
12/10/2006 3:19 PM (CST)
For what it's worth, we'd be unlikely to accept a "task" as an indication of our work unless you were going to pay us. I think I'd be a little skittish about working with any agency that was going to just give away copy, design, and production services for free...sounds like they really need the work. And can an agency really afford to put its best foot forward for free? Also, one-time tests are like first dates...everyone is on their best behavior and using the salad fork for the salad, but that's not how relationships are over time. I've been married for six years now, and I routinely use the salad fork for my entree. (Peasant.) I think you just have to rely on references and work examples and your overall gut to make a decision. I can appreciate the extent to which you want to analyze this and make the right decision, but I think you'll either get (1) a lot of output that won't represent what you'll actually get over time or (2) analysis paralysis.

Posted by: darcy.moen	Accepted Answer
12/10/2006 11:44 PM (CST)
I think you will find that some firms can help you with an excelent design, but do not understand the technical guidelines to ensure deliverablity. On the other hand, you may find geeks who understand all the technical points, but don't understand copy writing. Let's face it, you need a firm that is proficient in all three key elements of emarketing, and this is VERY hard to find. This might be something you bring in-house and specialize with. Darcy Moen

Posted by: lcp	Accepted Answer
12/11/2006 11:40 AM (CST)
Hi...my first post here. I run a small business that has been providing content, design and delivery for the ezine needs of some of our clients for the past three years. On occasion, we've been asked to do some other e-promotional pieces for them as well. So while we do not consider ourselves an "agency" such as you're looking for, I think I can come from the viewpoint of those you will be evaluating. I think the questions you're asking are legitimate (and probably effective) ways to suss out how much each agency knows, which seems to be your main goal. You might want to inquire a little more about their copywriting abilities/know-how, specifically as regards email campaigns. Also, I agree with the post about not asking for free "task tests." You want to work with a professional firm, not a "we'll do anything to get the job" group. A request: I'm very curious to know how the firms you're talking to respond to your questions...I want to see how our knowledge at my company stacks up to others doing similar things. Would you be willing to send me what you learn from them from your questions? All the best, Linda

Posted by: telemoxie	Accepted Answer
12/11/2006 7:40 PM (CST)
I've been tempted to respond to this post several times... I'm going to go out on a bit of a limb here and suggest that maybe you should not be looking for a traditional "agency" at all. An advertising agency can provide a broad range of services, not only including creative but strategy as well, not just eMarketing, but branding and other services. If I'm reading between the lines, you want to keep the eMarketing strategy decisions for yourself, and get someone to handle complex, time consuming, tedious details. It may be that the agencies you are talking with, and plan to send the questionnaire to, don't have the expertise in-house themselves, but will farm out the work (and mark it up). This creates problems for you - you'll be paying an inflated price for the service, you will have communications issues, there may be delays in getting work done, and you run the risk that the agency will lose their relationship with their outside email marketing guru. If I were in your shoes, I would be less concerned with someone being an "agency" and more concerned with their in-house technical expertise. Maybe you are concerned about that as well, maybe that is why you have posted this question. Rather than emailing an agency a list of questions (which they can simply forward to an industry partner) I'd call in the AM and set up a time to talk with their email team in the PM. If you look to the right, you will see a list of experts in eMarketing. If you decide to make some "near real time" calls, you might include some of our experts here at MarketingProfs (but don't call me, I'm a telemarketing guy). I'll put up our forum's technical and strategy experts up against anybody in the world.

Posted by: carrie77	Moderator Response
12/21/2006 6:48 AM (CST)
Hello Everyone, I am closing this question since there has been no activity in 10 days. Thanks for participating! Carrie (Production Editor)

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