Sending or receiving emails involves three parties: the sender, the receiver, and the email service provider (ESP). Each one has a role to play, and with trusty email being one of the most effective marketing channels, the right ESP is crucial for your business. In this article, we’ll discuss the roles of an ESP. We’ll explain an ESP, the difference between an ESP and an email client, and the qualities of a good ESP.
What is an ESP (Email Marketing Service Provider)?
An email service provider (ESP) is a tool that allows you to create and send email campaigns to your list of subscribers. An ESP is like a postman. If you were sending letters to someone, whether or not that letter reaches its destination on time is the responsibility of the postman.
That letter is the email you create. The ESP is critical in ensuring that emails land in your subscribers’ inboxes. Beyond facilitating email delivery, ESPs allow you to store subscribers’ email addresses.
How is an ESP Different From a Regular Email Account?
Email clients and email service providers are different. The ESP is software that sends email campaigns to a list of contacts. The email client is what you use to read your emails. For example, Gmail, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, Outlook, or Android Mail App are email clients, while Benchmark Email, Constant Contact, and Mailchimp are examples of ESPs.
ESPs are an essential business tool for getting your message to your prospects and customers. Instead of sending emails one at a time through your email client (yikes!), an ESP allows you to send your message to everyone on your list and measure your results.
Why do Businesses Need an ESP?
ESPs are an essential business tool for getting your message to your prospects and customers. Instead of sending emails one at a time through your email client (yikes!), an ESP allows you to send your message to everyone on your list and measure your results.
How does an ESP work?
When you log in to your ESP, you’ll have everything you need to create and send email campaigns.
First, you will need to add and authenticate your email domain. This means verifying that you own your sending domain to maintain an excellent reputation and maximize your email deliverability.
You’ll need to add your contacts or subscribers. This can be accomplished with a simple .csv upload. Sometimes, you might use an integration to pull your contacts from one software (like a CRM) to your ESP. Then, voila, you have your email list.
Next, you’ll create your email. You can create text-based emails or HTML emails with images and branding to help you make an impression in the inbox. Most ESPs include email marketing templates and easy-to-use drag-and-drop email builders or WYSIWYG email editors.
With your list and email ready, you’re ready to send.
After your email is sent, your ESP will give you essential insights into the success of your email campaign. Your email marketing metrics, like open rate, click-through rate, bounces, and unsubscribes, will help you refine your strategy and manage your email subscriber list.
That’s the nuts and bolts of how ESPs work. As your email strategy advances, you’ll use additional features like personalization, segmentation, a/b testing, and automation, which most ESPs include.
What are the Key Features of an ESP?
ESPs can vary significantly in their feature offering. More mature ESPs, like Mailchimp or Constant Contact, include features outside of email marketing, such as website builders or marketing ads. But most ESPs include these core features:
- Drag-and-drop email builder: Most people aren’t great with HTML, and email clients have their own tricky rules for displaying emails. That’s why ESPs include drag-and-drop or WYSIWYG editors for building emails—no coding required.
- Pre-made templates: Email design isn’t easy. Most ESPs provide prebuilt templates. You can change images, colors, and the logo and add your email copy to customize your email campaign.
- Subscriber forms: Growing your subscriber base is critical to growing your business. ESPs include forms that you can easily add to your website or landing pages to watch your list grow.
- Marketing automation: ESPs with automation can eliminate manual work. Some include pre-built workflows, while others let you build your own campaign sequences.
- A/B testing: Some ESPs provide tools to assist marketers with subject line selections, automation, and email content for their audience.
- List management: Did you know managing your subscriber list is as crucial as creating outstanding email campaigns? ESPs allow you to segment your lists by subscriber behavior and subscriber attributes.
- Reporting and Analytics: The best part about sending marketing emails through your ESP is seeing the results. Reports tell you how your emails performed and give you hints about what changes you might want to make in your next campaign.
How are ESPs using AI?
Generative AI is popping up everywhere in ESPs. AI-generated email designs, AI subject lines, and AI email copy allow email marketers to create better campaigns more efficiently.
Smart Subject Lines generates engaging email subject lines every time.
What Types of Businesses Use an ESP?
Any business can (and should!) use an ESP. Businesses, large and small, rely on ESPs to connect with their customers and subscribers.
But are ESPs Expensive?
ESPs are a cost-effective way for any business to reach its audience, and the ROI is undeniable. Despite being a digital marketing channel that’s been around the longest, email marketing still reigns with a whopping 3600% return on investment.
Two factors generally impact the cost of your email service provider: features and the size of your contact list.
The more advanced your needs are in automation, analytics, and integrations, the more you’ll likely see costs rise. Likewise, as your subscriber list grows and you store more contacts in your ESP, your costs will increase.
Knowing the ROI of your email marketing is essential for choosing the right balance of features and cost.
Are There Different Types of ESPs?
Yes! ESPs are not a one-size-fits-all situation. Here are the main types of email service providers to consider in your search:
All-in-One ESP
As email service providers have gone upmarket, their feature set has matured. These all-in-one service offerings go beyond sending emails to include related marketing activities, such as contact management, web development, advertising, and more. While an all-in-one solution can encompass many marketing needs in one app, it can be challenging for these platforms to do everything well.
Standalone ESP
Alternatively, standalone email service providers focus only on sending emails. As a single tool for email campaigns, they often work well with other tools, allowing marketers to build a more customized marketing stack.
ESP for eCommerce
ESPs for eCommerce have specialized features and workflows built for online retailers, such as abandoned cart recovery, product recommendations, purchase tracking, and integration with eCommerce platforms.
Transactional Email ESP
Transactional ESPs provide robust capabilities for sending transactional emails, like order confirmations, shipping updates, and payment receipts. These emails are crucial for keeping customers informed about their purchases.
Niche ESP
Some industries have specific requirements and regulations that require niche solutions. For example, K12 email service providers include integrations with school databases and solutions for managing child/guardian contact structures.
What are Some Popular ESPs?
You may already be familiar with some household names in the world of ESPs. Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Moosend, tinyEmail, and, of course, Benchmark Email are famous examples of ESPs.
You can learn more about these popular ESPs and how they compare here:
Your Handy ESP Buying Checklist
ESPs have been a mainstay of digital marketing for decades. The market is quite mature, with newcomers popping up every day. However, with so many options, selecting the correct ESP for your use case can be challenging.
Don’t stress. I’ve assembled 10 questions to ask when shopping for ESP software – so you can feel confident in your decision and hit the ground running with email marketing.
How Easy is it to Use?
Ease of use translates into time saved and headaches avoided. Does the ESP have an intuitive interface? Is the onboarding process lengthy or straightforward? Is support self-serve, or will you have access to live support? When it comes to features, is technical expertise required?
Many ESPs offer a free account or free trial so that you can evaluate ease of use firsthand.
What Features are Included?
Comparing features between platforms and comparing plans within the same ESP platform is not a lighthearted task. However, if you know what you want to accomplish with your email strategy, you can more easily narrow it down to your must-have feature list. Consider:
- Automation
- Segmentation
- Personalization
- A/B testing
- Growing your subscriber list
- Reporting and analytics
- The tools you need to integrate with
How Good is the Deliverability Rate?
The best-looking email is something with good deliverability. It’s worth visiting review sites to see what other consumers say about an ESP’s deliverability. Also, ask the ESP how to control your sending reputation on their platform.
Email Deliverability 101: Understanding the Basics of Making it to the Inbox
What are the Pricing Plans?
As we mentioned, pricing will most likely depend on the features you require and your list size. If the ESP has tiered pricing, you’ll want to understand if you can easily upgrade or downgrade your plan should you get started and discover you need more or fewer features.
Hopefully, you plan on growing your email list. You’ll also want to understand how pricing scales with the number of contacts you store or the number of emails you send every month. If you plan to go from a 1,000-subscriber list to a 10,000-subscriber list, be aware of the price increase you could face.
How Good is Customer Support?
Trustworthy customer support can make a huge difference, especially when dealing with email marketing deadlines and urgent communication. Can you expect to get a helping hand when you need it? Does your plan include live support, or is it an add-on?
Is it Scalable?
As your business expands, your email marketing needs will change, and switching email service providers is a project that most would like to avoid. For instance, you may have one service offering today but plan to launch more products and services in the future. Business changes can impact the way you need to communicate with your audience and how you need to segment your list. Ask about the ESP’s ability to scale with you. Can they handle more extensive lists and complex campaigns as your requirements evolve?
What Security and Compliance Measures are in Place?
With GDPR and other regulations, data security and compliance are at the top of many marketers’ minds. Ask about the ESP’s protocols for keeping data safe, managing consent, and adhering to privacy laws.
Author Bio:
Digital Marketing Manager
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