Disintermediation is a big word, I get it. If you attempt to say it out loud, it can be quite a tongue twister. It may seem complex and something only your law school professor would be familiar with. In actuality, you don’t need more than a 5th grade level of intelligence to get a firm grasp on the topic. Simply put, it means “cutting out the middle man.”
The marketing world today is currently adopting the practice of disintermediation, effectively devaluing the leading institutions – PR companies, advertising agencies, marketing consultants, etc. – who are, in fact, the experts in the field. In the midst of tightening our budgets for this coming year, the average businessman or businesswoman is taking full control of their own marketing agenda. A widely misconstrued idea is that anyone with half a brain can deploy a flawless email marketing campaign using all of the free and paid tools and resources available on the Internet to its advantage. With the World Wide Web at our fingertips, it does in fact make it more feasible than ever before to learn the trade and take on this responsibility. However, when your business is at stake, a successful marketing campaign should lie in the hands of marketing professionals. Otherwise, it’s equivalent to letting your 3 year old niece manage your finances, or hiring Kim Kardashian to teach a 4th grade math class.
There are plausible arguments for choosing to outsource your email marketing campaign or keep it in house. A large majority of people would agree that the most productive approach is to be an informed consumer and work hand in hand with qualified marketing professionals to attain optimal results.
What’s in it for you?
The primary reasons to outsource your email marketing are to save yourself money, time, and the hassle of doing it yourself and dealing with the learning curve.
If your company already has the IT infrastructure, a robust and reliable mailing solution, a full technical staff dedicated to maintain and monitor your servers, routers, switches, firewalls, Internet Connectivity, IP Reputation, bandwidth, monitoring blacklists, managing optins, other email lists and the time and energy to execute a strategic campaign, the email marketing world is yours for the taking. However, if you are like the majority of businesses that do not have these preexisting resources readily available, you are better off taking the more practical route and outsourcing your email marketing.
What are my options?
For first party email:
If you want a completely hands-off approach and desire a turn-key, fully managed email marketing solution, make the investment in a Managed Email Marketing Service that will guide and manage every aspect of your ongoing email marketing needs. Hire a qualified Email Marketing Agency to handle everything for you.
For third party email:
If you have a general B2B or B2C offer that has mass appeal, you would benefit from the Guaranteed Opens Email Marketing Program that has the potential to drive large amounts of traffic to your website and generate qualified leads, sales and conversions. With this program, you only pay for emails that are delivered to the user’s inbox and opened without their images being blocked.
However, if your offer is highly targeted to a specific demographic, launching a CPM (cost per thousand) campaign to those within your target market would generate the highest return on your initial investment. Browsing the Email Marketing Master File will give you an overview into how you can segment your audience and streamline your targeted offer.
Email marketing is the most valuable and cost-effective method of keeping in touch with your existing customers and prospecting to new, perspective clients. Choosing to leave it in the hands of under qualified individuals with limited resources will get you no further than the spam folder or totally rejected at the door.