Email Service Provider (ESP)

The marketing industry is constantly changing. Gone are the days of mailing postcards to advertise your sales. In fact, 80% of small and medium businesses say email is the best way to gain and retain customers.

But you can’t send marketing emails through a traditional email account. Instead, you need to use an email service provider. Let’s take a look at what an ESP is, the benefits of using one, and how to choose the best one for your business.

What Is an Email Service Provider?

An email service provider is a valuable tool for any business. It is a company that offers the service of building email lists and storing these emails. You can then send emails to your list of subscribers in bulk.

The fact that you can use contact lists and send campaigns to an entire list is what separates an ESP platform from email providers like Gmail, Outlook, and AOL.

ESP Email Marketing Benefits

One of the biggest benefits of using an ESP for email marketing is that you can createdo email marketing by yourself. You don’t need to have an entire marketing team, just toagency send out your newsletters and promotions.

Email platform providers also allow you to create and build subscriber lists. You can segment your subscribers based on their characteristics, like how they signed up or their demographics. This makes it easier to target the specific audience you want to reach.

You will also have testing capabilities, such as A/B testing for subject lines. This can help you get a higher click-through rate and increase your return on your ESP marketing automation investment. 

ESPs also give you access to reporting and analytics. This allows you to see exactly what is or is not working, so you can alter your email marketing campaigns as needed.

All of these features and benefits come together to ensure your ESP marketing leads to results. You’ll be able to increase your customer satisfaction, email conversions, engagement, and retention.

How to Get the Most Out of Your ESP

The best way to get the most out of your email service provider is to create an email marketing strategy that is automated and tailored specifically to meet your goals. You’ll want to decide what kind of emails you’ll send, when, and who they will target.

Creating welcome and onboarding emails is a great way to engage new audience members. You’ll be able to hook them and make a good first impression. Re-engagement emails can even do the same for dormant customers.

If you’re involved in e-commerce, you may want to create transactional emails. You can even send abandoned cart emails automatically, to encourage customers to place an order.

Criteria for Choosing a Functional Email Service Provider

It’s key that your ESP can support the number of subscribers you need. You should also make sure your platform comes with the features that you need. 

For example, if you are focused on smart marketing, the platform should support funnels, triggers, and autoresponders that can handle this.

At the same time, your platform should be easy enough that you can actually use it. While it may take some training and exploration, you should be able to feel comfortable setting up your campaigns.

Take Your Marketing to the Next Level

An email service provider can make it easier to reach your audience while saving time through automation. But choosing the right one is important, so you need to make sure your chosen ESP has the features you need.

Sign up for a free trial with ActiveTrail to get started today.