Email Marketing Companies and Agencies: Choosing the Right Partner for Your Campaigns

Email Marketing Companies and Agencies: Choosing the Right Partner for Your Campaigns
31 October, 2023 • ... • 285 views
Nikita Nilov
by Nikita Nilov

Email marketing used to be so simple: just send emails to your customers.

Now, you have to set up automation, deal with sophisticated CRMs, and create adaptive emails — those alone are enough to confuse even a seasoned marketer.

That’s where the email marketing companies come into play — teams of professionals ready to lift this weight off your shoulders for a reasonable price.

Is there a catch? Let’s find out.

Amidst the evolving media landscape, email marketing companies have emerged as invaluable partners, offering expertise, strategies, and execution to enhance a brand’s communication efforts. In this article, we’ll explore different types of email marketing companies and guide you through the process of selecting the one that will be ideal for your needs.

What is an email marketing agency?

An email marketing agency is a specialized vendor that provides services related to planning, creating, executing, and optimizing email campaigns. With the expertise in design, media, content creation, contact list management, automation, and analytics, they help businesses scale up the email marketing game.

Different types of email marketing agencies

Some email marketing agencies focus on strategy and consulting, others provide end-to-end campaign management. Then, there are also companies that offer email marketing services similar to those of agencies’, but do it as an added value to their SaaS product. Here are some common types:

  • Full-service email marketing agencies: These agencies handle every aspect of email marketing, from designing templates to crafting compelling content, managing subscriber lists, and analyzing campaign performance.
  • Consulting agencies: Consulting agencies offer strategic guidance, helping businesses develop effective email marketing strategies, segment their audience, and optimize their campaigns for better results.
  • Specialized agencies: Some agencies specialize in certain niches like e-commerce, B2B marketing, or lead generation. They tailor their services to cater to the specific needs of those industries.
  • Email marketing automation platforms: These companies develop tools that allow businesses to create, send, and analyze email campaigns while offering their advice and help on the campaign launch to ensure its success.

How to choose an email marketing company

To choose the right email marketing company for your business, you need to carefully consider several key factors. Here’s a breakdown of what to look out for:

The team’s experience and expertise

Evaluate the vendor’s team to ensure they possess the necessary skills and knowledge. To develop email marketing strategies and launch the best email campaigns possible, you need professionals experienced in content creation, design, copywriting, data analysis, and automation platforms.

You’ll be working with selected professionals, not the whole agency, so try to meet with the team you’ll be assigned to first.

Do your best to learn more about the team: check whether they have at least two years of experience and ask what projects they completed recently and what results they achieved. Their portfolios and certifications confirming their expertise would also be nice to have.

Clients’ reviews

Reviews and testimonials from previous clients can provide valuable insights into the agency’s reputation and the quality of its services. Positive reviews from people in the industry usually indicate that the potential vendor is a reliable partner. And if the review is from someone you know, you can always double-check with them whether the shared impressions are genuine or not.

Email marketing companies, like any other service provider, often boast the clients they worked with and list them on their website. This allows you to see what services a particular brand ordered.

Logos of Publicare's clients in the website reference section, including Alnatura, Athlon, Casio, eBay, Kleinanzeigen, and others
When you hover over the logos, you can view the services that Publicare provided for the company associated with the specific logo but you can’t learn the details

You can and should follow up for detailed references, if a brand is mentioned on the vendor’s website, but the specifics are not provided.

You can also try to check online. There are multiple websites that collect reviews —  G2, FeaturedCustomers, Trustindex, and TrustPilot, to name a few.

Case studies

Reviewing case studies can also give you an idea of the agency’s capabilities. Often, these case studies contain qualitative and quantitative results, so if the vendor helped the business from your niche, you will likely get an even better picture of what you can expect from them.

Key services

Ensure the email marketing company offers the exact services you require.

As easy as it might seem, in reality, you might end up spending quite some time before you find out the information you need. That’s because vendors don’t have a uniform approach to listing their services.

Some might choose to have dedicated landing pages for things like template design, content creation, A/B testing, email contact list management, automation setup, analytics, etc.

Others will have their services as package deals and try to highlight the differences between each.

Luckily, more often than not, all the necessary information will be listed on one page.

Selzy's landing page featuring campaign management services, including advice on campaign launches, email template creation, assistance with contact list imports, and complete technical setup

If you are not quite sure what services you might need to reach the desired results, book a consultation. Search for the dedicated signup form on the company’s website or check out the contacts section.

A form on Selzy’s page about campaign management services inviting visitors to book a consultation. The person who wishes to get assistance with launching their first email campaign needs to fill in their contact information and provide project details.

Best email marketing companies

To help you kickstart your search, here are some of the best email marketing companies in the industry:

Selzy

Selzy is an email marketing automation platform that also helps businesses set up email campaigns from scratch, from developing a template to analyzing the results and providing recommendations for future strategies.

selzy
Company type Ecosystem of easy-to-use marketing automation tools
Key email marketing services Previous campaigns’ assessment and advice on future launches

A full technical set-up

Designing responsive email templates and writing email copy

Training marketers and business owners in email marketing

Best fit for Marketers and business owners who are only starting their email marketing efforts and need guidance from experts
Rating 4.8 ⭐ — Capterra (87 reviews)

4.7 ⭐— G2 (22 reviews)

4.8 ⭐— Trustindex (26 reviews)

WebFX

WebFX is a full-service digital marketing agency that offers a range of services, including email marketing. They provide email marketing management, from design to execution, driving results through data-driven strategies. There are multiple campaign packages available, as WebFX strives to provide a custom experience.

webfx
Company type ROI-focused and tech-enabled digital marketing agency
Key email marketing services Campaign & target strategy

Split testing subject lines

All the key email metrics tracking & analysis

Supports any ESP of your choice

Custom email template design

Professional copywriting

Best fit for Someone who is looking for full email marketing support and flexibility of custom solutions
Rating 4.8 ⭐— G2 (175 reviews)

4.4 ⭐— Google (131 reviews)

4.8 ⭐— FeaturedCustomers (5,076 reviews)

Mayple

Mayple is a platform for hiring on-demand marketing talent with access to 600+ marketers to cover the full spectrum of marketing services, including email marketing. They use an AI-powered algorithm to match vetted experts with businesses based on 25-50 factors that they collect during a very thorough vetting process and a deep analysis of your business.

Mayple
Company type Platform for hiring on-demand marketing talent
Key email marketing services Industry & Competitors Research

Supports 50+ ESPs

Setup of key campaigns & automated flows

Ongoing Email Optimization

Best fit for Someone who is looking for a marketing “dream team” but is tired of choosing candidates on their own
Rating 4.8⭐ — TrustPilot (48 reviews)

4.6 ⭐— G2 (55 reviews)

4.8 ⭐— FeaturedCustomers (410 reviews)

Moburst

Moburst has grown from mobile-first roots to become a full-service digital agency. They help companies to scale and become category leaders. When it comes to email marketing services, they focus on creating an automation process to drive user action, no matter what phase of the funnel they’re at.

Moburst
Company type Mobile-first digital marketing agency
Key email marketing services End-to-end email marketing

Creating custom automation based on the customer’s journey

Comprehensive email newsletter service

Best fit for Businesses who want to supercharge their growth and email engagement
Rating 4.4 ⭐— G2 (16 reviews)

4.8 ⭐— FeaturedCustomers (1,847 reviews)

The Good Marketer

From jewelry and hair extensions to air freight and online education, The Good Marketer works with all types of small businesses, providing them with digital marketing services, including email marketing, in partnership with Klaviyo.

The Good Marketer
Company type Digital marketing agency and certified Klaviyo partner
Key email marketing services Email marketing strategy

Ongoing email marketing analytics & campaign optimization 

Copywriting

Full Klaviyo setup

Best fit for Ecommerce and service-based small businesses
Rating 4.8 ⭐— FeaturedCustomers (606 reviews)

InboxArmy

According to them, InboxArmy started as an experiment to create a more efficient and cost-effective way to handle email marketing production. Today, they have a track record of 25,000 email campaigns deployed and claim that their clients save 30% or more compared to current email marketing and digital agencies.

InboxArmy
Company type Full service email marketing agency
Key email marketing services Email template design and coding

Email marketing strategy and campaign management

ESP vendor evaluation and migration

Dedicated account manager

Best fit for Someone who is looking for a one-stop shop for all their email marketing needs
Rating 4.9 ⭐— Clutch (51 reviews)

Rejoiner

Rejoiner makes ecommerce email marketing software, provides email marketing services, creates content for ecommerce marketers, and studies how brands use email to grow faster.

Rejoiner
Company type Email marketing platform providing project-based and retainer-based email marketing services
Key email marketing services Performance reporting & deliverability monitoring

Copywriting, design, HTML/CSS development

Campaign deployment and day-to-day management

Retention strategy

Best fit for Ecommerce businesses who require either ongoing support or hands-off email marketing solution
Rating 5 ⭐ — Capterra (47 reviews)

4.8 ⭐— G2 (29 reviews)

4.7 ⭐— FeaturedCustomers  (2,203 reviews)

Disruptive Advertising

Disruptive Advertising is a full-service marketing agency that covers various online advertising channels, including email marketing. They offer strategies to optimize email campaigns within a broader digital marketing context.

Disruptive Advertising
Company type Full-service marketing agency
Key email marketing services Mobile-first email design

Automation build, execution, and management in ESP

Coding, development, and data logic management

Post and send analytics and analysis

Best fit for Businesses that need a full-funnel marketing strategy
Rating 4.9 ⭐ — Facebook (220 reviews)

4.8 ⭐— Clutch (350 reviews)

4.7 ⭐— FeaturedCustomers (1,553 reviews)

Soap Media

Soap Media is a digital marketing agency that performs competitor, market, and trend research to provide strong roots for digital growth. They take a customer-first approach and use a synergy of AI and human creativity for audience targeting.

Soap Media
Company type Digital marketing agency
Key email marketing services Segmentation & marketing automation

CRM integration

Cross-channel growth

Atomic design & HTML coding

Testing & optimization

Best fit for Someone who is looking for a full customer persona analysis and creating highly personalized content
Rating 4.8⭐— FeaturedCustomers (1,622 reviews)

Ignite Visibility

Ignite Visibility is a performance marketing agency. They use a results-driven approach to full-service communications management, including email, SMS, in-app, and push notifications to help businesses drive increased engagement, conversions, and retention.

Ignite Visibility
Company type Full-service digital marketing agency
Key email marketing services Cohesive strategy development & journey mapping

On-site email & SMS capture optimization

Developing behaviorally-triggered automation

Comprehensive deliverability monitoring

Best fit for Big brands looking for help with designing and executing a multichannel digital strategy
Rating 4.9 ⭐ — Clutch (120 reviews)

4.9 ⭐— Facebook (59 reviews)

4.7 ⭐— FeaturedCustomers (1,702 reviews)

The effectiveness of any agency will also depend on how well their services align with your business goals, industry, and target audience.

We recommend thoroughly researching each company we listed, reviewing their case studies and testimonials from other brands, and reaching out directly to discuss your needs before making a decision.

The importance of choosing a good email marketing agency

Partnering with a good email marketing agency holds many benefits for your business.

Delegating and offloading your in-house team or yourself is the first that comes to mind. We can only do so much, even with the right tools. External professionals bring extra (wo)manpower, allowing you to accomplish more in less time and achieve better results faster.

They also bring a fresh perspective to the table, helping you notice weak points in your strategy. This alone can improve open and click-through rates and achieve higher conversion rates.

But that’s not all that they have to offer. Collaborating with external professionals who stay updated with the latest industry trends and best practices allows you and your team to pick up their brains and discover new sources of inspiration.

To put these points into context and explore them more closely, let’s take a look at an imaginary yet realistic situation where a corporate marketer realizes that his team’s efforts are no longer bringing the right results.

Being realistic about your own limitations

Meet Alex, a seasoned marketer working for a multinational corporation. Alex has been in charge of the company’s marketing campaigns for years. However, lately, there’s been a plateau in email marketing performance. Open rates aren’t as impressive as they once were, click-through rates are stagnant, and the excitement that used to buzz around each campaign seems to have fizzled out.

The internal marketing team has their hands full managing multiple channels, and while they have a good understanding of the brand, they are deeply rooted in their workflows and find it hard to come up with solutions outside of the box.

❌ Alex tries to do everything internally, pushing through the team’s limits. Other areas of the company’s marketing get negatively affected, as the resources are being pulled away, but the ideas for email campaigns still come out weak. If not addressed properly, this situation creates tension within the team, and Alex might even face the risk of losing some of the team members.

✅ Alex recognizes the need for a fresh perspective, a jolt of creativity that can reignite the spark in the company’s email campaigns.

Nothing changes if nothing changes

After some discussions with the team, Alex decides that it’s time to bring in an email marketing agency to inject new life into their email campaigns.

There’s just one thing that stops them from immediate action: the company’s leadership is hesitant about outsourcing email marketing efforts, even temporarily. They’re concerned about the potential disruption to established workflows and worry about whether an agency can truly capture the essence of the brand.

❌ The wrong path that Alex could have taken is not to challenge the leadership concerns and return to trying the do everything internally without achieving much of a change. With the time team losing the interest

✅ Alex persuades the leadership to consider the possibility of bringing in an external vendor and they set the date for the next meeting where upon research Alex will present his top pick.

Easy access to the best agencies on the market

Thanks to the internet and our article, Alex compiles a list of potential email marketing agencies that have a good track record of delivering creative and successful email campaigns. These agencies have experience across industries, and their case studies showcase impressive results in terms of engagement and conversions.

Alex and the internal marketing team reach the selected agencies for initial consultations. During these meetings, they discuss the company’s goals, challenges, and aspirations.

✅ The agencies offer insights into their approaches and present ideas for revitalizing the email marketing strategy.

❌ Some agencies boast that they have a foolproof solution and try to persuade Alex to go for it too. Stop! It’s important for a vendor to understand specifics and tailor the solution to you. There is rarely a one-fits-all solution.

After a series of consultations, Alex narrows down the options to a couple of agencies that seem like the best fit.

Gaining an ally

Alex organizes a meeting between the selected agencies and the company’s leadership team.

❌ Some vendors, despite presenting good cases, choose to downplay their competitors. This might be a red flag: if someone uses dirty tricks during the negotiations, how honest are they about their perfect record?

✅ A good vendor will be focusing on helping you address the concerns that may arise within your or the leadership teams instead of bluntly gossiping about their competitors.

One of the agencies successfully assures the leadership that their approach will align seamlessly with the company’s brand and goals. Alex and both external and internal marketing teams start to brainstorm ideas for upcoming email campaigns.

Bringing diverse expertise on board

With the agency’s guidance, the company’s email campaigns undergo a transformation. Engaging subject lines, visually appealing designs and compelling content are meticulously crafted to captivate the audience’s attention.

✅ The power of external vendors comes from working with multiple and often very different clients. It’s an enriching experience that broadens their perspective and allows them to stay in touch with the trends.

Overcoming challenges with more resources at hand

As the revamped campaigns roll out, a new challenge arises. The initial metrics show a mixed response. Some campaigns are performing exceptionally well, while others are struggling to meet targets.

❌ Alex and the in-house marketing team shut off the vendor and try to fix everything themselves.

✅ Alex and the in-house marketing team collaborate with the vendor. The in-house team shares a few hypotheses using their knowledge of their audience, while the vendor is proactive in suggesting solutions and is ready to bring on more resources if need be.

The agency’s expertise in A/B testing helps fine-tune the underperforming campaigns for maximum impact.

Thanks to the collaboration between the internal marketing team and the email marketing agency, the company sees a spike in email engagement. Open rates soar, click-through rates climb, and the company’s email marketing efforts are being noticed by competitors and industry experts once again.

Mutually enriching experience

In this scenario, Alex’s decision to enlist the help of an email marketing agency proves to be a game-changer. The collaborative partnership has not only improved the company’s bottom line but has also reinvigorated the passion of the internal team.

Final thoughts

Email marketing companies offer a wealth of knowledge and skills that can take your campaigns to the next level. By understanding the types of email marketing support available on the market and key factors to evaluate the company’s expertise, you will confidently choose a partner who will align with your goals and contribute to your marketing success.

31 October, 2023
Article by
Nikita Nilov
Nikita is a marketer by calling, exploring the world of digital marketing with experience in agencies, corporations and media platforms with a journalist background. Nikita is experienced in multiple industries and markets: from automotive to telecom and from government to FMCG, and from Eastern Europe to Middle East. Outside of work, Nikita’s interest lies in music, cycling and learning languages.
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