Setting up an email marketing campaign is not as simple as sending emails to customers. It requires proper planning, targeting the right customers, and most importantly, determining the right amount of budget needed to run the campaign.
Now, allocating a certain budget for email marketing can be somewhat tricky, as it depends on many factors and a little bit of guesswork. So to make things easier for you, we have listed some important aspects that you should consider when planning your email marketing campaign budget.
Things to Consider When Creating a Budget for Email Marketing Campaigns
The following factors must be considered when you are estimating the total cost for an email marketing campaign.
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Generating Leads and Building Your Email List
The first and foremost aspect of email marketing is to have a list of customers to send emails to. The best practice is to try and build your subscribers list ‘organically’ is by using methods where the customers themselves show interest and provide their email address to you.
But a common misconception in the marketing domain is that people think “organic” means “free”. So just because you work on building an organic email list doesn’t mean you won’t need to spend a single penny for it. As such, the first step in building your budget is to calculate what expenses will be involved in growing your email/subscriber list.
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The Design Aspect of Emails
When we talk about the design of emails, a lot of things are included such as images, layout, templates, animation, and much more. So the first thing you need to decide is whether you want to handle the email designs yourself or outsource the work to a designer.
If you decide to hire a designing service, you’ll have to contact different individuals or companies that provide email designing services and get their price quotes. Select two or three of the best services you can find and add the price of the most expensive one among them to your budget plan.
This option may be a little expensive, but an expert designing service can take care of everything – the font, graphics, animation, images and gifs, templates, and all other design aspects of your email.
In case you take the other route and plan to do things yourself, you will have two options. One is to get someone within your organization who has the required designing skills and let them do the job.
The other option is to get online email templates. Many such tools are available online, some are free and some need to be paid for. If you’re running a small campaign with financial restrictions, then it may be better to go for free templates. Otherwise, choosing a paid template is always the better option. This option may be cheaper than hiring a designer but it will require more effort from your end.
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Cost of Email Service Provider
It’s obvious that you’ll have to get a mailing service for your email marketing campaign. Research the different email service providers (ESP) and select what suits you best. The safe route would be to choose reputed email services like Gmail or Outlook. But there are many other options so feel free to check them out.
However, keep in mind that the service you choose should have a good reputation regarding the deliverability of email, and tight security measures to protect your data and confidential or sensitive mails. Also ensure that ESP you choose is capable of handling business mailing requirements, such as bulk mails, auto – filtering of inactive subscribers, mail tracking, and the like.
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Cost of Analytical and Other Tools
To operate an efficient email marketing campaign, you will also have to make the best use of advanced tools and software. For example, it is essential to have an analytic tool that can measure parameters such as conversion rates and click-through rates. It will give you a clear idea of the result of your marketing campaign.
So make a list of all the performance measuring and statistical tools/software that you want to use for your marketing campaign. The cost of acquiring these tools must be added to your budget.
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Cost of Database and its Maintenance
When you are dealing with thousands of emails and subscribers, you will need a secure database to store and manage all data and information. You can set up your database in-house by installing all the necessary hardware.
It can be expensive, so it’s a better option for bigger organizations. The next option is to opt for cloud computing services.
Your ESP may also provide cloud storage for maintaining your email contacts and other databases. So the cost of maintaining an up-to-date database with high-security measures must be included in your budget plan.
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Hiring an Email Marketing Agency/Manager
This last factor is also one of the most decisive aspects when it comes to budget planning. It’s an extremely important decision as to whether you should hire an email marketing agency or not.
If you don’t hire an agency or manager, you’ll have to plan all the aspects of your email marketing campaign by yourself. This means jotting down all the different factors which we have discussed in the above points, estimating the budget for each factor, and adding them up to get an estimate for the overall budget.
But if you hire a marketing agency, it means a lot less workload for you. No need to do calculations and estimations for the budget of different aspects of your campaign. No need to spend your time and effort on planning every minute detail on your own. The agency will give you a fixed quote and that itself will be your overall marketing budget.
The agency will then handle most other aspects on their own. If you find a reliable and professional agency who provide you with a reasonable or affordable price quote for their services, then this option will definitely be worth considering. And instead of dividing your budget into different sections, you’ll most likely be paying a fixed, upfront amount/
Conclusion
When you consider the above aspects for your email marketing campaign, just remember that there’s no right or wrong option. Your main focus should be on striking the right balance between cost and quality.
Don’t underspend by opting for cheaper services at the cost of quality. At the same time, don’t overspend by allocating a budget that will be a bit heavy on your business’s finances.
We hope that keeping all these things in mind will help you plan a suitable budget for your email marketing campaign.
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