5 Things a Small Business Should Look for in an Email Service Provider

Trying to find the best email marketing software for a small business can seem like a daunting task. There are many different factors to consider and weigh, and there are numerous different email service providers out there, each of which touts itself as the premiere option. Before you make any decisions, take a look at these 5 things that a small business should look for from their email service provider.

Deliverability: Deliverability refers to the messages you sending out actually reaching the inbox of the intended recipients. Email service providers with a solid track record and good relationships with Internet service providers (ISPs) get their messages delivered at a higher clip, ensuring that you aren't wasting your efforts. Some email service providers may promise 99.9% deliverability, or similar guarantees, which helps to ensure that you're getting what you pay for.

List Management: There are many different facets to list management, and the best email service providers should seamlessly handle all of them for you. List management includes everything from tools to building your list and finding new prospects, to automatic unsubscribing options to keep you in compliance with CAN-SPAM regulations. Other list management options should include the ability to segment your main list into smaller lists based on factors ranging from demographic information to previous history.

Templates, Designs & Easy Creation: Your email service provider should make it exceedingly simple for you to create and design beautiful emails. Free templates in different categories, a free image database, templates which are compliant with the standards used by multiple email programs - Outlook, Gmail, etc - and more should all be available to you. The design process should be simple and straightforward.

Statistics and Tracking: The only way you're ever going to be able to see how successful or not your campaigns are, or improve on them to see better results, is by having the appropriate statistics available to you. These statistics include opens and open rate, clicks, click-through rate and clicks for each individual link in an email, forward and unsubscribing statistics, and more. Having access to this data will allow you to improve and refine your tactics and end up with more successful campaigns.

Pricing: Of course, price is always important for a small business, no matter what products or services they are utilizing. Cheap email marketing for small businesses absolutely exists - most companies and organizations can take advantage of programs for as little as $10 per month. Your price will depend on the size of your list, and potentially how many emails you send monthly to that list.

More from this contributor:
Segmenting an Email Marketing List
Getting More Email Campaign Signups
Make Email Marketing I.M.P.O.R.T.A.N.T.