Email is arguably the most powerful marketing tool available to small business owners. In fact, according to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing provides a 4,300 percent return on investment!
That’s not surprising when you consider that there are over 3.8 billion email users worldwide. That’s over half the world’s population.
But is do-it-yourself (DIY) email marketing a financially beneficial decision for small business owners? After all, there are ample DIY platforms, tutorials and tools available, and they’re only a click away. Conceivably, you should be able to save big by doing it yourself, right?
Not necessarily.
Bonus Content: Snag a copy of our Email Preflight Checklist.
The Value of Email Marketing
Email marketing — done well — takes time and effort. There are a lot of hidden costs.
For example, how much free time do you have to dedicate to email marketing? Do you really have time to learn how to do it, do it consistently and stay on top of marketing trends?
Even if you manage to make time, how much is that time actually worth? Constant Contact recently asked small business owners to estimate the value of an extra hour in their workday. On average, that value was $273.
Of course, your personal hourly value may be more or less than $273. Some respondents reported as high as $5,000! But the question remains, will you really be saving money by doing it yourself?
That depends heavily on how long it takes you to complete the task. Unfortunately, we can’t tell you how long it takes to put together an email newsletter. That varies from person to person and from business to business, especially when you’re trying to do it yourself.
But what we can do is discuss what it takes to get an email newsletter out the door. And since going the complete DIY route isn’t for everyone, we’ve also included the estimated costs of outsourcing each task.
Graphic Design
A good email newsletter is visually appealing. Graphic design includes your color scheme, font choice, layout design, buttons, photos and graphics. While layout and newsletter design may only need to happen once thanks to design templates, you’ll still want fresh photos or graphics and maybe even layover text for each new draft. In short, when it comes to email newsletters, looks matter.
Average rate for graphic design: $65-75/hour
(Some designers charge per project versus an hourly rate.)
Content Marketing/Writing
Content is the heart of any newsletter. We recommend small businesses start the email process by creating a content calendar. That way you have an idea of when each email will be sent, what timely and relevant content to include and enough time to start researching, fact-checking and writing.
As far as length goes, we keep our email newsletters to around 250 words — short enough to keep someone’s attention, but long enough so that the message contains value.
Writing tasks bring the biggest time variables into play. How easily do words come to you? How is your grammar? You get the picture.
Average cost of content: $99-$149/per email
Email Management
The email manager coordinates the logistics of everything, from the graphics and content placed in the newsletter to the tests that ensure the images are loading and the links aren’t broken. An email manager also generates the email contact list and takes care of scheduling sends.
In addition, the email manager monitors email opens and click-through rates, manages the health of your email list (it’s bad to send emails to invalid addresses) and can make recommendations for any adjustments that might improve the reach and success rate of your newsletters.
Average rate for email management: $27-36/per hour
What’s Next?
If email marketing sounds like a challenge you’re ready to take on yourself, we’ve designated a generous amount of blog space to the topic.
If you lack strength or expertise in a certain area, contracting design or content services can make the email marketing process less time-consuming and certainly less stressful. But don’t slack on quality control as you put all the pieces together!
And if you’re looking for a little more help, you should consider marketing automation. This essentially puts your marketing on autopilot by having someone else do it for you from start to finish. There’s no better way to reclaim valuable time from your workday!
We offer email marketing automation for small businesses in a wide variety of industries. Our in-house graphic designers, content strategists, writers and email managers work together to produce professional quality, industry-specific newsletters that go out twice a month to keep your customers engaged with your business.
The Choice Is Yours
Email marketing can seem like a big, ominous project, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Take some time to weigh your options. You can do it yourself, work with a freelance team or consider using a full-service marketing automation system.
But whatever you do, remember, doing nothing is not an option — not with a potential 4,300 percent ROI on the line!
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