Why You Might Use Multiple ESPs (and How to Do It Safely)

Whatever your reason for using multiple email service providers, we’re sure you’re looking for ways to manage your current situation not only efficiently but effectively. It can be stressful making sure that every component of your email marketing program is running smoothly, especially when you’re juggling more than one email service provider. There could be a number of reasons you’ve ended up here:

1. You’ve amassed an assortment of niche email providers that you use for different purposes.
2. You’ve  been bought and sold a few times meaning you have several ESPs for different branches or divisions.
3. Your homegrown solution is no longer the best fit and now you’re ready to move to a more robust platform.

As a marketer you’re already utilizing this ROI rich channel, but how do you do it better? It’s important to be able to share and communicate your data between platforms. Job number one: you’re going to need to centralize your data.

Syncing Providers Shouldn’t be a Headache

Maintaining multiple ESPs is not completely unmanageable, but you will need to implement the right tools for the job. It’s time to implement a centralized hub that your data can live in.

Creating an environment for all your data to peacefully coexist between ESPs has several benefits:

1. List Hygiene. Removing all hard bounces will help your deliverability stay high. Removing any email addresses that brands share will cut down on the amount of sending that you’re doing (though hopefully not too much). It will also keep your customers feeling good about your campaign and not annoyed that they received multiples emails with the same message.
2. Keeps your brand CAN-SPAM compliant. If a customer decides that they no longer want to receive emails from a company you’re working with and have unsubscribed, you’ll definitely want to be able to remove them from your co-marketing campaign sending list. While this is going a step beyond being compliant it’s important to always maintain a current database of customers who have unsubscribed from your email lists. A customer marking your email as SPAM will not only affect your deliverability it can affect your reputation.
3. Protect your deliverability and ultimately your bottom line. Sending emails that never arrive because of defective addresses can negatively influence your sender reputation. That increases the likelihood that your emails don’t make it to the inbox. Emails that don’t get delivered mean emails that don’t get opened, don’t get clicked, and don’t generate revenue. The bottom line is undelivered emails affect your bottom line. You can never accurately calculate the amount of money you don’t make when emails don’t land where they should.

Investigate using a company that can assist you with list management. Scrubbing email addresses before you send is a vital part of an email program. Using or partnering with a company that can smartly and easily identify and remove invalid or unsubscribed email addresses from your lists will free up your time so that you can focus on the strategy of crafting a superb campaign not the logistics.

Take Away

Clean lists are important, but keeping them that way can get complicated when multiple ESPs are involved. Luckily there are tools available to keep your deliverability on track, your customers happy, and your money in your pocket. While not ideal, having multiple ESP’s does not mean you cannot protect yourself from losing money.

This article was originally published on UnsubCenntral.