• How will current HubSpot users react?
• What would this mean for the marketing industry? 
• Why would Google buy HubSpot, what is the deal rationale?

We did some research to find out…

The Impact of Google Acquiring Hubspot

Emailvendorselection.com asked 200+ industry experts and HubSpot users about what they would do if there was an acquisition. Here are their answers.

• 51% would stay with HubSpot, no matter what
• 33% would look around at alternatives
• 15% would likely leave HubSpot

The most remarkable is that 48% would be triggered to look around, or already have one foot out of the door. 15% said they would most likely to leave.

Hubspot’s revenue was $2.17B in 2023. A quick calculation extrapolating the numbers means that in a worst-case scenario, the impact of losing 15%-48% of clients could mean a 325M to 1B revenue loss.

Now there is a bit of nuance to that. HubSpot has shown a high retention rate over the last few years. And adding that CRM and site migration aren’t easy, plus contracts span one or more years. Just to have these experts show such a huge shift in perception is quite remarkable in itself.

HubSpot fans are staying put (51%)
On the other hand, we are seeing a large group of loyal HubSpot fans. Some added “I’m a HubSpot fanboy” and “We love HubSpot”. This group, at least from this potential deal, wouldn’t even consider a different platform. The other story behind that is that many aren’t foreseeing big changes in their day-to-day operations, or even some upsides to the acquisition.

The acquisition would be a turning point in CRM. Google, now the largest AdTech provider entering into marketing technology (MarTech). It’s not a completely unprecedented acquisition direction, many bigger technology companies have bought marketing platforms in the past: Salesforce, Microsoft, SAP, etc.

HubSpot has 205K clients ranging from small businesses all the way up to enterprises. Their functionality spans CRM, sales, marketing, content, and service. Our HubSpot review gave the CRM giant 4.4 stars. The platform is well-loved.

Scenario planning and alternatives to consider
If we look at HubSpot functionalities one by one there are a lot of HubSpot alternatives. If we base expectations on our data we expect quite the rush of midsize and enterprise companies doing a reevaluation.

A 46% looking at competitors on a base of 205K current customers would mean 94K companies looking into the market. Because HubSpot is such a big player, even if 2% extra goes into compare mode, it would make sense to look into it, as true expertise in software selections is scarce.

What are users to do?
We advise at least a scenario planning exercise in their next marketing stack review. Scenario planning is actively preparing for potential changes in the market. That way you have a plan in place for once changes happen.

We continuously see that many CMOs and marketing teams aren’t very experienced in doing software selection. This is where specialised selection professionals are here to help. Martech Ops are often well vested in running their current stack, but the CTO has to look ahead 3-5 years in planning their architecture and have a more high-level view of where the market is going.

Wait and see isn’t an option
Our research shows some industry experts default into “wait and see” mode for what would happen with this acquisition. Not per se passive though. That would overlook that a selection and migration can take substantial time and contract renewal dates are a hard cut-off.

For those not involved in the HubSpot ecosystem: take out the popcorn and look at how this will play out.  About 27% of the experts we asked would be undecided or other. But midsized and enterprise HubSpot users don’t have this luxury.

Additional resources:
Marketing automation industry and market growth statistics
HubSpot pricing guide with pricing of alternatives
Hubspot alternatives
HubSpot software review and user ratings
What is the HubSpot platform?

Deal rationale: Why would Google buy Hubspot?

What is the reason for Alphabet – Google’s parent company – to consider acquiring Hubspot? Alphabet has a huge cash pile of reportedly $110 billion. They would like to invest some of it, of course, but it’s also interesting to see what the experts think are the reasons in our poll.

1. Proprietary data for training AI
2. Targeting information for Ads
3. Competitors and market positioning
4. Revenue and cross-selling

1. Proprietary data for training AI
Maybe AI is just top of mind these days in tech. Google made a rocky start with the late launch of Gemini formerly known as Bard. It’s also struggling to transform search into a valid product incorporating the new content avalanche brought by generative AI and new AI-based competition.

Experts say that the HubSpot acquisition would unlock unique data that other competitors wouldn’t have access to. This to train AI, specifically trend and profile data in the SMB market. 

2. Adding to targeting and retargeting pool for ads
With the phasing out of third-party cookies, there is a new focus on first-party data. And companies build out their own datasets with profile and behavioural data directly gathered from their audiences.

The data can be used for targeting, retargeting, and ads, especially when contextual targeting becomes more important. Creating lookalike audiences based on first-party CRM data is an important part of what makes LinkedIn and Facebook audiences targetable.

3. Moving into MarTech as a strategic move and market positioning
Many pundits point out that other big tech companies already have a MarTech leg and have bought marketing technology in recent years like Microsoft is offering Microsoft Dynamics and SAP buying Netcore, and many years ago Salesforce did multiple acquisitions.

Google has a martech gap in its portfolio, which would make acquiring one of the bigger marketing suites a logical step. 

4. Revenue and access to the HubSpot audience
HubSpot is the biggest CRM provider in the market today. Next to gaining revenue, Google would definitely like to have access to the HubSpot customer portfolio.

The play would start cross-selling into the SMB market. HubSpot users to start using Google Workspace and Ads. And pushing SMBs to become HubSpot clients. 

The biggest worries about the acquisition

Now what are the concerns our panel is mentioning most often? With a few exceptions, the consensus is that an acquisition is never good news for the end users of the acquired company.

1. A pricing increase on the horizon
On the heels of the Intuit / Mailchimp acquisition, we see that users are wondering what will happen to their current pricing for their marketing stack. History has taught us that the monetization model with a new purchase is always going to be reviewed. At the moment HubSpot already is quite pricey for midmarket, with much cheaper HubSpot alternatives available.

A price increase right after the acquisition isn’t something to worry about, but other options like moving functionality into more expensive tiers, legacy pricing to exclude newer functionality, and changing the pricing model overall are options that are very common with acquisitions. As goes “With such a big investment, they’ll need to recoup and quickest is to raise the price”.

2. Slowing of the pace of platform development
A typical result of a software acquisition is that investment in software development slows down or even grinds to a halt and certain projects are canceled completely. If they try to integrate multiple tools (which is very hard and often impossible to do), development resources are relocated to integration projects.

3. Privacy and data concerns 
The market sees data as the main reason for acquisition. This directly raises concerns about the use of the data and privacy concerns that go along with them.

A call for onboarding agencies and marketing platform users

We, as software selection experts, are also preparing for future events.

1. Our first priority is to actively update our HubSpot marketing and CRM agencies lists. After our HubSpot review, we were already expecting to see more requests for advice on the platform and are compiling and vetting a list of specialised HubSpot onboarding agencies and experts to help people onto the HubSpot platform.

2. Now it makes sense to also update the expert list of migration onto other alternatives. Looking into costs, current clients, and team size for anything from small to enterprise and split into geographical regions.

3. We are looking for marketing platform customers in multiple industries for user interviews. It’s a common practice in an expert-led selection process to interview current and new customers. Having a list of companies to call on for interviews during a selection and scenario planning exercise is a great benefit.

We ask any users of alternative platforms that have done a recent migration to reach out to us.

More stats about HubSpot

1. Hubspot’s revenue was $2.17B in 2023. That’s a 25% YoY growth compared to 2022. Subscription revenue was $2.12B, professional services and other revenue was $46.8M.
2. Hubspot has 205K customers from 135+ countries with 23% YoY growth.
3. Hubspot’s Average Subscription Revenue Per Customer was $11,365 in Q4 2023.
4. 53% of Hubspot customers are located outside of the United States. These customers generate approximately 47% of Hubspot’s total revenue for 2023.
5. Hubspot has 7.7K employees.

Press and inquiries
Please feel free to reach out to Jordie van Rijn through email or Linkedin.

The post Research on the Google HubSpot acquisition: 48% would consider switching appeared first on Email vendor selection.

In all cases, changing an ESP is something one should care about and be well prepared for.

Stage one: Back-up your databases on a regular basis

By using an external marketing platform marketers are giving away valuable assets (like their contact list) to a third party. But if marketers exploit the sending infrastructure, they are likely to generate a great deal of data. To be one step ahead, it is important to get these databases backed up as often as possible. Marketers who have not done this since the start risk losing important data without the chance of getting it back.

Below is a list of all the information needed before changing the Email Service Provider:

• All unsubscribes. It would be a useless task to start the communication process with the new ESP from scratch.
• All data on bounces. Collect hard bounces (permanent errors) as well as soft bounces (temporary errors).
• Spam reports. These are retrieved, when possible, from webmail providers and ISPs FBLs.
• Historic data of all clicks and opens. This is a keystone asset in an email list. Aim to get at least the data from the last interaction date.
• Quarantines and other suppression lists. Some senders install in-house rejecters deployed to block specific addresses when sending messages. Having this data at hand will be useful to analyze it, as well as to freshen up your list.

Stage two: Get familiar with your new ESP

The new platform will ask a wide range of questions related to the former sending practices. The answers will then be used to test the marketers practices and his reputation as a sender according to web mails ISP’s.

These questions may look like the following:

• If working with dedicated IP addresses, which are these?
• If taking part in a shared IP pool, what is the distribution employed by the other users in the pool? Which IP addresses are being used by this pool?
• What are the domain names used to send your emails (FROM: field) as well as the ones used for link tracking?

Stage three: End your contract smoothly

It is very disappointing to see that companies neglect the switching progress when converting their email sending platforms. We must learn to walk before we can run: make sure the brand new platform is 100% operational before breaking up with the previous ESP. Being blocked out from the former databases and owning nothing but a half-operational brand new platform can easily turn into a never ending nightmare for the business.

Stage four: Reintegrate your databases and clean up

All the databases that have been collected during Stage one must be reintegrated into a fresh (in-house) hosted emailing list. Transferring these databases without changes would be useless.

It is imperative to make sure that:

• Each unsubscribtion has been marked.
• Hard bounces have been cleaned up.
• Spam reports cannot be targeted again.
• Inactive mailing lists have been set apart from databases. Ensuring that these have been transmitted to a specific marketing program. This is retrieved from the data on last interactions.

Stage five: Authentication set up

This is the first thing on the to-do list when setting up the new ESP. SPF and DKIM records configuration will provide the marketer with authentication and will give the new sender the power to send emails on their behalf.

Marketers should experience no problems if they decide to continue to send emails through their former sending platform. In this scenario, their SPF record can be used for simultaneously sending with several email platforms, enabling them to set several DKIM records on the same domain name.

Furthermore – even if it is not directly related to the authentication process – we encourage marketers to ask their new email service provider to use their sending name to customize the tracking links generated by such emails.

Stage six: Syncing data with your new ESP

So now that marketers have retrieved the databases from their old provider and freshened up the contact lists, it is time for contact syncing on their new sending platform.

Syncing is a two-way road. Marketers should send their mailing list to the new ESP to ensure that all items mentioned in Stage one can be automatically retrieved. If they do so, the upcoming migration processes will be carried out smoothly and more importantly – even if it happens in 5 years – they will remain the master of their assets.

Stage seven: Learn about the warm up phase

When marketers send their first emails from a new IP address, webmail providers and ISP’s have not yet had the chance to determine the marketer’s reputation. Therefore, their filters will be rather harsh during the first few weeks. To start building a trustworthy relationship with these filters, we recommend marketers ‘warm up’ their IP address by sending a constant email volume over a given period of time.

Stage eight: You’re not done!

Marketers have now achieved the “deliverability” migration stage. It is now time to once again deploy all the email marketing campaigns they own into their new platform. But that is a whole different story!

The post Changing of ESP? This is how to avoid disaster appeared first on Email vendor selection.

So make sure to plan and execute the migration process right.

Every email marketer must onboard properly first, or you won’t be able to use the system for your benefit and meet your email goals. An optimized onboarding process might even provide a chance for critical improvements. It is a win-win situation for both new clients and vendors where avoiding reputation-damaging activities which can cause lower deliverability is crucial.

Professional assistance from real, human beings cannot be overestimated when transitioning between vendors. This is a time where you should seek the expertise of an email consultant or the vendor. It’s a good sign if your new ESP has a dedicated team to help you get started.

As Alex Turnbull from Groove rightly says: “The onboarding period is, for a business, perhaps the most critical time in a SaaS customer’s life.” And those vendors who get it right have a far higher customer retention value.

Why are you changing your ESP?

The number one reason companies decide to change ESPs is down to inadequate customer support. Increasing numbers of decision-makers are looking for vendors that can offer cost-effective integrated solutions and at the same time provide high levels of customer support. Being able to make use of the experience of the vendor is an additional benefit and an asset in a competitive email environment.

Other reasons for changing email providers vary. It can be costs, functionalities, lack of particular integrations, sometimes deliverability issues. Excluding your own reasons, the first question you should ask yourself before the migration begins is: when is the best time to start?

When is the best time to transition between ESPs?

Email marketing is the most effective digital communication channel. It drives traffic and eventually a constant stream of money to businesses. It’s no surprise marketers immediately get a huge headache when they think of migration. This is especially the case for high-volume senders, who have huge lists and run ongoing email marketing and automation programs.

According to data from FreshMail’s clients, the majority of them decided to onboard into the system from a different ESP during the following months:
● January – March
● June – August

There is no magic date that anyone can point to when it comes to best time to switch email vendors. The perfect time to transition depends on the industry a company operates in, but it is safe to say that you should avoid migration during high sales season, like the Holiday season in Nov-Dec in retail. Different types of business have different typical peaks and troughs in sales activities. Before you decide on the timing of switching, analyse your email statistics and find the time when it seems to be the calmest.

How long does ESP migration take?

To completely onboard a new email service provider can take as long as 30 to 90 days. You have to take this into account. It is good to have some overlap when transitioning from one ESP to another. It will allow you to end your contract smoothly, make sure the new platform is 100% operational and won’t break your important email and sending programs.

What should a good ESP help you with during onboarding?

Onboarding is the process of getting new clients up to speed so a vendor and client can work together effectively. During this time, both the client and the ESP gain the necessary knowledge, understanding, and tools to build and maintain a good relationship.

Service matters. Well-established Email Service Providers understand the challenges their clients have. We champion the idea of putting customer service at your ESP first, in choosing them. An ESP should offer new clients a dedicated Deliverability Team to seamlessly transition between email solutions.

Not every employee at your email service provider will have in-depth knowledge of what IP’s are being used, or how to avoid spam filters. Therefore having a Deliverability Team working with you is paramount.

Deliverability and technical help

Transitioning between ESPs affects your associated IP-based reputation with the various inbox providers of your subscribers, and so maintaining the deliverability rate will be your main focus.

A proactive and consultative approach should cover all things technical and strategic. So always talk about deliverability with your new ESP. If you switched based on deliverability, make sure your new ESP helps you identify the cause of the problem and either advise you on better email practices, sometimes offering you a dedicated IP address or a shared is the best choice. You can also expect help with:
● Setting up authentication: SPF records (not essential but highly recommended), DKIM configuration, DMARC if necessary.
● Handling your data structure and providing seamless migration
● Re-setting webform integrations
● Re-setting external integrations
● Tool training and customer support

An action plan for seamless onboarding your new ESP

Whether you’ll be working with someone from your ESP side or not, these are the crucial actions you have to take during the migration process.

1. Set the deadlines and milestones for migration

Make a project plan. First evaluate your current email strategy. Identify what works well and what you have to correct. Clarify your goals, set out a plan and push for your targets.

2. Clean and prepare your email lists

Download all hard bounces, spam complaints and unsubscribes from your lists stored in your previous email provider. This will greatly influence your deliverability with the new ESP. Make sure not to upload these email addresses to your account on your selected new provider. Contacting such subscribers using a new ESP will damage your email marketing campaigns, as well as your send reputation.

Identify the most active segment of subscribers dividing them into groups that will subsequently be added to the new platform and your marketing communication. Confirm that your lists are permission-based and abide by all email regulations.

3. Prepare the email marketing settings

Before you transfer your email database make sure all your processes and email business rules are already implemented into the new system. Make a list of all the data that needs to be transferred, including:
* users and permissions,
* segments and selections,
* triggered email campaign rules,
* external integrations,
* lists of opt-in forms, templates and images, etc.

4. Warm up the new IP address

New IP addresses should be warmed up before one starts sending. It can usually take a few weeks. Your new provider should be able to help you with the process, but it will definitely mean you need to know every single campaign that’s going out.

What is the best practice to aid this transition and ideally avoid taking an inevitable hit in email deliverability rates? Definitely stay away from uploading your complete email database into the new system in one time!

To make sure to protect your deliverability, first identify and export the top 30% most active subscribers from your lists and import it to the new one. Create and send the first campaign and ask subscribers to add your new sender address to their contact list informing them that you’ve made some changes.

Do the same with the second 30% the list (original total) in the next 2 weeks, making sure to send a campaign (ideally two). After another 2 weeks move the final section over and send a campaign.

This method allows your new infrastructure to be recognised by your subscribers inbox providers as one that sends out highly engaged emails. It will mitigate any damage to your associated reputation created by the change in sending infrastructure. It drastically reduces the chance your new IPs and sending domains will be flagged as suspicious as they are not usually associated with your email campaigns.

According to Laura Atkins, it is likely and normal to see a change in deliverability or engagement metrics as you move on to a new platform. Sometimes because they measure and report them somewhat differently.

Important risks and costs of changing ESPs

Each undelivered email is a missed business opportunity. And the biggest concern for you is if a new platform causes a drop in your deliverability. Honesty is the best policy so you should not hesitate and ask your potential vendors about risks related to the platform infrastructure, including black-listed senders and domains or historical underperformance in certain inbox domains.

Switching vendors generates costs but it’s for a good reason. Make sure to include in your plans potential costs of integration processes, costs related to time and training or costs related to potential data loss during transfer.

A properly conducted onboarding process should allow you to clean the list, maintaining well-segmented database and most importantly, experience a boost in domain reputation.

The post How to Seamlessly Onboard With Your New ESP appeared first on Email vendor selection.

See this ESP migration as a fresh start

Are you familiar with the saying, “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at will change”? It’s about the outlook and attitude when faced with a challenging situation…and migrating from one ESP to another can definitely be challenging.

We can see an ESP migration as a big, huge hassle or see at as a big, huge opportunity.

There are a lot of details to be managed during this time, and this handy ESP switching checklist will help you prepare and move to your new ESP smoothly. But for even better results post-move, take these 5 steps ahead of time to make this move advantageous, as you clean house and start with a clean slate…

Step 1: Evaluate your current email satisfaction and performance

Take a good hard look at how you’re doing things. What’s working? What’s not? What’s working well? What’s a pain in the behind? We want to take stock and produce a list of processes and campaigns that are better off done in a new way in the new platform.

Be clear and differentiate between what has been an ESP issue (and possibly the reason for switching) and what’s an internal issue. Talk to your team members and get their input too. Also talk to your boss and any other departments that either use the ESP platform or are served by your email marketing team.

You might discover there’s an elephant in the room. Deal with it before you start the migration. Rather than accept same old, same old behavior, commit to improvement.

Step 2: Review what you need to move to the new ESP

Next look at the “baggage” you’re planning to migrate over. Not everything needs to be taken along. Document all of the pieces that you have:

• Users and permissions
• Approval processes
• Lists (including your unsubscribes, bounces and spam complaints)
• Campaign structure
• Rules for segmenting
• Rules for automated and triggered emails
• Database and schema
• Images
• Content, including automated and triggered email content
• Past emails
• Hosted images
• Current emails and email templates
• Integrations, including both data feeds and APIs
• Reporting including custom reporting
• Forms
• Landing pages
• Web analytics

Step 3: Organize your data and campaigns

While you’re doing this review of your “baggage,” also get organized in preparation for the move. Make sure to study the new platform and take advantage of any capabilities and flexibility you haven’t had before.

Reorganize your campaigns and how you tag emails. Reorganize your data, fields and especially your data structures, and review your HTML to ensure it works properly in the new platform. Finally, make sure all email reporting and analytics are set up the way you need it.

Step 4: Clean house, do a final reactivation campaign

Taking stock and getting organized are important steps for your ESP migration, but it’s also a good time to clean house, quite literally. Definitely do list hygiene before moving! (Get list hygiene tips here.) You will want to separate active from inactive subscribers.

Remember: Reactivation comes before Migration.
Do a reactivation campaign ahead of time, at your current ESP. You want to do that before the move, so you can remove the truly inactive from your list (and not take that dead weight with you).

Review automated and triggered emails to make sure they are up-to-date. Ditto for landing pages and subscription forms. Anything that’s out-of-date needs to be revised, replaced or rebuilt.

If you’re going to be on a dedicated IP, work with your new ESP to find out if and how you can start warming up that IP, in case you can start ahead of time.

Step 5: Start anew and set expectations

View this move as a clean slate, enabling you to leave old ways of doing things behind. Even if you don’t work your way through these five steps, take some time to review what you’ve done in the past. The typical email marketer is so busy getting emails out the door, they can easily lose sight of the big picture and how well things are working (or not).

Take the time to review and analyze your campaigns, look for trends and outliers. Do a data dump (if you can) so you don’t lose your historical performance. Also talk to the ESP to make sure you know what they expect of you prior to and during the migration.

According to the Benchmarking Report Marketing automation by B2Bmarketing.net and Circle Research, 61% agree that the implementation process of Marketing Automation was difficult.

How moving to a new Email Marketing Provider can be a fresh start

Switching email service providers can be like any kind of move: a really big hassle and also an opportunity for a fresh start.

Most people see a move as an opportunity for a fresh start. We get rid of stuff I no longer need, literally and figuratively cleaning house, leaving clutter behind and getting organized in the process.

Admittedly not everyone does it that way. They move from one house to another and bring practically everything with them, all of the boxes full of stuff they don’t want, books they’ll never read, furniture they’ve no place for, and papers so out-of-date they could be donated to a local historical society if they had any kind of value.

Don’t make that kind of mistake when switching ESPs…

Switching Email Marketing Provider doesn’t have to be scary, although I can tell you it can be a challenge. Invest the time in making this move a real improvement process, not just in a new vendor but in new systems, processes, pieces and tools too, and in the end you’ll be much more efficient and effective at your job.

The post 5 Steps to Start Fresh With a New Email Marketing Provider appeared first on Email vendor selection.

Nope. And that’s why including migration and implementation are a crucial piece of your RFP. By including these, you’ll know upfront which vendors will handle the set-up in a way that works for you when you narrow down your choices to a short list.

Ask about migration and implementation upfront

Sure, your RFP is asking the hard questions about relational databases and data security, but you’re smart to include the migration and implementation too… and not just questions about implementation timelines. You need to ask these questions so you will know what to expect from the vendor, but you also need to know upfront what they will expect from you, because your organization also a vital role to play in a successful switch.

If you’d like to add these kinds of questions to your RFP, below are some suggestions. Use those that best fit your context and concerns:
 

• Do you help with the migration to your platform?
• What is your implementation methodology?
• How do you support the implementation?
• Will there be an implementation team dedicated to our company?
• What can we expect of this team?
• How are new dedicated IP addresses ramped up?
• How is deliverability managed during a migration?
• What is the timeline and process for a migration involving data integration?
• How do you minimize risk during an implementation?
• What is the typical timeline and process for completing a migration?
• How do you protect our customer data throughout the transfer of data between our company and yours, or our prior ESP and yours?
• Do you have an escalation procedure for addressing problems during implementation?

And if you need ESP customization…

If you’re going to need customization, this is another critical topic to discuss long before you sign any contracts with anybody. Will you want the ESP to do it? Can they? Will it add significantly to the timeline and budget? Would you rather a specific email marketing agency did it? How will that factor in to the migration and implementation? This is all information you need to know upfront to avoid any nasty (and expensive) surprises later.

How to evaluate the answers you get

OK, you’ve included the questions in your RFP and the proposals are rolling in. Now…how do you know you’re getting the answers you want?

Look for well-defined processes and ask for samples of migration and implementation documents. Based on their answers, determine what they do to define and track the processes. The more sophisticated they are in definitions, systems and tracking, the more likely they are to handle it well.

A specific methodology and a list of items they’re going to cover will give you an idea how capable they are. But it also will let you know what you didn’t consider as part of the migration, because—as mentioned above— you will have duties too.

Beyond the RFP

However, to dig deep enough to know for sure they will handle the migration and implementation to your satisfaction, you will have to go beyond the RFP. The RFP will only get you to a short list. At that point, you will want to talk to other clients and hear their comments on the ESP’s migration and implementation processes.

The post Selecting the Perfect ESP? – Don’t Forget to prepare the implementation appeared first on Email vendor selection.

But the whole idea is too daunting: you fear the risks and unknown elements, not to mention the time involved.

Wouldn’t it be great to have a checklist to smoothly move to your new ESP?

Checklist for switching ESPs

Working through this checklist, you’ll make the mental leap and do the groundwork in preparation for a systematic, secure, and pain free move to the new email service provider (ESP) of your choice.

By following the steps below, you’ll be ready for the change, without overlooking any of the main points. And, more importantly, you can hit the ground running with your new ESP without endangering your revenue streams.

1. What’s your current set up? Do you have a dedicated IP address or a shared one? ISPs won’t give you the brownie points you have on your existing dedicated address, so you’re going to have to break the new one in gradually, or have your ISP warm it up, so as not to put your reputation on the line.
2. Make sure you keep a secure copy of your historical reporting data in numerical format – you’ll want to have the numbers to hand for a period of at least six months so you can keep track of activities and success rates, and percentages alone might not give you what you need to know.
3. You’ll probably also be getting better analytic reports, but do get the fine detail from your potential ESP so you understand the new reporting system. You’ll need this information so you can check past against future reports, such as how open rates are being calculated. Are they counted as a percentage of the number of emails delivered before or after ‘soft’ bounces?
4. Migrating your lists – also known as the great list clean up. The need to get your data squeaky clean is definitely an opportunity; the smart digital marketer will in fact see it as a real blessing. As you’re doing the clean up, make sure to keep your ‘unsubscribe’ and ‘bounce’ lists. You really want to avoid sending unwanted emails to people who have unsubscribed in the past!
5. Is your website ready to support your ESP move? You’ll need to change over – and test – all your forms, links, share functions, chat forums, address entry and post-click tracking right across your website and have them all ready to go live on D-Day.
6. Staff training – you need your staff engaged, involved and supportive of the move for it to succeed. By getting their buy-in and ideas, you can avoid the pitfalls of new system phobia. If this ride is to be a smooth and effective one, create great teamwork.
7. Early on in the process, consider your CRM – is it robust enough to make the move with you? Include CRM in your training programs, as your employees’ insights will help you achieve smooth continuity of those all-important relationships with your customers.
8. So, you’ve done the legwork in points 1-7 and feel ready to go. A word of caution here: allow an overlap period. Keep things running with the outgoing ESP for a period that will give you time enough to make any last-minute tweaks to the new system, move your clean data and lists across, do some test email sending campaigns, and resolve any issues that arise. Once your new ESP is fully running, you can sever the tie with the old.
9. While we think our checklist makes the task a manageable one, we appreciate it’s not something you want to do too often. So, when you choose your new ESP, your plans for growth are critical. Don’t buy into something that is too complex for your needs. Equally, make sure to get the support and activity levels you need for the next two years at least!
10. You’re done! Nothing left to do but enjoy email marketing and maximizing all the exciting new features from your new ESP!

The post A handy checklist to smoothly switch ESPs appeared first on Email vendor selection.

The ESP you choose, the staff resources you have available, the amount of data you’re moving, your team’s ability to master a new platform… all of these factors will come into play as well. Perhaps the biggest determinant, however, is how prepared you are for the move.

What is a realistic ESP implementation timeline?

In general, the time between signing on the dotted line with the new email service provider and being fully migrated can be as much as 90 days, although we often help clients get migrated over to a new ESP in as few as 30 days.

Being fully migrated is not the same as sending your first campaign, however, which can happen faster. It’s fair to say a reasonable timeline to send a first campaign–if you have your house in order–is 2 to 3 weeks. This allows for setup, training, testing, Q&A if needed, and possible IP warmup planning.

The time that will elapse, however, is less significant than the time your ESP promises. Make sure you have a realistic ESP implementation timeline in place before you do anything else. Be sure to understand that your time to implementation will depend a lot on the size of your audience (a smaller list takes less time for IP warmup), your team, and the work you do ahead of time. Also, try to budget a week or so for unforeseen delays, just to be realistic.

Factors outside of your control when migrating to a new ESP

There are several factors you should be aware of and can even control in order to influence the speed with which you’re up and running with your new email service provider, or at least to help you set realistic expectations.

One factor you can’t control—after you’ve signed your contract—is the email service provider. The time it will take to migrate to a new ESP differs from ESP to ESP based in part on the size of that ESP and the way they are set up. In addition, some ESPs will do a better job at adhering to promises made about how long it will take.

Regardless of the size or complexity of an email service provider, you might have a longer time to implementation if the ESP is busy enough to have a backlog. If it’s the best email service provider for you, then the wait is worth it. If, however, you can’t wait, you need to have a conversation about speed to implementation before you sign any contracts. (More on those conversations below.)

Increasing your email software implementation speed

Although you can’t look into a crystal ball to predict the time it will take, you can do a lot on your end to make the migration go faster. For one thing, you can be prepared. Your own preparation is wholly in your control, and not influenced by the ESP platform choice.

Are you prepared? Have you determined how your data will fit with the new ESP? Is your data packed up, labeled and ready to go? Do you have a clear file naming system? Have you prepared to migrate your lists? Have you documented all of your automations and rules? Have you cleaned house ahead of time so you’re not taking any unnecessary baggage (i.e. data, email addresses, etc.) with you?

Consider using a list cleaning service to be sure your list hygiene is as good as can be. This is also a good time to think through and optimize not only your data structure but also everything else.

Setting up a migration plan

It’s also a good time to tap into the expertise of a marketing agency or consultant for help with optimization and refining your migration plan. Many times, specific, pointed questions are needed to pinpoint the actual needs in order and determine how best to approach the migration.

You can also be clear in your communications and reasonable in your expectations. Have you had in-depth conversations internally? Do you know who is doing what when? Is there a clearly defined timeline and list of tasks? Have this conversation with your team, but also have it with the new ESP so expectations are clear on each side. Both of you need to know who is doing what and when.

If your email marketing program is extremely complicated, you might want to take a phased approach to ESP migration with milestones instead of one big goal. You could also break up the work into chunks and move only portions at a time, say your trigged emails first, then content as a chunk, your data as another chunk, etc.

You can also know what you need to move and how to move it, and work on that ahead of time. Heck, some of the things you’ll find on this ESP migration list are tasks you can tackle even before you’ve chosen your new email service provider.

Speeding up ESP implementation with a third party

For some organizations, an implementation is too much (or too new) to handle alone, and it makes sense to partner with an experienced third-party such as an agency or consultant to make it happen.

The key word here is experienced: The more times they have done migrations like yours, the faster the implementation will take place. They’ll know what data structure should be for the new platform, so your data is optimized for data queries from the very start, for example.

Have the conversations before signing the contract

No matter how much advice I give you on speeding up the migration process, the real answer to the question of, “How long will it take?” needs to be answered long before you start packing up data. Discussing the speed to implementation is critical during your initial conversations with any email service provider.

After you sign the contract is not the time to find out how the email services migration works and how long it will take. While you’re in the shopping around phase, make this topic one you discuss, and make it a question you ask when calling references, whether you’re talking to current or ex-clients. You want to know whether the ESP or partner stuck with their timeline or not. Also, make sure the process of migration is clear, and clarify who does what, how long it will take, and if the ESP sets up milestones and sticks to them.

No one can say for certain how long the implementation of your new email services provider will take, nor can you control every factor. But being aware and prepared can go a long ways to help you get up and running with that new ESP faster.

The post How Long Will It Take To Implement A New ESP? appeared first on Email vendor selection.

(One note of caution before you start: Keep in mind that a lot of what happens first is figuring out what to move by documenting your assets and evaluating which ones will go with you.)

Migrating your email lists

Obviously you’ll want to export your in-house email lists to the new ESP. Keep in mind this includes any segmented lists within your lists. All of your list, segmentation and data structure should be determined and built before any migration of data. This also means all attributes from the lists exported from your old email service provider must be added to your new email service provider.

Once the attributes are added, then you can import your lists and map them within the new ESP. While preparing for the move, be sure to record both static and dynamic segments so these segments can be re-created in your new email service provider.

For consistency during the move, we recommend keeping the same naming convention on all lists. In addition, one last list hygiene check is also in order just before you move your lists. We recommend cleaning lists via a third-party tool such as BriteVerify or Email Answers before exporting.

Content and templates

The next task is deciding which email content and templates (both HTML and text) you want to port over to new email service provider. As with the lists, we recommend keeping the same naming convention on all assets, for consistency during the move.

You’ll need to determine if the emails in the old ESP are to be created in the new ESP as HTML or as templates. If you’re planning on creating new templates, make sure you have the internal resources or a partner lined up to the help with that.

If you prefer HTML, the code for those HTML emails to be ported over must be copied and pasted into a text app or an HTML file. These then need to be copied and pasted into the content section of templates in the new ESP.

Within your templates, all system-generated links (such as “view as a web page,” unsubscribe, etc.) need to updated with the new ESP’s equivalents. Also, all new image paths must be updated and integrated into the HTML where appropriate.

Finally, figure out how you want to handle the header and footer: custom, default or hardcoded into each HTML template? Or choose to set these up as content that’s selected based on delivery profiles.

Reports

You’ll want all of your old data too, so export all historical performance data from old ESP and store it. Then document the email reporting you used with the old ESP and replicate it in the new ESP, but also take this opportunity to think through the kind of email analysis you were doing and see if it’s time to change your reporting.

Migrating images to your new ESP

As part of the document inventory that you do before starting the migration, figure out which images need to move from the old ESP to the new one. At ClickMail, we recommend that you keep the same naming convention for consistency and to eliminate any chance of confusion. To move the images, simply download the images you’re migrating and then upload them to the new email service provider which will create new image paths.

Integrations

Moving your important email integrations is a bit more complicated compared to moving your images. Inventory all instances of your existing marketing technology stack where there is an API connector with the old ESP.

Remember to include everything: your CRM system, web analytics, ecommerce, content management system, and any social platform integrations like with Facebook or Twitter. Next, emulate points of integration via new the ESP’s APIs/web services calls as appropriate.

As with template creation, before starting on this, be sure you have the internal resources to do it, the new ESP scheduled to help, or an external email technology partner lined up.

Marketing automation

Inventory all existing automation before the migration. This includes any drip marketing, lifecycle messaging, trigger-based and event-driven emails/campaigns, click stream, forms (sign-up pages), social campaigns, cross-channel messaging such as SMS and tweets, and auto-responders.

Be thorough in your documentation as automated marketing can easily be overlooked. Set up these automated emails and campaigns and test them in the new platform before the switchover is made.

Unsubscribes

You must export your unsubscribes from the old ESP and into the new one. Make sure you distinguish list-specific unsubscribes from universal unsubscribes. Unsubscribes should be processed a second time, preferably 30 days and again 45 days after the last time an email is sent through your old ESP to ensure capture of any stragglers. Include hard bounces in this process.

Migrating to a new ESP

This list is not intended to be exhaustive but rather a starting point. Your own list will depend on your organization and assets. And if you feel daunted nonetheless, remember, you can launch your new ESP in stages which can reduce both your stress level and your workload, as well as reduce the chance of errors as you start using the new email service provider.

The post Migrating to a new ESP: what to move and how appeared first on Email vendor selection.

Take the time to do it right so you don’t have any costly surprises when you launch with your new ESP.

You can do the migration in stages, looking at it as a series of mini launches. By the time your change over is complete, your work is done and your surprises too.

I started out writing this post with the intention of doing a pros and cons of the gradual approach vs. the all-in-one approach. But in writing, I realized I would advocate for the gradual approach just about every time. Why would you want to risk a major hiccup in the migration if you can do the migration in smaller launches and find any issues well in advance of your official implementation date?

Document all

Obviously ahead of the switch, you’ll need to document what needs to be migrated over as far as lists, content, forms, templates, email reporting and statistics. You’ll also need to document any integrations as well as automated and triggered emails.
Do all of that documentation before any partial launches.

Conducting an Email Service Provider launch in stages

Although some tasks can’t be done until the last minute, there are a surprising number of things you can do ahead of time as part of a launch in stages when switching email service providers. Consider tackling these tasks a couple at a time as part of your implementation timeline. That way, you won’t have to move over, test and launch all at once.
 

• After you’ve made sure all forms, content, templates and lists are adjusted and loaded into the new ESP, start using it in small batches (per the advice below about ramping up a new IP address).
• Make sure automated and triggered emails are set up correctly and start using the new ESP to send them. This helps with the ramp-up process.
• Update your subscription form and test it to make sure new subscriptions are going to the new ESP.
• Make sure any forms are working correctly.
• Update your unsubscribe, and test it, to make sure it’s removing names from the new ESP. You’ll need to revisit your unsubscribe as the last thing you do, however, so don’t consider it done…yet. (See below.)

Take advantage of the opportunity to renew and improve

Another benefit is that you can take advantage of the opportunity afforded by collecting all of the before documented data. Don’t think you have to replicate everything exactly with your new ESP. In fact, maybe you should outright try to avoid that.

Consider the switch to a new ESP an opportunity to review performance and processes and figure out where there’s room to improve. The need for improvement is one of the reasons to switch to a different email marketing supplier. Improve the processes you had, so with your new ESP you can be more efficient and effective.

Take this opportunity to revisit and rewrite content in automated and triggered emails, to rethink the automated and triggered emails and how they might be altered based on past experience, and even to revisit the subscription form on your website or your email template design. Remember to review any other forms as well, to see if they need altering.

I’m not advocating for taking on all of these tasks at once and definitely not when you’re on the brink of an ESP switch, but knowing you’re switching email service providers and preparing for the migration in advance should allow you the time to make some much-needed improvements rather than move everything over “as is” and wish you hadn’t.

Warming up IP’s and deliverability

Switching ESPs will require warming up your new dedicated IP address to protect your email deliverability (although this might not be an issue if you’re not on a dedicated IP). ISPs are wary of new IP addresses and take an “innocent until proven guilty” approach. Prove your new IP address to be trustworthy by slowly building your new sending reputation.

This is easy to make part of a launch in stages schedule, as you email only small part of your list at a time, gradually mailing bigger numbers as you go. Meanwhile, you can continue to email the rest of your list using your old email service provider.

Hang on to the old ESP for 30 days

You don’t have to follow the staged launch approach when switching email service providers, and perhaps it’s not even an option given the structure of your organization. Do the all-in-one launch if you need to, but regardless, keep your old ESP for 30 days. It will take a while for the unsubscribe functionality to be fully migrated. At the end of the 30 days, make sure all unsubscribes were migrated to the new ESP’s database.

Before you do anything, be clear on what you can expect from your new ESP and what they expect from you. Then once all of the expectations are laid out, clear and agreed upon, start your slow but steady approach.

The post Slow and Steady: How to launch your new Email Service Provider in stages appeared first on Email vendor selection.

A fair way to compare ESP pricing

When selecting an ESP it’s important to consider ahead of time what services you may require and whether or not you will have to fork out for them every time. Making a comparison between the different kinds of ESPs is similar to comparing smartphones without knowing the price. They might all have the same basic features (SMS and calls) but with very different extras (cameras, operating systems) and a very different price point.

Services such as basic account set up and competency email marketing training are things which many people would expect to be included in the price that they have been quoted. But often hidden costs turn up, which can leave a sour taste in your mouth having already signed a contract.

Tip: Looking for the right email software, but seriously on a budget?
Check out our comparison of Free & Cheap Email Marketing Software.

This is a common problem which can see small and large companies alike racking up hundreds, if not thousands of pounds worth of expenses before they have even sent their first email. Thoroughly reading the small print and asking for the prices of extras ahead of time may well save you trouble and surprises later on. Here are some of the common catches to look out for:

Set Up Fees

Some ESPs charge a basic administration fee to have your account set up and ready to send from. Onboarding with your new ESP isn’t scary, but there will always be costs and they could rise more if you plan on using your own dedicated IPs. Paying these fees will be unavoidable if you want to start using the platform, so make sure you are aware of any costs like these before you sign the contract.

Training Fees

Whether you’re new to email marketing or a seasoned pro, most people will need to be shown their way around a new system – but how much will this cost you? Training costs vary depending on many factors, such as how in depth and personalised the session needs to be and whether it will be done over the phone or face to face, although quotes of up to £1,200 are not unheard of. Newer senders should be particularly cautious of this, as they are often the ones who require the most support.

Dedicated Account Management

Account Management can take many forms. This can range from having someone on the end of the phone to answer your questions, to going for full service email marketing and having a  team load your campaigns for you and give you a detailed breakdown of the reporting.

Make sure there is clarity about what types of services are included in the price – whilst you might not be able to expect free campaign management, it should be a given that there is someone to help you with your day to day questions free of charge. It might be smart to add a SLA or Service Level agreement to the contract.

Bolt Ons and Extras

If you’ve chosen a new ESP based on the features they provide, such as a powerful segmentation tool or an integrated deliverability suite, be sure to check that they are also included in the contracted rate. You want to compare ESP pricing, but some ESPs offer their more advanced features as bolted on extras which come with an additional monthly charge or a one off payment required to use them. Be sure that all of the features which attracted you to the ESP in the first place are part and parcel of the service and price.

Overage Fees

Most ESPs operate on a cost per mille (CPM) basis or will charge you a fixed rate for you to send a set volume of emails. But what if you go over this amount? Some ESPs have an overage charge which they will impose if you go over your monthly quota instead of charging you on a CPM basis. If you anticipate some months where you will go over, make sure to calculate that in, before you sign.

Expected charges and the rest of the iceberg

Although there are some charges which can be expected when using an ESP, such as a set charge per volume sent, email creative design and build, and charges for damaging IPs allocated to you (for example, if they have been blacklisted due to your poor sending reputation), it’s easy to see how some customers end up paying above and beyond what they bargained for.

As a simple example, if you sign a CPM contract worth £1,000 per month (PM) you could end up paying an extra £300 for a training session to be shown your way around the system, £200 to have your data segmented and a further £500 once your mailing has been sent to have your reporting explained to you. Before you know it the invoice which you expected to see at £1,000 PM has made its way up to £2,000!

Avoid this happening to you by considering what features are a must have, what kind of support you expect to be part of the package and how much flexibility you will need. It is all part of the Requirements stage of choosing a new ESP.  Take this information to your prospective ESP and make any final decisions armed with the knowledge of the true cost of using the platform. It will it easier to compare ESP pricing.

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