{"id":1563,"date":"2011-03-22T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-22T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/?p=1563"},"modified":"2019-07-05T06:25:37","modified_gmt":"2019-07-05T05:25:37","slug":"both-sides-of-the-esp-rfp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/both-sides-of-the-esp-rfp\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons from both sides of the email vendor RFP"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Full disclosure: With eight years of email consulting under my belt, I have experienced several ESP RFP (Email Service Provider Requests for Proposal<\/a>) exercises.\u00a0 While wearing my agency hat, I was asked to write about those experiences for this site.\u00a0 Recently, I took a position with an ESP, which makes my advice suspect at best.<\/p>\n

As I look at the process from both agency as ESP sides, I see opportunities as well as flaws.\u00a0 You be the judge.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Receiving an Request for Proposal<\/span><\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve never known anyone \u2013 in any industry \u2013 who loves being on the receiving end of an RFP.\u00a0 It tends to be a mountain of work to deliver an impersonal document, which is typically judged on price alone, doing a disservice to both issuer and responder.\u00a0 Vendors with the luxury of a healthy pipeline will forego them altogether.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Changing perspectives<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s surprising how moving to the vendor side for just a few weeks has changed my perspective on RFPs.\u00a0 I used to advise my clients to firmly demand a lot of specifics about costs and team.\u00a0 While this is still a good idea, there are caveats.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Reducing CPM costs and the want for more<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

<\/strong>Let\u2019s talk cost \u2013 and how to get it as low as possible.\u00a0 First understand that your costs will not be covered in the CPM (cost per thousand) price.\u00a0 As email marketers have found through the years, the services needed from an ESP<\/a> range far beyond importing a list, sending it out and receiving response data in return.\u00a0 This is what the CPM is intended to cover \u2013 use of the software.\u00a0 I have never worked with a client, however, that didn\u2019t want more, much more, from their ESP.<\/p>\n

Emailers may need help with complex technical integrations, strategy, analytics, design, coding, best practices, industry insight, deliverability remediation and\/or training.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Add-on email marketing services<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

ESPs want to give you the best possible price, but they also want to make sure they\u2019re covered for all these add-on services.\u00a0 The goal is to eliminate surprises on both sides, which leave clients feeling like they\u2019re being nickel-and-dimed and ESPs caught between customer satisfaction and profitability.<\/p>\n

The more specific your RFP, the better a responder can accurately estimate costs for the effort required.\u00a0 Consider each of the areas above and spell out the help you\u2019ll need in each area.\u00a0 Include your colleagues in the effort, particularly the IT department.\u00a0 This of course is in addition to describing the size of your list, your programs and campaigns, the email staff and your goals for the future.\u00a0 If it sounds like a lot of work, it is.\u00a0 But specificity allows the ESPs to sharpen their pencils, rather than making assumptions.<\/p>\n

They may ultimately include the costs of additional services in your CPM, but any \u201csurprises\u201d will require additional services and costs.\u00a0 A lower CPM for one vendor at the outset may mean they didn\u2019t include all the services you need.<\/p>\n

<\/span>The dedicated bench sitting team<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a>Now let\u2019s talk team.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always advocated having a dedicated team handling your account and meeting them as part of the RFP interviews.\u00a0 Oh, how na\u00efve I was just those few weeks ago.\u00a0 I should have learned from my agency experience, when I looked back at the the pitch document after months on the business and saw no one I had even heard of.\u00a0 Having people \u201con the bench,\u201d just waiting for new business to call them into active duty, is a luxury few businesses can afford.\u00a0 Moreover, including service staff on prospecting visits takes them away from serving current customers.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Get to know you partner<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

It is important to get to know your prospective partner. \u00a0Once you\u2019ve narrowed down the list to a few contenders, spend time getting to know them and see if you like the way they do business.\u00a0 A conference call with their IT people and yours is a good idea, to discuss data integration \u2013 what\u2019s out-of-the-box and what\u2019s custom.\u00a0 It is also critical that those on your team who will be working with the application have an opportunity to evaluate the user interface.<\/p>\n

<\/span>A good fit and no surprises<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

These impressions, combined with the ESP\u2019s response to your very specific RFP, should lead you to a good fit and a pricing structure with few surprises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Full disclosure: With eight years of email consulting under my belt, I have experienced several ESP RFP (Email Service Provider Requests for Proposal) exercises.\u00a0 While wearing my agency hat, I was asked to write about those experiences for this site.\u00a0 Recently, I took a position with an ESP, which makes my advice suspect at best. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":19568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"dealstore":[],"coauthors":[814],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1563"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1563"},{"taxonomy":"dealstore","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/dealstore?post=1563"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}