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There are two ways to reach customers in email marketing to grow your brand: One is through using an SMTP service, and two is subscribing to an email service provider. Another option to consider is inbound marketing. In a way, these systems are both similar and different. Yet, they have their own pros and cons. Let’s discuss more these two methods and find out which one would be the best for you.
What is SMTP Relay?
A Single Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) relay is an email communication protocol that advanced email marketers and big brands use. It works through a “store and forward” system. The system works like the traditional post office to post office process – you store an email in your server (post office), and it sends your email to your intended recipient’s server. The recipient’s server will then send your email to your recipient. One of the best email automation tools is ConversionSpree which allows you to send 1 million emails per month and gives you the best return on investment.
The Benefits of Sending Emails Through an Email Service Provider
Improved Email Deliverability
Email service providers (ESPs) have a spam-detection feature that helps you check the words you put into your subject line and email. Because of this, you’ll be able to create email marketing campaigns that won’t be automatically sent to a recipient’s spam box.
Personalization
The personalization tool allows you to create the right email campaign for a specific user list segment. An excellent example of this is adding a women’s shoe campaign to the “Female” category. Personalization is essential because it is one of the actionable email marketing tips that increase your return on investment (ROI).
Larger Email Sending Volume
Like SMTP relay services, email service providers are also authenticated to send more emails per hour, day, week, and month. This allows you to have more commercial growth because free email clients like Google limit how many emails an account can be sent in a given time.
Email Tracking
ESPs track customer engagement with your emails. This tells you how many users clicked, opened, replied, and bought from your store when they received your email. The data will then be processed into an information board to show whether your email campaign did well or didn’t.
Subscriber Management
Customers have their own preferred time to receive your emails. The subscriber management tool that an ESP has will allow you to create segments on which you can assign users based on their preferences.
For example, if you have users of different age brackets, you can then set different age segments and assign the right user there.
The Difference Between SMTP Relays and Email Sending Platforms
An SMTP is less flexible than an email sending platform (ESP) because it only follows a set of rules for sending emails. It doesn’t have any campaign analytics, email personalization, user segmentation, and spam-detection function. However, an SMTP is much more affordable when it comes to monthly subscriptions.
ESPs like Mailchimp, on the other hand, have all the functions an email marketer needs and are much faster when sending emails. Yet, they cost more based on email sending volume. The more emails you send in an hour, day, week, and month, the more expensive your monthly bill will be.
As an email marketer, it is advisable to use email marketing software like Ongage to save a lot of time and money. Why? It allows marketers to develop features similar to ESPs that connect to an SMTP service. As an email marketer, this grants you the power to send multiple emails exactly how you want it and when you want it for a better customer experience.
It’s also much more affordable than most email marketing automation services and ESPs. Another feature that makes Ongage good is that it provides a front-end interface for non-technical email marketers, making the configuration of email relay features easy. That means there’s no need for coding.
Several examples of these feature development include UI improvement, analytics board, campaign reports, dynamic content integration, email personalization, marketing automation, user segmentation, and more.
Conclusion
Simple Mail Transfer Protocols are best for highly advanced email marketers because they allow their business to send large volumes of email without limit. It also costs less. In terms of email marketing features and flexibility, that depends on the SMTP developer because they can add and remove features based on the email marketer’s preference through SMTP configuration.
If you want a full email marketing package that is easy to use and don’t mind paying extra for subscribing to an email service provider would be your best option. However, it will be a smart move to only subscribe to an ESP if your subscriber list is small because the ESP’s monthly charge will increase along with the volume of email you send.
Once your subscriber list reaches the thousands, it will be best to hire an SMTP developer so you can have an email service platform that you exactly want. The more your ESP reflects your email marketing vision, the better your customer’s experience will be. And that only means one thing – more engagement and sales.
