According to Williams, there are three services in particular to consider when looking at email marketing services:

1. Spitfire Inbound

Spitfire is a company that specialises in inbound marketing. It is based on Johannesburg, and its team are experts at digital strategy, content marketing and email marketing.

Around 50% of its business focus is on small businesses and 50% of its focus is on mid-market businesses. The company offers a broad approach to marketing, which means it will come to your project from many different angles. Spitfire's most powerful departments are its advertising and marketing departments.

Spitfire Inbound email marketing benefits

You can take a multi-pronged approach, such as by matching your promotions with parallel promotions on social media, websites and affiliate adverts. It is very effective if done correctly.

If you are looking for a simple process without the addition of other media outlets, then try Spitfire's research services before you hire its email marketers. This is because your campaign will have more impact if you go this route.

2. BlueMagnet

BlueMagnet specialises in Internet marketing and website optimisation. The company's goal is to achieve a higher return on its clients' marketing investments. It is able to optimise online assets with the aim of converting customers faster.

Bluemagnet focuses on social media marketing, content marketing and SEO. The company was founded in 2007 in Johannesburg and its most powerful department is its social media marketing department.

BlueMagnet email marketing benefits

Many of its social media talents translate very well into email marketing projects. This is both a plus and a minus. It means the company is great at email marketing to the type of person who spends a lot of time on Facebook; however, the team is not as strong when email marketing on a B2B basis.

3. Jasper Consultants

Founded in 1995 in Johannesburg, Jasper Consultants are experts in web design and online optimisation. The company has a hands-on approach and works to improve the quality of online assets — with the hopes of improving the user experience as a whole.

They concentrate on SEO, web design and graphic design. The company has developed over 10 000 websites in its time. Jasper's most powerful department is its web design department that holds over 50 employees on its own.

Jasper Consultants email marketing benefits

You can have your emails look like pages from a 1990s magazine, or perhaps lead the eye with cleverly placed screen elements. Their emails work well, no matter if they are opened on a desktop computer or handheld device.

Jasper employees are designers at heart and sometimes that is all you need to push an email campaign from mediocre to massive.

Take your service provider's advice but give them plenty of direction

You can give your service provider some of your marketing ideas, but your primary aim is to tell them the following:
  • your target demographic
  • your primary goal
  • how much you want to spend, and 
  • what you expect of them.
Hard targets are important but remember that sometimes getting the sale sometimes means exploiting the user base. You have to ask yourself if you would like to maintain a healthy email list, or get the sale.

Take the advice of marketing companies, but handle the email-list gathering yourself. This is because even the best companies can sell you a shiny hollow diamond. They can sell you a list of what looks like great prospects, but it turns out to be useless. Always choose the most organic and double-opt-in method for building your email list.

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