Email Marketing Price Guide
Establishing a budget for email marketing can be a tricky business. There are a number of factors which affect pricing and every email marketing company offers different service packages at different prices in order to carve their own niche in the marketplace.
So in this Email Marketing Price Guide, rather than try to list all prices from all providers (which in any case are constantly changing and open to negotiation), we’ll attempt to provide you with a comprehensive set of factors to consider when comparing quotes from different email marketing companies. This way you can feel confident knowing that you’ve found the best deal for your business.
Will you be using your own data?
If you have your own database of email addresses for existing and prospective customers then you might just be looking for a company to send out your marketing emails. If, on the other hand, you need to rent or purchase a list of appropriate contacts you’ll need to find a suitable supplier. Email list prices are determined by the following:
- B2B or B2C? Email data costs from around 3p to around 12p per contact and most companies have a minimum order of £250 to £500. Contrary to what you might expect, consumer data is at the higher end of this pricing range as suppliers need to conform to exacting standards (Direct Marketing Association’s Code of Practice) in order to provide it.
- Single or multiple use? If you’re just looking to conduct a one-off campaign you can rent a single use list. This is usually the only option for consumer data as companies need to comply with data protection laws and industry best practice. For B2B data though you’ll normally have the option of renting the data for a year or more, during which time you can send as many emails to the contacts on the list as you like. A year’s lease normally costs around 40% more than a one-off rental. Purchasing business data is much more expensive and unless you’re going to put the effort into keeping it up to date via telemarketing calls, probably worth discounting.
- What’s the quality of the data? For B2B data you’ll want to check that the data you’re obtaining is opt-in (i.e. that the contacts have given their permission to be contacted) and that you can select from a number of criteria (such as business type, job role, location, size of business etc). You also may want to ask about bounceback rates and how the data was gathered (telemarketing, subscriptions etc). For B2C data look out for the same factors but especially the options you have in selecting consumers with incomes, interests or ages that are appropriate for your product/service.
- Will it be combined with existing data? Email list providers can usually ‘de-dupe’ the data they provide against your existing database, charging by the thousand (£20 per thousand contacts is typical).
- Telephone numbers included? If you want to follow up your email marketing campaign with a telemarketing campaign, telephone numbers will add around 25-40% to the cost of the email lists. Check that consumer telephone data has been suppressed against TPS or you could end up in trouble with the Information Commissioner’s Office.
How many emails do you want to send?
Once you have an email marketing database you’ll need a company to provide the facility for sending out the emails. The pricing options with most email marketing companies resemble mobile phone tariffs i.e. you can choose between pay-as-you-go and contract. With a contract you’re usually paying a set price per year for sending out a maximum number of emails through the service. With pay-as-you-go you pay a monthly fee based on the number of emails you send out each month. Consider the following:
- Set-up fees Some email marketing companies will charge you a one-off fee to begin using their service after which you pay on either a pay-as-you-go or contract basis. These set up fees range from around £100 for low volume users to £1,000 for large enterprises.
- Variable or ad-hoc campaigns If you regularly send out similar numbers of emails each month then a contact price plan can save you a lot of money. If however your volumes change from month to month or your database of prospects varies in size on a seasonal basis, a pay as you send type plan could be more cost effective. If there will be months where you don’t send any emails, be sure to check that this will incur no charge.
- Number of emails or size of database? Some companies base their price plans on a set number of emails each month (regardless of who they’re sent to) while others allow unlimited emails to a fixed database of contacts. Which is more appropriate to you will obviously depend on the type of customer you’ll be contacting.
Typical prices are from 0.5p per email (for 50,000 emails per month on a contract, 0.7-1.0p per email for the same number per month pay-as-you go) to 3p per email (for 2,000 emails per month pay-as-you-go, compared to 2.5p per email for the same number per month on a contract).
Do you require campaign management?
All email marketing companies offer support services as well as just sending out the emails. This can include software with extensive data and analysis tools for monitoring the response rates to your emails and conversions generated on your website (including integration with Google Analytics), tools for designing emails and a selection of templates to speed this process up, or even managing the whole process for you from start to finish.
Some email marketing companies offer the software features as part of a ‘premium’ subscription which is either rolled into the monthly/annual price or included as part of the one-off set up fee.
Full campaign management can usually be purchased for a set price per campaign (in the region of £400) or you can purchase elements piecemeal. This does not normally include design and copywriting services. Design of an HTML email will normally cost £200+; a page of quality sales copy about £250.
Now you have a clearer idea of email prices, fill in our simple quote form and we can match your requirements with leading email list and email data providers from throughout the UK.
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