177. Email Marketing › how it works › email strategy and planning A successful email campaign is most likely to be the one geared at retaining and creating a long-term relationship with the reader. Know your audience! They will dictate the interactions. 7.4.2 Email Service Providers An email service provider (ESP) is a partner who can help manage your email design and send. For bigger organisations it often makes sense to either purchase your own software and server, or partner with one. This is especially true if you are sending more than 50 emails at a time. Most ESPs are do-it- yourself services that do not manage or strategise your campaign, but will give you the tools you need to manage it yourself. MailChimp (www.mailchimp.com) is one example of an email service provider that can manage the email send for you from start to finish. Founded in 2000, the tool provides tracking, support, functionality for managing subscriber lists and email templates. There are some important questions to ask when choosing an email service provider. note • How easy is it to use? This is important if you are managing the ReturnPath and Trust-e campaigns yourself. (www.returnpath.net • Can one upload and migrate the contact list? It’s important that and www.truste.com) you own your lists. are are both email certification authorities. • Is the process self-service or managed? They verify that your • How does the reporting work? emails are compliant • What is their deliverability like? with international email • Are they endorsed by email and deliverability authorities, like privacy laws as well as ReturnPath or Trust-e? the regulations and best practices put in place to • Do they adhere to best practices for direct marketing? combat spam. 7.4.3 Getting Started 1. Growing a database Running a successful email campaign requires that a business has a genuine opt-in database. This database, the list of subscribers who have agreed to allow a company to send them emails with marketing messages, is the most valuable asset of an email campaign. Permission must be explicitly given by all people to whom emails are sent. Companies that abuse this can put their reputation in jeopardy, and in many countries, legal action can be taken against companies that send unsolicited bulk email – also known as spam.174