Email marketing is an essential tool utilized for online marketing. Several small businesses have agreed that email marketing is one of the best ways to expand a business. However, the average click rates have recently decreased. It means that while email marketing can lead to an increase in gaining customers, maintaining and managing customers can be one of the biggest challenges for MSP due to a rise in competition. Thus, MSPs must procure the services that best enhance their needs and preserve the managed services definition. The most important purposes for email marketing involve nurturing new leads, reconnecting with old leads, and strengthening bonds with existing customers. And with the advancement of technologies, there is a high risk of being vulnerable to cyber theft and other cybercrimes. Hence, it becomes essential for the MSPs to couple their email marketing strategy with email security to meet these requirements.
Two Important Strategies For Email Marketing
Here are some crucial strategies that MSPs can utilize to get more impact out of email marketing.
Create a database of potential leads
Once you know who the customers are, you can build a database accordingly. Who are the clients you are catering to? Are they from a law firm? Are they a small business related to the food industry? After segmenting the client database based on such information, you will be able to email them in a way that suits their needs. The language used to market a service to a law firm will differ from the food industry.
Create Relevance
Instead of giving out information that will not help them, it will be more impactful if you educate the clients on topics that can help them enhance their business by utilizing the provided services.
Best Tools For Email Marketing
Email marketing is a dynamic tool that allows adequate control while an MSP reaches out to existing customers and new leads. It saves time for the sales teams and nurtures the leads and clients by educating them about the services in the way that the MSPs want. With powerful email marketing software, one can create an email campaign that suits the requirements and increases the sales of managed service offerings.
Different types of managed services will require tailored email campaigns that can help them develop accordingly.
Getting The Right Tools
Email marketing is expected to experience an increase in revenue from $7.5 billion in 2020 to $17.9 billion by 2027. With the right tools, a business can extract a high ROI from email marketing. However, it depends on selecting the right tools. Below are some factors that affect the tools selection.
- Automation: Emails can be automated for recurring scenarios, such as when a new lead subscribes or makes a purchase. It enables one to reach out to prospects more efficiently and quickly in real-time.
- Subscriber list segmentation: An MSP will be required to segment the subscribers based on their different positions in the sale cycle. It helps to segregate the clients accordingly and reach out to them as needed.
- Optimized budget: Tools with the right plans that fit the budget can make the correct investment and increase revenue. Successful MSPs are clear about their budget and how to accomplish objectives within it.
Risks Involved in Email Marketing
Email marketing is a double-edged sword that can be beneficial but can also cause exposure to several cybercrime risks. Some of the common risks of cybercrimes involved with email marketing are listed below.
- Scams: Emails scams are where a malicious actor poses as an MSSP and gets sensitive information from the recipient, such as domain details. It leads to a loss of trust in the original service provider, and eventually, to a loss in business.
- Malware: Malware can be introduced into the emails at any part of the campaign. The attacker can pose as an MSSP and introduce malware that can compromise a significant amount of information.
- Spoofing: The attacker may create a landing page along with a brand email of an existing MSP and extract information from the client.
- Phishing: The attacker can also extract information from the client and compromise their accounts. It often leads to monetary loss for both the client and the MSP.
Email Security in Email Marketing
While engaging clients and leads is vital to market the products, email marketing can often lead to susceptibility to cybercrimes. According to statistics, about 52% of MSPs and MSSPs have clients who were affected by ransomware. Due to such factors, they need to be even more careful in their marketing campaigns. A single attack on an MSSP can impact the clients directly or indirectly and decrease the service provider’s reliability.
The first thing required to do is to ensure adequate email authentication. Authentication can give control over how the domain is to be used and an overview of any cyber attack attempt. It helps safeguard emails from being subjected to spoofing and phishing attacks. Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC if you have not.
It would help if you also researched the tools used for email marketing. One needs to know how reliable they are and whether they provide decent security. Getting a free service that does not provide adequate email security solutions will only make the provider more vulnerable and cost more in the long run.
Implying advanced security solutions for email security will enable an MSP to identify spam and phishing emails and prevent a high percentage of ransomware and malware from attacking. Sandbox features of email security allow an analysis of unknown programs and files and uncover any attempts to perpetrate malicious activities. Marketing emails often contain essential consumer details and can lead to security risks if they are in the wrong hands. Therefore, the emails must be encrypted. It is also vital to educate the clients about cybercrimes.
Final Words
Email marketing is rising in popularity for MSPs looking to expand their businesses with the low-cost, high-return strategy. It has been successful in delivering impactful sales results. However, it is also highly vulnerable to cyber risks and theft, which leads to an eventual loss in business. This scenario calls for intelligent solutions in email security where MSP partners can handle the risks by implementing powerful tools. With the utilization of these tools, MSPs can successfully carry out email marketing campaigns while keeping their security and that of their clients intact, thereby fulfilling the promises to the clients.