Is My Agency Charging Me Too Much for Emails?

Hey Joe,

My team and I have been working with an agency to create our emails — but I’m worried that we may be paying too much. Every time we send a request, it takes weeks to deliver, and that makes it challenging to get to market as quickly as we need to.
How much should agencies charge for an email? And how long should it take to create them?

Thanks,
Cost-conscious Caroline

Hi Caroline,

Thanks so much for bringing up this question. Email is such an important marketing tool for both B2C and B2B businesses, and it’s tough to feel that your partners aren’t doing the most they can to make your campaigns both efficient and effective. Trust me, you’re not alone.

The truth is, it depends. I know this may sound like a wishy-washy answer, but bear with me. When it comes to how an agency scopes out an email project it depends on the size of the campaign you’re giving them, how many other clients they’re dealing with, and how long they’ve been in the space. These are all things that can dictate the price tag on an email campaign — as well as how much time it takes the agency to deliver the end product.

You likely first engaged your agency because you didn’t have the right resources and skills to create emails in-house. And that’s totally fine; it’s the same with many marketing teams. That said, you do still have options when it comes to holding your agency accountable or finding ways to reduce how much of your budget goes to email. Here are four of them.

• Hold your agency accountable. Have frequent and frank discussions with your agency partners to set key performance indicators. This can include the cost per email, the time spent to develop each one, as well as performance-related metrics.
• Consider a pay-for-performance model. See if you can set up a payment structure where you don’t pay as much for emails that don’t work or deliver results. FYI, many agencies talk about this, but few actually do it. Check in with your partners to see if they’re open to the conversation — that’ll be a good indicator for how invested they are in your success.
• Have transparent conversations with your agency. How are they building your emails? What tools are they using? Why does it take them two weeks to deliver one email? Don’t be afraid to ask your agency questions so that they can let you in on their process and build a stronger relationship with you.
• Know that there’s an alternative. You do have the option to bring email in house — and that doesn’t have to be scary. With a platform like Knak, for example, you can build emails in 20 minutes and be sure that they’ll reach the right people, render properly, and offer an on-brand experience to your readers. And you don’t need a whole team to do it.This last one doesn’t mean you have to say goodbye to your agency partners. Agencies are built on bold, creative thinking, so tap into that. You can work with your agency team to build the next standout marketing campaign in your industry. And if you feel you still need help with email, Revenue Pulse has an exclusive partnership with Knak — and they’d be happy to help you use the digital platform to its fullest potential. Whichever way you choose to go, you’ll be set up for success.You’ve got this,
  Joe Pulse.