When considering whether to add another software platform to your marketing stack, your selection can either be a lucrative investment or an expensive mistake. Marketing technology makes up 25.4% of the average marketing budget in North America and Europe. When 1 out of every 4 dollars is spent on software, you want to make the right choice.
Most information about software purchasing decisions is focused on a company’s email service provider (ESP) or marketing automation platform. But your ESP is only one part of your overall marketing infrastructure. It’s responsible for an email build, but not for everything that occurs before or after the send.
That’s why it’s worth investing in a specialized email testing and deliverability platform—to act as an insurance policy for your entire email program.
To assist in your selection process, we created The Inbox Advantage, a buyer’s guide to evaluating email testing and deliverability platforms. This guide will equip you with everything you need to know to pick the right solution for you.
You’ll learn how to:
- Address common objections to bringing another platform on board
- Turn every stakeholder into a champion
- Evaluate platforms on key criteria
- Ask the right questions during procurement
- Set your team up for long-term success
In this post, we’ll give you a sneak peek of what to expect in The Inbox Advantage. Download the full buyer’s guide to share with your team.
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The Benefits Before and After the Send
As we stated in the introduction, your ESP is where you build your email campaigns. It’s not designed to test how they’re landing in inboxes—or equipped to identify deliverability issues in the event they don’t.
A dedicated email testing and deliverability platform, on the other hand, connects your entire pre-send and post-send workflow.
Pre-Send Benefits
- Test your emails while you build them
- Streamline the QA process
- Measure deployment readiness
Post-Send Benefits
- Ensure better inbox placement
- Avoid spamtraps and blocklistings
- Improve your sender reputation
“An ESP’s job is not to serve deliverability analytics in real-time. Inbox Monster is the first place we go to see if we have a deliverability issue.” ~ Nick Woodward, Senior Director of Engineering, Morning Brew Inc.
Your Checklist to Pick the Right Provider
Whether you’re conducting research on your own or are involved in a lengthy request-for-proposal (RFP) process, you’ll want to ask potential vendors plenty of questions.
Included in the buyer’s guide is a checklist to use during your evaluation. We’ve included an abridged version of the checklist here, but download the guide for more questions, as well the critical features you need to optimize your email program.
Platform
- Is the platform marketer-friendly and easy to use?
- Does the platform integrate with your current ESP?
- Does the platform support other tools in your stack?
Partnership
- Does the provider offer the right tier of customer support for your needs?
- Will you work with a designated customer support manager?
- Is there a clear process of submitting support tickets or feature requests?
Price
- Can you save on costs by switching platforms?
- Can the platform’s pricing structure accommodate your specific user or preview needs?
- Can the platform reduce the amount of technical resources required?
“Inbox Monster has been a vital part of helping us achieve our marketing and business objectives in terms of growth and expansion. We see them as an indispensable partner.” ~ René James-Barriteau, VP of CRM, Secret Sales
From Evaluation to Execution
Choosing an email testing and deliverability platform is about protecting the performance, reputation and revenue of your entire email program. And the right partner can make all the difference.
Our buyer’s guide, The Inbox Advantage, gives you a practical framework for evaluating email testing and deliverability platforms, from securing internal buy-in to comparing critical capabilities and setting your team up for long-term success.
Download the guide to learn how to:
- Build your business case and overcome common objections from marketing, engineering and leadership stakeholders.
- Evaluate the features that matter most, including creative rendering, email QA, reputation management and more.
- Navigate the buying process with confidence with a vendor evaluation checklist, key procurement questions, onboarding considerations and a real-world case study on making the switch.
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