Email marketing remains one of the most powerful ways to connect with your customers, boost sales, and strengthen brand loyalty. However, not all messaging platforms are created equal. The right choice will boost engagement, automate your workflows, and scale your business – while the wrong one could hold you back. So, how do you choose the best messaging platform for your SME? Look beyond flashy features and evaluate the essentials supporting your long-term success. Here’s what to consider.
Ensure Your Emails are Reaching Your Audience
If your emails aren’t landing in inboxes, nothing else matters. Email deliverability is key to a successful campaign—it ensures your messages bypass spam filters and reach your audience.
Common factors that impact deliverability include:
- Shared IP addresses: Your emails could get flagged if other users send spam from a shared IP.
- Lack of authentication: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC protocols verify your sender identity. Without these protocols, your emails may look suspicious.
- Poor list hygiene: Sending emails to outdated or unengaged contacts damages your sender reputation.
What to look for:
- Strong sender reputation management and dedicated IP options.
- SPF, DKIM, and DMARC protocols to verify sender identity.
- Ability to remove inactive subscribers easily from your database.
Ensuring email deliverability makes all the difference! Find out how you can ensure your bulk emails reach the intended inboxes, and what the best practices for email delivery are.
Save Time by Implementing Smart Automation
Automation turns email marketing into an efficient sales driver—helping you send timely, relevant messages with minimal manual effort.
Examples of automated workflows that can streamline your messages:
- Welcome emails: Instantly engage your new subscribers.
- Lead nurturing campaigns: Guide your leads through the sales funnel.
- Re-engagement campaigns: Re-engage inactive customers with a compelling offer.
What to look for:
- Robust automation and workflow creation capabilities.
- Personalisation tools, like the ability to insert recipient names or create dynamic content.
- Easy setup of triggers to kick off the workflow, like subscription forms and landing pages.
With the right approach, marketing automation can complement your existing strategies, enabling you to maintain a personal touch while scaling your efforts.
Use Your Reporting Data to Make Smarter Business Decisions
Great data fuel great marketing results. The right platform should provide insights beyond just open rates—helping you refine your messaging for better results.
Here are some insightful questions your analytics should answer:
- Open rates: Are your emails being opened?
- Click-through rates: Are recipients clicking through to learn more?
- A/B testing: Which subject lines perform best?
- Conversion tracking: Are emails leading to actual sales?
What to look for:
- Real-time reporting and in-depth engagement insights.
- Detailed engagement insights, like heatmaps, to visualise user behaviour.
- A/B testing tools to refine subject lines, content, and send time.
Understanding the differences between analytics and metrics for marketing is a strategic advantage in an era where every digital interaction can be tracked and analysed.
Use Scalable Solutions that Support Your Business Growth
Your business won’t stay the same size forever, and your messaging platform shouldn’t either. You need a solution that can scale as your email list and marketing needs expand.
Here are a few things to consider when it comes to scalability
- Sending limits: Transparent email and SMS sending limits so you’re always clear on your costs.
- Automation features: Access to automation and segmentation features, even in entry-level plans.
- Scalable packages: A solution designed for growth means you don’t have to switch platforms entirely when your needs evolve.
What to look for
- Clear and adjustable sending limits
- Automation and segmentation options, available from day one
- Easy upgrades with predictable pricing.
We’ve got a package for you, no matter where you are in your email, WhatsApp or SMS journey. Get a demo of the Everlytic product and choose the package that suits your needs
Keep Your Business and Customer Data Secure
Although data protection is a legal obligation, it’s also essential for building customer trust. Your messaging platform should make it easy to comply with data security and privacy regulations.
These are some of the primary considerations for security:
- Data privacy: Your chosen platform should make it possible for you to comply with relevant data privacy laws.
- Consent management: Opt-ins and unsubscribes should be easy and trackable.
- Robust security features: Encryption and two-factor authentication should be standard.
What to look for:
- A focus on data privacy and security.
- Features and tools for managing customer preferences and consent.
- Strong security protocols to prevent data breaches. (e.g., encryption, two-factor authentication).
Make the Right Choice for Your Business
It’s tempting to pick a platform based on cost alone, but the cheapest option isn’t always the best in the long run. A robust messaging platform should act as a strategic partner—helping you build relationships, boost sales, and scale your business efficiently.
When selecting a platform, think beyond today’s needs. Choose one that aligns with your business growth objectives and brand priorities—because your SME deserves a solution that works as hard as you do.
