As a marketing leader, it’s your job to give your team the tools and resources they need to succeed.
Unfortunately, budget constraints and bureaucracy often get in the way.
If you’re worried that your email marketing team is under resourced for what’s on their plate, here are five signs you need to look for.
1. You don’t have enough people to do the work
It’s no secret that email teams are chronically under resourced, especially when it comes to people.
Really Good Emails found that 80% of email teams are three people or less.
Additionally, Litmus found that insufficient staffing is the second biggest challenge facing email teams, but adding internal email marketing staff and increasing the use of agencies and freelancers were still low priorities.
However, Litmus also found that nearly a third of brands are increasing spending on email team personnel.
If you’re not sure whether your email team has enough people (or what skills you’re missing), check out our blog; The 5 Key Players on Your Email Marketing Team.
2. Your budget is always stretched too thin
If you’re constantly trying to find additional budget to cover your email marketing, then your budget might be too tight.
Take a step back and consider how saving this money might actually be losing you money.
In 2018, Litmus found that companies who had a high email ROI decreased their email marketing budget or kept it flat.
They deduced that high ROIs actually discourage additional email marketing investment, rather than encourage it.
Litmus pointed out that; “Given the high returns, companies should be investing so much more in their programs that they drive their rates of return down to sane levels like 20:1 or even lower. In doing so, they’d be driving their absolute returns through the roof.”
3. Deadlines are being pushed out constantly
It’s hard to meet deadlines consistently when you’re dealing with a systematic lack of resources or budget.
If your email team has to repeatedly push back deadlines then it’s time to examine whether there’s a problem with your expectations, their workload, or the processes themselves (or the most terrifying of all, all of the above).
4. Too much time is spent on manual processes
Is your email team constantly going back and forth between copywriters, designers, developers, and marketers?
How long does it take them to generate a single email?
If it’s taking them days or even weeks then it’s a clear sign that their email workflows are bogged down by manual processes.
Examine each stage of your email generation workflow and pinpoint the processes that could be automated by technology.
5. Quality is on the chopping block
When email teams are pushed to burnout, it makes sense that quality assurance goes out the window.
If you’re seeing an uptick in spelling mistakes, general copy or design errors, list mismanagement, rendering issues, or coding mistakes then it might be a sign that your team is under resourced.
Your team can only succeed if they have the right tools at their disposal. Automate and streamline these workflows with an email generation platform like stensul.
Companies like Disney and Google are using stensul to generate custom emails in minutes. To find out more, schedule your personalized demo today.
