(Updated 2025.)

The bottom line: there’s lots of detail in this article, but we know you are mostly interested in the cost, so an up to date price quote is at the end of this page, and here’s a link to our e-mail campaign portfolio where you can see samples of some launched campaigns.

The initial set up and design takes some time and thought, but once up and running, e–mail campaigns are a great way to keep your brand in front of your customers, drive people to your web site, promote your business and events, as well as attract new customers who may sign up for your newsletters via various means.

E–mail campaign designs should:

• be designed and coded in such as way as to not get caught in spam filters,
• be coded so they render cleanly in any e–mail client, on any system, including tablets and smartphones,
• be concise,
• drive people to your web site, on-line store, or appointment forms with links,
• use graphics intelligently so they don’t hinder load time, readability on all devices, and deliverability,
• carry your branding throughout,
• contain calls to action, and
• be designed so you may use the same template for each launch, making simple edits to text, colors, and photos without re-coding each time.

The initial steps in the process are:

• deciding upon your e-mailer design,
• how to manage your email list,
• designing and coding your email template (this same template will be used from e–mail to e–mail, making updates easy and providing your recipients with consistency),
• collection of email addresses, and
• the account set up.

These above steps are discussed in our initial meeting and are not repeated after the first e–mail campaign.

Costs

One time set-up costs:

• Design drafts, half an hour to two hours depending upon type of e-mailer.
• Email template coding, one hour to two hours depending upon type of e-mailer. The simpler the template design, the faster the code is written.
• Set up of email campaign service provider account and/or manager account, half an hour.
• Cost of initial email address list set up depends upon how muck work is need to format your customer list(s) and import into the email marketing vendor’s contact list system. A good estimate is one hour for someone computer savvy, with experience in Excel. We can also provide technical services to import your customer database, and other contact lists. We would discuss the specific tasks with you and bill for time accordingly.

Here are the steps which are repeated with each following campaign:

• Entering content to the template, half to one hour. This assumes a few graphics and several paragraphs of text copy, and also that the content provided is publish-ready and fits to the e–mail template already coded.
• Sending you test email and maybe small tweaks, half an hour.
• Formatting the address list and uploading to e-mail campaign platform, fifteen minutes.
• Launching e-mailer, fifteen minutes.
• Reporting, FREE! A few days after the e-mail is sent to your address list, we will e–mail you a report with information which can be helpful to your future marketing. Report will include how many clicks the e–mail generated to a linked web pages, who has opted off of your mailing list, your open rate, which e–mail addresses are not valid, and if any of your e–mails were forwarded and if these recipients added their address to your mailing list.
• Also no charge, lot of tips along the way on how to produce an effective e–mail campaign, and how e–mail campaigns can help your web site’s search engine optimization.

The summary is that the first campaign will take 4.5 to 6.5 hours to produce, and that following e–mails will take 1 to 2 hours of work. Our current rate is $155/hour. The monthly service charge from the e-mail campaign platform will depend upon the size of your mailing list.  We recommend ConstantContact for your service provider. Please contact John with any questions.