When should you work with a freelance email marketer?

Reasons to work with a freelance email marketer

Deciding to work with a freelance email marketer can feel like a big step, but it doesn't have to be. The truth is that there are lots of reasons that you might decide to work with a freelancer, whether in the short term or for longer. Let's explore some of them.

#1 Reason 1 - You don’t have the skills you need in-house

This is a common one for businesses that are just starting out, that may be made up of junior team members, or for brands that have simply been prioritising other marketing channels.

You know that you want to focus on email marketing, but there may not be official qualifications or even experience in your team of how to make it happen. Or, you might have someone who has the knowledge to build some basic campaigns, but doesn’t know how to create an email strategy or take on the complexity of automations.

Bringing in a freelancer helps you to get instant access to a skillset you’re missing, without waiting for notice periods or team members to upskill. 

#2 Reason 2 - Your team doesn’t have the capacity to handle email marketing

We all know that marketing teams are stretched. There are simply too many things to do and not enough hours in the day. 

You may know email is important, maybe even know what needs to be done, but you just don’t have enough capacity within the team to give it the time it deserves. 

A freelancer can be another set of hands within the team, ready and willing to make your email ambitions come to life. The benefit here is that the team can continue focusing on their own priorities, so your other marketing channels don’t have to suffer to make room for email.

#3 Reason 3 - You’re dealing with long term absence 

Planned and unexpected absence in your marketing team can impact what it can deliver. Be it long term sickness, parental leave or sabbaticals, it’s common for KPIs and ambitions for marketing to remain unchanged even if the team is a person down.

By bringing a freelancer in, you can keep your email marketing moving forward during these periods of absence, helping to stay on track for targets. Working with a freelancer in this way can be a lifesaver if the absence coincides with a busy period for your brand, such as Black Friday!

#4 Reason 4 - You’re in the process of hiring a permanent email marketer

Recruitment takes time. I’ve seen first hand what happens when a business hires the person who is available immediately, rather than the right person for the role (spoiler: it was a disaster). 

By deciding to hire an email marketer in-house, you’ve already decided that email is important to you. With notice periods commonly 3-6 months based on seniority, a freelancer can help you to plug that gap and build a solid foundation, helping your new recruit to hit the ground running when they start.

#5 Reason 5 - You don’t know where to start or what to focus on

It’s common to know you want to do more with email marketing and to be unsure of what should be done first. In fact, this uncertainty can often be paralysing, leading to a lot of procrastination and false starts.

When you work with a freelance email marketer, they’re bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge, and will be able to tell you exactly what to focus on first. They may even conduct an audit to evaluate what you already have and build out a roadmap of what needs to be done and when, removing any guesswork and giving you confidence in where to go next.

The different ways you can work with a freelancer

We’ve established the different reasons that working with a freelance email marketer could be something to consider. But what does it actually look like to work with one?

Depending on your requirements, there can be a variety of shapes the work can take. The way you work with them can flex depending on your budget, your timelines, and the level of expertise you need for the job at hand.

One-off email marketing projects

This is a standalone piece of work that has a clearly defined outcome. 

Projects can be a great way to begin working with a freelance email marketer because you both get a sense of how the other works. It enables you to build trust, and can be great if you only have a limited budget.

Examples of one-off projects in email marketing include:

• An audit of your current set up

  An audit of your current set up: what’s working, what’s not, and what needs to be done

• Building out a set of flows

  Building out a set of flows: enabling your automated emails to get to work across your customer’s journey

• Creating an email template

  Creating an email template: allowing you to stay on-brand every time you create an email

Freelance email marketing retainers

These are ongoing pieces of work. Some come with a defined end date, e.g. a six month retainer, whilst others continue on indefinitely.

Retainers work well for brands that want continued access to email marketing support. In some cases, the support looks the same each month, such as a clearly defined set of deliverables, whereas in other cases, a business gets an allocated amount of time to put to whatever the priorities are at that time.

Examples of retainer work in email marketing include:

• Campaign management: delivering a certain number of campaigns each month, often including campaign planning and reporting to review performance

• Flow optimisations: running monthly A/B tests across your flows to ensure they are constantly improving and you are continuously learning what works and what doesn’t

Email marketing Power Hour sessions

This is a dedicated hour of a freelance email expert’s time, giving you the chance to ask questions and get answers for challenges that are unique to your business.

This works well for businesses that have a specific issue that a simple Google or Claude ask cannot solve.

Examples of email marketing Power Hour challenges include:

• Evaluating an automation that isn’t working the way you expect it to

• Advice on what your next email marketing hire should look like and highlighting key skills to review

• Picking an expert’s brain on an area that you’re struggling to understand

Email marketing training for your team

This is a perfect solution for brands that want to have email marketing knowledge in-house and to invest in the team they already have.

Training can take several forms, such as focused sessions on a key area, or a broader email marketing course to ensure all the basics are covered. 

Sessions can be 1 to 1, enabling an individual team member to have tailored training for their level, or in a group setting, whether as a full team from one business or a cohort made up of individuals from other businesses.

Examples of training packages include:

• Email marketing 101: how to nail the basics across email marketing

• Platform-specific: such as how to become a Klaviyo expert

• Area-specific: such as how to design and build automations

If you’re looking to work with a freelance email marketer, The Intentional Inbox offers a range of email marketing options covering the breadth of reasons and approaches covered in this article.

Get in touch to book a call and see how I can help.