{"id":5407,"date":"2018-06-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/faulty-justifications-for-under-staffing-email-marketing-teams\/"},"modified":"2020-04-21T14:57:15","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T14:57:15","slug":"faulty-justifications-for-under-staffing-email-marketing-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/faulty-justifications-for-under-staffing-email-marketing-teams","title":{"rendered":"4 Faulty Justifications for Under-Staffing Email Marketing Teams"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere aren\u2019t enough of us to do everything.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe never have enough time.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have the tools to succeed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re an email marketer, you\u2019ve probably said (or at least thought) one or more of those statements. If you\u2019re a manager or executive, you\u2019ve probably been told one or more of those by an employee or read it in the body language of your staff.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because under-resourcing and -staffing email teams is a major, persistent problem in marketing departments. Email marketers told Litmus that insufficient staffing was No. 2 on their list of biggest email marketing challenges of 2018<\/a>. They also told us that adding new staff and expanding their use of agencies and freelancers was at the bottom of the list of top email marketing priorities for 2018<\/a> at their company.<\/p>\n

The failure to address what is clearly a common problem may be because of several misconceptions and blocking issues. Let\u2019s address some frequent ones:<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is under-staffed, so this isn\u2019t actually a problem. It\u2019s just whining.\u201d<\/h2>\n[Tweet this excuse along with the truth \u2192]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Actually, only 43% of marketers say their email program is under-resourced or very under-resourced, according to Litmus\u2019 2018 State of Email Survey<\/a> of 3,000 marketing professionals worldwide. Nearly 24% say they\u2019re well-resourced or very well-resourced.<\/p>\n

While email marketing has an unfortunate reputation for being a cheap marketing channel, lots of brands have wisely decided that they want to maximize their returns from this high-ROI channel<\/a> by investing heavily in their teams and tools.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n
\"Email<\/a><\/td>\n\n

Better Staff Your Team<\/h2>\n

In this 7-page executive summary, email leaders get data-driven advice on how to best staff and resource their email marketing team to maximize their chance of success.<\/p>\n

Get the executive summary \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cLean programs are successful programs. It forces teams to get creative.\u201d<\/h2>\n

[Tweet this excuse along with the truth \u2192]<\/strong><\/a>\n

At least in the email marketing world, this doesn\u2019t appear to be true. Our research shows a powerful connection between program resourcing and program success.<\/a><\/p>\n

For instance, marketers who describe their email programs as very well-resourced are more than six times more likely than those with adequately resourced programs to say their programs are very successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had trouble attracting full-time employees to work on our email team. We\u2019ll just have to make do with the staff we have.\u201d<\/h2>\n

[Tweet this excuse along with the truth \u2192]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Full-time employees are just one possible element of an email team. Others include part-time employees, agencies, and freelancers. According to Litmus\u2019 Snapshot of an Email Team research<\/a>, 46% of brands have part-time employees on their email team, 34% use agencies or the services arm of their ESP for their email marketing, and 27% use freelancers or contractors.<\/p>\n

Using those other sources of staffing allows brands to ramp up during peak seasons, tackle special projects, get access to skills their current staff doesn\u2019t have, and be more flexible in general.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have time to do the research required to determine the best way to resource our email marketing team.\u201d<\/h2>\n

[Tweet this excuse along with the truth \u2192]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Litmus can help with that. Our latest executive summary, Email Marketing Staffing & Resourcing for Success<\/a>, lays out the clear differences between well-resourced email marketing programs and those that aren\u2019t as well-resourced in terms of:<\/p>\n