What is an email service provider?

What is an ESP?

That seems like a simple question, but it’s not—at least certainly not anymore. The meaning of the term “email service provider,” or “ESP” for short, has evolved along with the email marketing industry. A decade or so ago, most ESPs were standalone services that largely did one thing: send email. Pricing was…

Holistic Email Marketing: Personalization Report

Email personalization has come along way from the days of simple first name merges, but is great because subscribers now expect brands to know much more than their name. Consumers expect emails tailored to their interests and past actions. Along with segmentation and automation, personation is a key tool to achieve that…

Report: 2018 State of Email Service Providers

Litmus' 2018 State of Email Service Providers

A marketer’s email service provider is the cornerstone of their email program. It’s their most critical tool and a major budget item. But frustrations run high. Marketers told Litmus that limitations with their ESP was third on their list of biggest challenges for 2018. And 16% of brands said that changing ESPs…

A Snapshot of the Email Service Provider Landscape

A Snapshot of the Email Service Provider Landscape

While there are clear market share leaders in the email service provider industry, brands still have a long list of ESPs from which to choose. How long? Respondents to Litmus’ 2018 State of Email Survey mentioned more than 240 ESPs when asked which platforms they use to send marketing emails. Twenty email…

The Last Word on June 2018

A roundup of email marketing articles, posts, and tweets you might have missed last month… Must-read articles, posts & reports California passes landmark privacy legislation (IAPP) Yahoo Mail aims at emerging markets and casual users, launches versions for mobile web and Android Go (TechCrunch) GDPR Aftershocks: What Happened to Deliverability? (ClickDimensions) 4…

Holistic Email Metrics Matrix Helps You See the Whole Picture

Holistic Email Metrics Matrix: Are you seeing the whole picture?

Email analytics are powerful… and also dangerous. Used correctly, analytics can inform both wise strategic decisions and smart tactical improvements. Used incorrectly, analytics give you complete confidence to make bad decisions. Unfortunately, there are lots of ways to reach the wrong conclusions with analytics, including: Being overly focused on campaign metrics like…

The California Consumer Privacy Act: What Marketers Need to Know

CCPA: What Marketers Need to Know about the California Consumer Privacy Act

Driven by the continued rise in consumer data breaches and growing privacy concerns, the State of California has passed the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The law will significantly strengthen privacy in the U.S. when it goes into effect on January 1, 2020. The law is part of a global trend toward…