Choosing an Email Service Provider (ESP)

At LiveIntent, we understand the relationship Email Service Providers (ESPs) have with their clients. Our goal is to strengthen that relationship by enabling clients to acquire and reach more subscribers, more often, within the powerful channel of email. 

As we partner with most of the major ESPs, we pulled together a list of items to consider before choosing your ESP. 

Initial Considerations 

Before selecting an ESP, you should think about what’s most important to you and your team, and your marketing program — like whether you’d prefer a self-service platform or if you will need support and managed services.

ESP Services 

An ESP provides many email marketing services and solutions, including email design and template creation, list management and segmentation, reporting, & analytics. 

A few other features to consider: 

Data & segmentation

  • EX: Data control, form processing, and exporting data via the UI 

Deliverability, list hygiene, and authentication

  • EX:  List hygiene, email scoring, DKIM, DMARC

Campaign building & workflow 

  • EX:  Account management, asset support, deployment management 

Testing & reporting 

Third-party integrations  

  • EX: Deliverability, analytics, CRM, and content management systems 

Training & support 

  • EX: Training, documentation, and account management 

Next Steps 

There are a ton of great industry guides you can reference when selecting an ESP. Below are two of our favorites: 

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