Use referrals and reputation to guide you
Like selecting a doctor, lawyer or accountant, referrals by existing clients or peers are important, as is industry reputation. Be sure to contact several client references from the firms you are talking with. Not only do you want to gauge their satisfaction but you also want to try to get some additional insight into other key areas, like how much hand-holding did the firm need and did they immediately disappear after the final deliverables were submitted?

The most relevant question is: did they implement some of the suggestions and were they successful? That can often tell you if yours will be money well spent.

Avoid conflicts of interest
Some other key questions involve asking if the company is aligned with a technology vendor or if it is part of a bigger parent company that has additional service or product offerings. While this isn’t necessarily grounds to eliminate them, you need to be prepared to be upsold, and you should immediately identify any conflicts of interests.

For example, if one of your key areas to focus on in the engagement is growing your email database, a company that has a sister database company may heavily push list rentals or something else that generates incremental revenue for their company. Be sure to verify a company’s independence so they have your best interests at hand and no hidden agendas.

Also, using your own email service provider (ESP) may not be the best idea. For one strategy project we did, we discovered that all replies to the client email campaigns went to the ESP vendor. Unfortunately for the client, they never saw any of these emails. It is unlikely that a vendor would share with you any information that may reflect poorly on them. You should move away from your comfort zone in order to find out how your email program is truly fairing.

For a niche project, use a niche firm
Generally, a company solely focused on email is your best choice. Traditional direct marketing firms may offer some interesting segmenting or customer contact advice but will not be intimately familiar with email deliverability issue or creative best practices. The same goes for broad interactive shops. Most have generalists that assist with email design or campaign management and are limited in deep expertise in the email arena.