What is an Email Service Provider (ESP)?

Email service provider (ESP) is a company that offers email services. Because email (marketing) services come in shapes and sizes, that is a pretty broad definition. Luckily, we can break this down into several categories.

An email service provider (ESP) allows users to send email campaigns to a list of subscribers.

Email service providers are technology companies that make it easier for people to build email lists and send emails. As email marketing has become a more popular marketing channel, more email service providers have sprung up to provide differentiated services.

At the most basic level, an ESP needs to do two things: store email addresses and send emails.

A more advanced email service provider offers additional features, including:

• Dynamic content in emails
• Email and marketing automation
• Lead capture forms
• A/B testing of email subject lines and email content
• A/B testing of entire automations
• Website tracking, to collect more information about subscribers
• Segmentation based on what subscribers are interested in