Email Marketing - The Good and the Bad
E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every e-mail sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing.
However, the term is usually used to refer to:
- Sending e-mails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or old customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business.
- Sending e-mails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing old customers to buy something immediately.
- Adding advertisements in e-mails sent by other companies to their customers.
Researchers estimate that as of 2004 the E-mail Marketing industry's revenues has surpassed the $1 billion/yr mark.
E-mail marketing is popular with companies because:
- It is extremely cheap. Compared to direct mailing or printed newsletters the costs are negligible. The advertiser does not need to pay for production, paper, printing or postage.
- It is instant, as opposed to a mailed advertisement, an e-mail arrives in a few seconds or minutes.
- It lets the advertiser "push" the message to its audience, as opposed to a website that waits for customers to come in.
- It is easy to track. An advertiser can track bounce-backs, un-subscribes, open rates, positive or negative responses, click-throughs, rise in sales.
- Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of e-mail subscribers who have opted in (consented) to receive e-mail communications on subjects of interest to them
- It has been proven successful when well done.
- When most people switch on their computer the first thing they do is check their e-mail.
- Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger other messages to be automatically delivered.
- There are a number of large E-mail marketing companies in the space; they include e-Dialog, YesMail and ChetaMail. (Wikipedia)
On the opposite side of the issue there are negatives that we can all see. We all receive sooooo much SPAM. Everything from porn to pharmacy items. It creates issues as we get too much SPAM and filtering it will unfortunately remove wanted mail also.
So please do not use email marketing in a negative manner. Use the resources and articles here to find the optimal methods and software or service providers to help you get your needs met.
This Month's Submitted Article
When I first started my small business marketing consulting
business in 1998, I knew cultivating relationships was key to
growing my business and getting new clients.
I knew I would need a way to stay in touch with the people I met
at networking events, as well as my past clients, friends and
business colleagues in order to facilitate referrals.
So I started sending
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Is the United States Postal Service (USPS) a marketing innovator? As it turns out, the kind folks in the blue shorts are in fact making it easy for even the smallest business to duke it out with their biggest competitors by using the USPS new “mailing online (MOL)” direct mail service - check it out at http://www.usps.com/mailingonline With MOL,
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