Email Marketing

By Author: Micheal Roberts
Total Articles: 29
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The basic email marketing definition is the use of email to promote products and/or services. A better definition of email marketing is the use of email to develop relationships with potential customers and/or clients.
Much of the spam email we all get proclaiming 'deals' on this and that is a good example of email marketing at its worst; the mindless email barrage.
Someone somewhere buys an email list (or several!) and sends an email along the lines of “Get ___________ (the product name) for only $_____! (the amount) to everyone on the list - sometimes repeatedly. All this does is annoy everyone and give email marketing a bad name.
At its best, email marketing allows businesses to keep their customers informed and tailor their marketing messages to their customers.
Particular groups ...
... of customers can be targeted or even individuals. Offering individual customers special deals on merchandise and/or services on the customer's birthday, for instance, is one example of email marketing personalization. Email marketing helps a business develop and maintain a relationship with a customer over time that hopefully results in increased sales and increased customer loyalty.
Email marketingbest practices include developing one's own email list rather than buying an email list(s), and making participation in your email list opt-in rather than opt-out (using permission-based email marketing).
The two big advantages of email marketing are price and ease. Email marketing is an inexpensive way to advertise your company and its products and/or services compared to many other types of marketing. It's also extremely easy to set up and track an email marketing campaign, making it a very accessible type of marketing for small businesses.
E-mail marketing (on the Internet) is popular with companies for several reasons:
• An exact return on investment can be tracked ("track to basket") and has proven to be high when done properly. E-mail marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic. Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of e-mail subscribers who have opted in (i.e., consented) to receive e-mail communications on subjects of interest to them.
• Over half of Internet users check or send e-mail on a typical day. E-mail is popular with digital marketers, rising an estimated 15% in 2009 to £292m in the UK.
• E-mail allows marketers to reach out to consumers with personalized, relevant, dynamic messages.
• Transactional e-mails allow businesses to respond automatically to important consumer events like purchases or shop-cart abandonment.
Actually, Email marketing is a way to reach consumers directly via electronic mail. Unlike spam, direct email marketing reaches those interested in your business' area of expertise. No matter what you're selling, it is a way to reach thousands of potential customers directly at a relatively low cost when compared to advertising or other forms of media exposure. It brings your business' message through an attractive mix of graphics, text and links directly to people who may have never heard of your business or considered your products, but are knowledgeable and interested in your business' area of expertise.
Crystal Planet Solutions, a Web Development and Web Design company provide e mail marketing service.