Millions of people all over the world use email almost everyday, and as a result, email marketing has been found to be one of the easiest, most convenient and most cost-effective ways to market a company and products to a large audience. Marketers are therefore increasingly using email messages to pitch their products and services.



Small businesses uses email marketing to promote sales, associations use it to send information to their members and information subscribers, and large corporations use it to increase brand awareness.

Email marketing refers to the use of email in marketing communications, and is one of the forms of direct marketing implemented to convey the marketing message to potential consumers. Whereas other direct marketing efforts often require the potential consumer to be present at the presentation, with email marketing the marketer does not have to be present to be able to market to a person- thereby enhancing convenience for both the marketer and the prospect.

The benefits of email marketing are multiple, and include the following:

oThe ability to create loyal and mutually beneficial relationships with customers

oIt is far more cost effective than traditional direct marketing methods, returning on average 17% more revenue (per dollar spent) than regular direct mail and 73% more than telemarketing.

oEmail marketing can be personalized to the customer, increasing the success rate with this method of marketing

oEmail marketing can be used for a range of different projects, such as to improve the relationship between a business and its customers or to gain new customers.

oEmail lets you deliver your message to the target audience (unlike a website, where the people have to come to your message)

oEmail communications are often more effective and certainly less expensive than printed direct mail, because a reader can click on a link and go straight to the sender's web site to see more or enhanced content that can be updated more regularly (see web site maintenance), meaning it is more up to date and relevant.

oEmail marketing can deliver newsletters, promotions, news and other messages to people who have asked to receive them quickly, automatically and conveniently.

How do you decide if email marketing is appropriate for your business? One of the most important factors to consider when deciding whether or not to invest your money in an email marketing campaign is your target audience and how likely they are to use the Internet regularly. Another aspect to consider is how global or local your business is, and whether the effort would be worth the number of people you may reach and the expected ROI of the campaign.

Even though email marketing is more cost effective than other marketing methods, it is not free. The costs associated with email marketing depends on a number of factors, such as whether you design your campaign yourself or hire a company to do it, whether you purchase extra software or additional resources, such as an auto responder service (absolutely essential in effective email marketing), whether you hire a copywriter to write your marketing messages, etc. (Please visit http://www.marietjie.biz/md1.html for outstanding email marketing messages). Furthermore, if you only start with email marketing, you may not have a large list of subscribers and have to purchase leads from an email broker, which may incur an additional cost.

So how does one go about setting up an email marketing campaign?

The key to email success is developing, reviewing and refining a comprehensive email marketing strategy. To start of, one needs to collect email addresses of potential consumers. This can be done using an opt-in form on a website, or one can purchase leads from an email broker. The first option is better and cheaper, but it may take longer to develop a significant list.

Secondly you have to write you marketing message. It is essential that a compelling message is developed to achieve the core objectives of the email marketing campaign. Then you need to send out your message, making it as personalized as possible, and to the target audience as identified in your marketing strategy. To get the best results, you also need to link your subscribers to an auto responder service, to be able to send them follow-on or retention messages. It is important to provide subscribers with some value in the retention messages, as this will prevent them from unsubscribing. Educational content is usually greatly valued, provided it is targeted to the audience.

If you use email marketing to communicate with and market to your customers, deliverability is increasingly important to your success, and it is important that you make sure that your message will not be blocked by spam filters. Spam is unsolicited bulk email, and is illegal. To prevent being reported for spamming, always include an “unsubscribe" option in your message. It is also important to obtain the permission of subscribers to send them marketing material.

One of the most important aspects of an email marketing campaign (as with any other marketing campaign) is tracking of the results such as percentage delivered and conversion rate.

In conclusion, email marketing is important, and most businesses can benefit by sending out at least monthly email newsletters to their subscriber base. One of the great things about email marketing is the fact that it can reach a wide audience in a very short period of time. Furthermore, an email marking campaign can include a number of successive emails that build upon one another, or the campaign can be used very effectively to market a specific upcoming event or promotion. It is evident that email has become a mainstream way of communicating and is even preferred by many people.

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