Email marketing is directly marketing a commercial message to a group of people using email.

In
its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email
marketing. It usually involves using email to send ads, request business, or solicit sales or
donations, and is meant to build loyalty, trust, or brand awareness. Email marketing can be done to
either sold lists or a current customer database. Broadly, the term is usually used to refer to sending
email messages with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or
previous customers, to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business, acquiring new customers
or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately, and adding advertisements to
email messages sent by other companies to their customers.
Madison Logic posted global data in April 2014 that claimed 122 billion emails are sent every hour.

Advantages[edit]
Email marketing 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. Email marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as
the most effective online marketing tactic.[4]

Email marketing is significantly cheaper and faster than traditional mail, mainly because of
high cost and time required in a traditional mail campaign for producing the artwork, printing,
addressing and mailing.

Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of email subscribers who have opted in (i.e.,
consented) to receive email communications on subjects of interest to them.

Almost half of American Internet users check or send email on a typical day,[5] with email
blasts that are delivered between 1 am and 5 am local time outperforming those sent at other
times in open and click rates.[6][7]

Email is popular with digital marketers, rising an estimated 15% in 2009 to 292 m in the UK.
[8]

If compared to standard email, direct email marketing produces higher response rate and
higher average order value for e-commerce businesses.[9]

5 Reasons You Should Start An Email Marketing Campaign:

1. Email Marketing is Targeted

Email marketing solves all the inherent problems of non-targeted marketing. Gone are
the days of placing an advertisement on television, on a diner placemat, or in a
periodical with no control of who will see it. With email marketing, you have the
ability to control exactly who sees an email by segmenting your contacts based on
their lead status, demographics, location or any other data. Targeting emails ensures
that your audience receives content suited specifically to his/her needs. Email
marketing makes it simple to customize your message for each customer, fostering a
higher conversion rate.
2. Email Marketing Increases Brand Awareness
With each email sent, consumers are exposed to your business and your brand. With
strategic planning, smart design and targeted content, your business will consistently
build value. In doing so, you stay top-of-mind with your audience. Then, when a
customer needs products or services, your business stands a much better chance of
turning those leads into clients and clients into loyal customers.
3. Email Marketing is Easily Shareable.
There arent many forms of marketing as easy to share as email marketing. With the
simple click of the forward button, subscribers can share your deals, offers and news
with their friends. Subscribers who share your emails are acting as brand advocates.
Therefore, when a subscriber shares an email with friends, your brand gains more
exposure and credibility.
4. Email Marketing is Measurable
Analytics are indispensable to measuring the success of any campaign. Many
marketing channels present ambiguous and estimated results. Email marketing, on
the other hand, draws precise and valuable metrics, including delivery rates, open
rates, click-to-deliver rates and subscriber retention rates. Even better: these metrics
are more than just numbers and percentages. They are insights about your customers
behaviors and interests. Use your email marketing campaign as a tool to monitor
which information your consumers are most responsive to. From there, you can
further target your marketing strategy towards more successful campaigns and topics
of interest.

5. Email Marketing is Cost effective.

Perhaps the most appealing advantage of email marketing is the return on
investment. No print costs, no postage fees, no advertising rates. Email marketing is
as affordable as marketing gets. According to the Direct Marketing Association, email
marketing brings in $40 for every $1 spend, outperforming search, display and social
marketing.
Email Marketing is a must.
In todays ever-changing digital world, email marketing tends to take a backseat.
However, if you havent considered email marketing for your business already, now is
the time. Email marketing is a targeted, shareable, credible, measurable, and costeffective tool overlooked by many. Working with a trusted marketing advisor makes the
process simple and cost-effective. With a strategic approach, proper guidance and a
strong message, your business is sure to benefit from email marketing.

The Top10 Benefits of Email

Marketing
Email Marketing eBook | Kevin, CEO & Founder of Comm100
Why does email marketing present such a benefit over other more
traditional forms of marketing? Why does it drive better returns on
investment and customer engagement metrics than other marketing
techniques? Why would you invest the time and resources to develop
an email marketing program at all? In this article, Comm100 presents
you the top ten email marketing benefits to your business compared to
other forms of marketing, including:

Email Marketing Benefits No.1: Reduced

Time & Effort
Take a moment to think about the time and effort involved in
structuring a direct-to-consumer or direct business-to-business
campaign using one of the two most common offline direct marketing
communications techniques:
Print Postal Mailings: You'll need to allow time for a designer to
create the mailing, typically through several lengthy revisions.
Then you'll need to allow time for the print mailing to be
printed, cut and, if necessary, stuffed into envelopes. There will
be time while the marketing collateral is being transported via
the postal system and then time while you wait for the
consumer to retrieve it from the mail box.
Telesales Campaigns: In addition to having to construct a
telesales script, you'll have to wait the time out while your sales
agents dial through cycled call attempts to all of the sales leads
or customers on your target list.
With email marketing, however, you can turn a marketing
communications piece out in typically less than two hours. Using
recurring email templates, all you'll need to do is to approve the copy
for the email and any changes to graphics, use easy database list
queries like those available in the Comm100 system to decide whom to
send to, and then just hit send. Weeks' of work can be accomplished in
just a few hours and by a single employee.

Email Marketing Benefits No.2: Real-Time

Messages
As we talked about above, with a print mailer or telesales campaign,
you'll need to select marketing campaigns and specials that have a
"long tail" because of the extended period of time between campaign
development and implementation. Because a marketing email can be
completed in just a few hours, you can literally send "day-of" messages
to help reduce stock or promote a limited time special as needed. You
can even send unique real-time messages to customers that arrive on
their birthdays or anniversaries. With email marketing, short time
frames are your friend, not your enemy.

Email Marketing Benefits No.3: Personalize

Messages
Because print mail campaigns, telesales campaigns and even print,
television and radio advertising campaigns must be done in a mostly
"one-size-fits-all" format, it's difficult for you to speak directly to your
consumer in a personalized way. However, email marketing presents
many dynamic opportunities. Not only can you send personalized
email with your user's name or login name, but many email marketing
solutions offer the ability to feed in personalized information such as
sales or purchase history. Also, because creating separate email sends
is significantly less challenging than creating separate postal mail,
print mail or advertising campaigns, you can segment your customer
list into smaller lists and send very personalized messages. For
example, you can select all of your users or customers who are from
New York City and then write your email marketing copy to speak
directly about New York City. With email marketing and
communications, you can easily speak to your customers in a very

personalized and intimate way that is not possible with other

marketing channels and avenues.

Email Marketing Benefits No.4: Segment

User and Customer Database Information
As noted above, because you can segment your database of customers
or users with email, you can send extremely targeted marketing
campaigns that will result in increased sales conversions simply
because they are so specific. For example, if you sell flowers, you can
find everybody in your database who ever bought daffodils and then
send them an email in April when the first daffodil shipments come in.
You're then using your customer database to put the most relevant
message in front of the customers who are most likely to respond to it,
and that's what good marketing is all about.

Email Marketing Benefits No.5: More

Frequent Communications
Because email takes less time to create and send than other marketing
and advertising channels do, you can communicate with your
customers more frequently. Instead of only being able to send them a
flyer or catalog once a month or once a quarter, you can easily send
them offers once a week. You could, of course, send them email even
more frequently than that if their email activity supports making that
decision. You may want to note, however, that it's one of the
typicalemail marketing best practices to not send customer emails
more than once a week. However, gone are the days when you were
lucky to get a message in front of your customers once a month. Via
email marketing, you can communicate with customers weekly or even
daily!

Email Marketing Benefits No.6: Test

Marketing Messages
Good marketing always means being able to test things! With email
marketing, it becomes incredibly easy to see what graphics, headlines,
offers and even colors your users and customers will respond to. It's
incredibly simple to simply send one version of an email to one part of
your list and a second version of an email to a different part of your
email list. Then, through the very precise tracking tools that email
marketing offers, you can figure out which marketing message worked
better to convert sales or user actions. We'll talk in detail about both
the great tracking tools that email marketing offers as well as common
types of email testing later on in this book.

Email Marketing Benefits No.7: Information

Spreading
When was the last time that you saw a customer hand over a postal
mailing that they'd received to a friend who might be interested? Or
have you have seen somebody clip an ad from a magazine and send it
to a family member who may want that product or service? However,
forwarding an email with an enticing or useful offer or piece of
information only takes seconds and many users will do it. That means
that your marketing effort has not only a wider reach but also a
networked reach with people who, by forwarding the email, are now
acting as your brand advocates.

Email Marketing Benefits No.8: Reduce

Overhead Costs
Email marketing can be done at a very low overhead cost! You don't
need a ton of employees, designers, or marketing analysts. You don't

need to pay for printing, postal mailing costs, phone lines, or

advertising rates. In fact, there are services, such as Comm100 Email
Marketing, that allow you to host your email marketing using
professionally-designed templates that you can then just alter to your
own needs. An effective email marketing program only needs a great
email marketing platform or service and a good marketer who knows
how to put the right offers and the right copy and graphics in front of
the right portion of your user or customer list. There is no marketing
channel in which you'll spend less to get greater returns on your
investment than email marketing.

Email Marketing Benefits No.9: Exponentially

Better Ability to Track Sales and User
Engagement
There may be no better marketing channel from which to draw precise
and usable tracking information to help you figure out what's
successful and what's not than email marketing. Well-developed email
marketing platforms such as Comm100 Email Marketing can provide
tracking information on how many people opened an email, how many
people clicked a link in an email, which specific link within the email
was clicked, how many people complained that an email was spam or
unsubscribed and, of course, whether your email even made it into
your recipient's inbox.Combine that with a business's ability to track
sales back to a source and you can identity customer engagement and
response through an entire cycle with clear, easy-to-understand
metrics.

Email Marketing Benefits No.10: Save the

Planet with Email Marketing!
It may seem like a minor part of the big picture, but we're all trying to
be more environmentally friendly these days! When you optimize email
marketing as your primary customer communication and direct-toconsumer or direct business-to-business marketing method, you'll help
save the planet by reducing the number of trees killed for print
marketing pieces. We all want to help save the planet, and making a
responsible decision about your marketing tools can help you to do just
that while also improving your business's success.
Those are a lot of measurable benefits of email marketing over other
marketing channels! Of course, we recommend that email marketing
be an important part of your marketing mix not the only ingredient in
it. However, as you can see, if you're not incorporating email into your
marketing plan, then you're missing out on a number of benefits that
can improve your overall sales and user engagement for a very low
overhead cost and, in many cases, a very limited amount of time and
effort.

The Benefits of Email Marketing Campaigns

by Barry Saunders on October 11, 2013 in General, Latest

E-mail marketing campaigns have becoming increasingly popular as of late. This is

because there are so many benefits to engaging in email marketing. In this post I outline
some of the benefits of email marketing campaigns.

Helps Bring Repeat Business

Sending regular email updates to a companys customers keeps them engaged with the
company and lets them know when sales and special events are taking place. This
encourages them to shop with the business more often than they may have otherwise.

Upselling and Cross Selling

E-mail marketing campaigns often encourage upselling and cross selling. People who
are already willing to purchase from a company to begin with can often be persuaded to
purchase additional goods or services.

Sales Conversions Increase

People that only visit a companys website once may not be likely to do business with
that company. However, people that receive email campaigns are often directed to the
website to find out more about what the company has to offer them. Enticing people to
do business with a company is a huge part of any email marketing campaign. For that
reason the campaigns are designed to make people feel like they must have the goods
or services a company is selling.

Cost Effective
E-mail marketing campaigns are always more cost effective for a company than any
other type of marketing campaign. Not only is it cost effective it saves time as well.
Marketing through traditional means is a much more time consuming process than a
simple email marketing campaign.

Global Internet Use

Many people that use the Internet check their email every day. This means that it is
easier to reach people through email marketing than direct marketing, which involves
sending physical mail to people. Since the Internet makes many things easier to do,
people are more willing to read the messages that get sent out as part of an email
marketing campaign.

Opt-In Marketing Is Effective

When people agree to receive the types of emails that stem from email marketing they
are opting in. This usually means they are more receptive to purchasing products and
services from a particular company. Re-establishing relationships with former customers
is harder and more time consuming than keeping customers engaged with a company
so that they remain loyal to the company.

Spurs Competition
In 2012 a survey was performed that determined that 87% of companies that use social
media engage in email marketing. Of the 87% that do, 93% of them reported that they
would continue to those efforts and would increase the number of email marketing
campaigns run. This means that another benefit of an email marketing campaign is that
it allows companies to compete with other companies. Those companies that do not use
email marketing campaigns may reach the point where they simply cannot compete
anymore. This can seal the fate of any business.
For all these reasons, it is smart for businesses to engage in email marketing
campaigns. Keeping up with the changing times is crucial in the business world.

1. Its Simple
Its easy and its simple. Anyone can do it anytime. This method allows you to use the mailing list
which gives you the ability to distribute information to a wide range of specific, potential clients at a
low cost to you.

2. Low Cost
It allows you to eliminate the cost for design, testing, executing, and sending printed newsletters.
Also, many people like using email marketing because it supports the green initiative and is
paperless.

3. Its Easy to Track

A user can track user via analytics, bounce messages, un-subscribers, click-throughs, etc. These
can be used to measure open rates, positive or negative responses, and correlates sales with
marketing.

4.Opt in or Unsubscribe Options

Email contains opt in or opt out options this helps you short list your prospects. People that want to
hear your message will happily give you their email address. When they are tired of your message,
they can unsubscribe at their discretion.

5. Fast Response
Lets face it direct mail is slow. It can take anywhere from 7 to 10 days to get a response. Email
Marketing however has a response in anywhere between 1 and 3 days, or instantaneous when
youre looking at online sales. It can reach a substantial amount of email subscribers in a short
amount of time who have consented to receive emails that interest them.

6. It has a Global Reach

No matter where you are or when you need to reach people, targeted emails can reach their targets.
There are no boundaries with email marketing. Advertisers are able to get repeat business
affordable and automatically.

7. Highly Personal
Email allows you to personalize, greet, and target every person personally. By using email marketing
segmentation, you can send messages to smaller groups within your larger list to improve results.

8. Measurable Results
Special tools are available to you that accurately measure click through rate, conversation rate, how
someone arrived at your site, and more. It is reported only second to research marketing as the most
effective online marketing tactic.

9. Targeted Marketing
You can target a specific audience based on geography, age, income, or whatever suits your needs.
Want to send a coupon to the 30-35 year old females in a specific zip code for no extra cost? You
cant do that with print marketing..

10. Interactive
Finally email marketing is interactive. You can initiate campaigns using videos, graphics, music,
quizzes, a game, or anything that will get your targeted client drawn in. Email marketing lets you
push a message to your clients, as opposed to a website that waits for customers to come in.
All in all, email marketing is a great way to get the most bang for your buck!

BENEFITS OF EMAIL MARKETING #1: TARGET YOUR CUSTOMERS

As a business owner or marketer, I am sure youve heard of target marketing. In
a nutshell, not all segments of your customer base want the same thing. If youre
a local retailer that sells mens and womens clothes it probably doesnt make
sense to promote dresses to male customers. Or it may not make sense for a
business with multiple locations to market a weekend special at its west side
store to its east side customers. This problem can be solved with email marketing
One of the benefits of email marketing is that it allows you to segment your list
based on any demographic, interest or behavioral data you may have collected
on your customers. Most email service providers these days allow you to easily
segment your subscriber list so that you can send updates on new dresses to
your female customers or weekend specials to your west side customers only.
BENEFITS OF EMAIL MARKETING #2: LEARN WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS
WANT

A second benefit of email marketing is that it can help understand what types of
content, products or services customers want. Lets return to our example of the
local retailer marketing to women. If the retailer sends an email to its female
subscribers about a new dress and shoe line and finds that the link to the shoes
received no clicks but the link to the dresses received all the clicks, its fair to say
the customers are interested in dresses.
This can not only help the local retailer with its email marketing efforts by
suggesting to the business to only send its female subscribers information on
dresses, but it may also help the retailer make purchasing decisions next season
when it is stocking its store with new clothes. That is quite a powerful tool.
BENEFITS OF EMAIL MARKETING #3: STAY TOP OF MIND
Many business owners or marketers worry about overwhelming email
subscribers. The reality is, consumers have opted-in for your email. They have
given you permission to market to them. Dont miss this valuable opportunity to
follow through and provide what they asked for.
Even if they are not in the market for your product at the time they receive the
email, your companys brand or product is going to stay top of mind so that when
they are in the market to buy they think of you first.
On the other end of the spectrum are those business owners or marketers who
let their subscriber lists go inactive. This is the worst thing you can do. This is
only going to lead to unengaged subscribers who will eventually drop from your
list and potentially as a customer. Dont let this happen and stay top of mind by
using the most of your email marketing.
BENEFITS OF EMAIL MARKETING #4: DRIVE SALES
Whether you sell products online or products and services in an actual store,
email is great at driving sales. According to ExactTarget, 50% of online users
bought something as a result of an email which is higher than any other
marketing channel. To me, that is one of the most important benefits of email
marketing for a business since the ultimate goal is sales. By having immediate
access to customers through email a business can advertise sales and
promotions or highlight a new product line. If the email is crafted correctly, these

timely marketing emails will drive customers to your website or store and
eventually lead to sales.
BENEFITS OF EMAIL MARKETING #5: BUILD LOYALTY
Converting leads into customers is an important step in the customer lifecycle.
But it is not the end. Turning a first time buyer into a lifetime customer is a crucial
step all businesses must achieve. But more often than not, businesses become
too focused on acquiring new customers and forget about its current ones.
Building loyalty requires time and a willingness to invest. One of the most
effective ways marketers can build loyalty is through email marketing.
As an example, once a customer purchases something from you, email can be
used to send them a thank you for their purchase. Later, your business can use
email to send your customer information on how he can get the most out of the
product he just purchased. Or you could use email to send him a coupon on his
birthday or anniversary. And lastly, you can use email to remind your now loyal
customer to purchase from you again.
Building loyalty doesnt happen overnight but by using email marketing business
owners and marketers can feel confident in reaching this goal.
BENEFITS OF EMAIL MARKETING #6: METRICS, METRICS, AND MORE
METRICS
One of the benefits of email marketing that often gets overlooked is that so much
can be measured. As a business owner or marketer, justifying your investment in
a marketing channel is indispensable. And knowing the outcomes of your
marketing is the first step in this process. Email marketing allows you to see
those outcomes and compare it against your investment.
Email marketing metrics go beyond metrics such as open rates and click
throughs (which are still very important). But processes can be put in place that
help a local business track how well an email worked.
For example, if a local restaurant sends a $5 off coupon through email, the
business can collect all the coupons that are redeemed at the store, aggregate
the total sales that the coupons brought in and compare the sales to the

investment in the email and the coupons. If the investment is higher than the
sales, it may be time to try something new. However, if the reverse is true,
continuing to use email marketing only makes sense.
I hope these six essential benefits of email marketing have convinced you that
email marketing should be an integral part of your marketing mix. Ignoring this
important marketing channel is a risk I assume you are not willing to take.

Getting Started
A good starting point is to get hold of an email marketing and communication system that
has the ability to publish a large number of emails to a specified contact list, store
demographic data, and track the results from your campaigns. Im partial to the InSite
Message Information System (IMIS) because it does everything youd expect an email
campaign system to do plus, it generates instant reports on relevant information such as
send rates or link-through rates, and it ties all of your campaign data back into contact
information and message history.
InSite Messages is a heaven-sent solution whenever I manage online marketing campaigns
for survey participation. We also used it to help bring in registrants for our spring and fall
conventions, product releases, publication sales, and weekly newsletters to our members.
The only thing to remember about bulk emails is this: be mindful about sending meaningful
information. Don't inundate your customers inbox with emails containing unnecessary
messages.

Why Email Marketing and Communication?

It doesn't clog your company mail server

It's extremely cost-effective and sometimes even FREE

Outbound emails can be scheduled and sent automatically

Take advantage of email message templates for a professional look

Manage your contacts, distribution lists, and subscription links

Edit your content directly or insert content from external feeds

Easy to read, up-to-the-minute reports

Beyond the Basics

Beyond basic email marketing communications, many news services are now using email
campaign management software to send news and bulletins to subscribers. A good email
campaign management system will allow you to insert RSS feeds directly into the page that
will be emailed to subscription lists. All you have to do is indicate what feeds you want
included on your page. You can then schedule when the message or bulletin will be sent,
and the feeds will be emailed on a single page to your subscribers.
Of course this works well if you have a list of subscribers. If you are using a tool like InSite
Messages, you can manage contacts and subscribers and assign contacts to any number
of lists. Once your contacts are in the system, you can easily set up unsubscribe links in the
body of your messages. If a contact no longer wants to receive emails from you, he can
simply click the unsubscribe link and the email campaign software will remove him from
future mailings.
Below, I have outlined a summary of a few ways businesses and organizations use email
campaign software to communicate and market to their stakeholders.
Customer Newsletters & Bulletins: Online e-newsletters and bulletins are a great way to
connect with customers on new programs, products, and services, as well as communicate
other important information about your organization.
Employee Newsletters & Bulletins: Internal communication is an important and often
overlooked function. Email blasts to employees on new programs, initiatives, products. and
services can be a very effective way to communicate what is going on in your organization.
Email Marketing Campaigns: Email marketing campaigns are a great way to market new
programs, products, services and communicate other important information to your
customers.

News Services and Announcements: Email event notifications and announcements are
also important to communicate to your customers and prospects.
Press & Media Releases: Public Relations companies have really picked up on email
campaign software to streamline the design and distribution of professional press releases.
With a click of a button media contacts can be notified immediately.
Whichever direction you decide to take your email marketing, you are sure to keep your
customers in the loop and up-to-date on what is going on in your organization. And at the
very least it proves you are alive and well and flowing with the ever-changing tides of
technology.

ril 9, 2015
In Email Strategy
0
0

Email marketing is utilised by thousands of businesses of all sizes across the globe.
Those who are unfamiliar with this method of advertising may not immediately
understand why it is so popular amongst companies in a variety of industries but here
are ten reasons why email marketing is seen by many as vital marketing tool.

10. Low-cost
One of the most obvious benefits of email marketing is its lower cost compared to
mainstream marketing channels. There are no print or postage costs and no fees paid
in exchange for exposure on a certain billboard, magazine or television channel. Email
marketers might consider investing in specialist software to automate, track and
evaluate their emails. Granted, there may be a small overhead for sending thousands of

emails at a time, but these costs are far lower than what you would expect to pay using
other marketing channels.

9. Target fans of your brand The Simplified Guide to Email Strategy

Email marketing is one of the only channels that consumers ask to receive. The majority
of businesses utilising the platform only send messages to those who have signed up to
receive them. This can allow for much higher conversion rates as a business is only
targeting those who already have an interest in their brand. It is, of course, possible to
send unsolicited email marketing messages, but this is only likely to annoy consumers
and result in a damaged brand image.

8. Segmentation
Most marketing professionals would happily pay to ensure they were only spending
money targeting those who were interested in their brand. Email marketers can go one
step further though, by only sending emails to subscribers who meet certain criteria.
If a franchise only has an offer on in certain areas of the country, it can easily arranged
for emails to be sent only to those living in certain areas. If there is a sale on sports
goods, it can be arranged for only those who have shown an interest in sports to receive
an email.
Email list segmentation works fantastically for brands who gain information about their
subscribers. Studies have shown that marketers who use this tactic often boast
improved engagement rates as a result.

7. Calls to action
Email marketing is great for taking advantage of impulse buying. There arent many
other marketing platforms which allow customers to go from witnessing an offer to
purchasing an item within two clicks of a button. With a tempting call to action and a link
straight to the checkout, email newsletters can drive sales like no other channel.

6. Easy to create
Email marketing doesnt necessarily require a huge team or reams of technical nous in
order to be successful. Its certainly possible to jazz up an email campaign with fancy
templates, videos, images and logos. Yet, some of the most successful campaigns
utilise simple plain text emails, suggesting that its the content of an email that is the
most important thing.

5. Easy to track
Another key benefit of email marketing is that its easy to see where youre going wrong.
Most email marketing software will allow you to track open, click-through and
conversion rates, making it simple to spot how a campaign can be improved. These
changes can be made almost immediately too, whereas print or broadcast advertising
requires quite a bit of effort to alter.

4. Easy to share
Subscribers can forward brilliant deals and offers to their friends at the click of a button.
There arent many other types of marketing that can be shared as easily as this. Before
you know it, subscribers could become brand evangelists; focused on introducing your
business to a new market.

3. Global
What other marketing platform lets you instantly send a message to thousands of
people across the world? Sure, social media can help you spread the word amongst a
global audience but theres no telling whos actually reading your content.

2. Immediacy
Due to the immediacy of email, a business can start seeing results within minutes of its
emails being sent. A 24-hour sale is a brilliant marketing ploy that can be utilised by
email, as it creates a sense of urgency and convinces subscribers to take immediate
action. Businesses typically have to wait weeks until they see sales come in as a result

of print or broadcast campaigns and, even then, how can they be sure what was
responsible for the purchase?

1. Return on investment
In the business world, results are arguably all that matters. With this in mind, the main
reason that most businesses invest in email marketing is the fantastic return on
investment. In 2011, the Direct Marketing Association estimated that email marketing
typically returns 40 for every 1 invested. A number of sources have suggested that
this is better than any other platform.
When you take into account, the points made above, its easy to see why. Perhaps its
time for your business to start taking this marketing platform more seriously

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. The
information is sent out more like a laser-guided missile than a bomb: No matter what
youre 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.
Once you understand what is email marketing?you can start to implementing these
practices to reach more customers.
Email marketing also provides an easy way to track how effective it is. By keeping track
of how many hits your website gets after a mass mailing, its easy to gauge whether this
technique works for your company. Its also a good way to guide existing customers
back to your business. Many companies also provide an unsubscribe option for
viewers in an effort to focus only on interested potential customers. Also, your company

can opt to have a feedback mechanism where potential customers can tell you directly
what they liked and disliked about a particular advertising campaign.
Email marketing is a popular way for businesses to reach customers. According to the
Direct Marketing Association, research firms spent over $400 million in 2006 on direct
email marketing.
Email marketing can be more than just text, rich media formats can provide images
and give your product or service texture and flavor. In email marketing, you have the
complete attention of the potential customer. Pop-up ads or other internet advertising
often get in the way of what the potential customer is looking at: The content. But with
direct email marketing the advertising is the content.
The internet is the most popular way for people to gather information about products
and services he or she is interested in. Maximizing your business capability to appear in
internet searches through press release distribution and email marketing are effective
tools in reaching your current customer and potential customers with essential
information about your products or services. Its a technique used by businesses
worldwide and it can help your enterprise grow and establish a presence on the web.
Email Newsletters
Email newsletters are an effective means of keeping your client base informed about
the products and services your company offers. The email newsletter can be in the form
of a press release, or it can include graphics and information about purchasing a
product. Some email newsletters feature a coupon to entice customers to come back or
take advantage of a special offer. It can be a regular way for your business to stay in
contact with customers.
Email Surveys
An email survey is material sent to your clients or potential clients asking for their
feedback. Its a great way to test a new product, service or idea. Its also a great way to
show the customer that you care about their opinions and are willing to work with them.

Email marketing has become an essential tool for business ever since the introduction of the
Internet to the world, however some campaigns that make it through to our inboxes are absolute
rubbish that we dont take any notice of. This article seeks to explain what email marketing really
is, why companies should use it and how they should go about doing so.

Email marketing is a form of direct marketing that uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial
or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer
could be considered email marketing. However, the term is usually used to refer to:

Sending emails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or
previous customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business.

Sending emails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing current customers
to purchase something immediately.

Adding advertisements to emails sent by other companies to their customers.

Email marketing has several key advantages over traditional mail marketing, including the
following:

An exact return on investment can be tracked and has proven to be high when done properly.
Email marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online
marketing tactic.

Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of email subscribers who have opted in to receive
email communications on subjects of interest to them.

Over half of all Internet users check or send email on a typical day.

Email allows marketers to reach out to consumers with personalized, relevant, dynamic
messages.

Transactional emails allow businesses to respond automatically to important consumer events

like purchases or shop-cart abandonment.

The disadvantages of email marketing surround the rejection/spam rate of the emails by the
consumers email program, negatively affecting the delivery rate of the emails. This has
somewhat been eliminated with the idea of Opt-in emailing, where the consumer consents to

receiving the emails and therefore eliminates the idea of receiving unsolicitated emails Ideally
maintaining emails that are relevant and appropriate to each individual recipient.
So the questions are why and how should one go about email marketing? Well here are a few
thoughts on the matter:

Why?

Cost Email marketing is CHEAP, there are no two ways about it. Whether you do it yourself,
or through an email marketing agency, marketing to hundreds of consumers via email is going to
cost you tiddlywinks compared to other channels of advertising.
Success - Emails can be targeting specifically to the ideal consumer. With this concept in
mind, along with email cost-effectiveness, its no wonder that email marketings ROI often blows
other direct marketing strategies out of the water The trick is that you have to get it right!
Measureability and Flexibility With the analytics available today its easy to track
responses to your emails exactly, in order to work out what parts of your campaign are working
and what parts arent. With this knowledge, you can then react instantly to modify your campaign
strategy if need be.

How?
Dave Chaffey from Marketing Insights offers an experienced view into the success factors of email
marketing, using the mnemonic CRITICAL:

Creative This refers to the overall design of the email (layout/images/colour). Specifically, it
is a good idea to ask each customer whether they would like the emails in text or HTML as there
is often a great preference for one over the other.
Relevance Targeting, targeting, and more targeting. Make your emails relevent and
personalised to each recipient if you want that response rate to rise.
Incentive - Recipients look at emails and think WIIFM?, i.e. Whats in it for me??. Theres
no such thing as a free lunch right? Well Offer the recipient a free lunch for participating and
they will be more likely to respond.
Timing Dont send out an email that recipients will receive overnight, let it pop up in their
inbox during their working day. This also expands to selecting certain days, months and even
years. Remember You can test and measure what timing works best for which email.
Integration Companies can not just rely on one method of marketing, nor can they rely on
several methods of differentiated marketing. Instead, best marketing practices utilise integrated
marketing communication (IMC) where all aspects of their promotion work together to create a
whole. Email marketing must be including here, therefore your emails must carry the same image
and message as your entire operations. Even the timing of the campaign must work in with other
aspects of your marketing mix.
Copy When considering the copywriting for your email you must consider all aspects of the
language, from subject line through to your mail signature. With emails, not all links should be
saved for the last sentence, pop them in early to grab that impulsive customer!
Attributes Here Dave talks about the email header, with attributes including the subject
line, from address, to address, date/time of receipt and format. Once again, testing your
campaigns can rule out the attributes that customers consider spam and highlighting the
attributes that will work best for your business.
Landing Page Want those emails to turn into sales conversions? Dont just hyperlink your
customers to your home page; show them exactly where you want them to go and make it quick
and easy to complete any forms!

So yes Email marketing is a vital component in many industries, especially for creating those
important customer-firm relationships. Learn to use it well and it will definitely bump up your
companys success.
Just try not to send out another email that goes straight through to my spam folder. And, if the
email does manage to make it through to my inbox Make it worthwhile to read!