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When people switch on their computer the first thing most
will do is check their email.
Email marketing can be a
fantastic way of staying in touch with your customer base and
making an impression on new customers. Whether it is simply a
welcome message, a promotional offer a fortnightly newsletter
or quarterly company magazine delivered into your customer's
inbox, email marketing increases and maintain product
awareness. But good email marketing is also selective. If you
start spamming your customers with junk mail every day, sell
your customer list to an advertising firm or commit any other
online marketing faux pas then email marketing will work
against your business.
Good email marketing should involve
a personalised message that really reaches out to your
customer, and should be made up of well though out
content.
Give me an analogy...
You can think of
these three main forms of email marketing as the electronic
equivalent of: Direct mail Sending people a print newsletter
Placing advertisements in subscription magazines and
newspapers There is, however, one extremely important
difference - the issue of permission .
Establish your goals
There
are a number of reasons why you should consider conducting
email marketing, but defining your goals before you start will
help make your campaign more successful.
Ask yourself
some questions before you start. Do you want to increase the
number of visitors and therefore potential customers to your
site? Do you want to increase brand awareness? Do you want to
use it as a tool for conveying special offers or promotions?
Or do you want to get feedback from your customers to improve
customer service?
Virtues of email
marketing
What exactly are the virtues of email
marketing?
It's cheap
Compared to
direct mailing or producing a printed newsletter the costs are
next to nothing. You don't have to pay for production, paper,
printing or postage.
It's
instant
Email reaches your customers instantly at
the click of a mouse and more and more people are using email
to communicate every day. Research has shown that on average
users respond to emails within 48 hours, in comparison it can
take between 6 and 8 weeks for a customer to respond to a
snail mail campaign.
It's easy to
track
You can easily monitor the success of an
email campaign. Tracking how many bounce-backs have occurred,
how many positive or negative responses there have been, how
many click throughs to a offer on your site, if there has been
a substantial rise in sales after an email was sent, is all
simple to do.
Increased
communication
Email is a good way of retaining
communication links with you customers and increasing brand
awareness - especially if you do a lot of business
online.
Compliments online
strategy
Email marketing goes hand in hand with
the marketing mix, and should be part of an overall marketing
strategy.
The growth of
email
Researchers predict that the still
relatively young bulk email marketing
industry, which has been booming since 1999 will continue to
grow through to 2006 when analysts expect it to top the $2
billion mark. What is more, businesses will begin to see email
campaigns as an inaugural part of their overall marketing
strategies. However the success of email marketing hinges
somewhat on the actions of businesses. Businesses need to keep
their email marketing strategies ethical and legal if
consumers are to remain open to it.
What's "permission"?
Responsible
bulk email marketing is based
on the idea of permission. This is a complex issue and the
subject of intense debate in the marketing community.
Essentially, you need an email address owner's permission
before you can send them a commercial email. If you don't have
this permission, then the recipients of your mail may well
regard your message as spam; unsolicited commercial (bulk)
email. |
