Email Marketing
1. …………….. Email advertising is the most cost-effective way to reach customers. When you consider how much money you spend on traditional marketing vehicles, the value of email marketing is evident. For instance, you do not have to worry about production, the use of materials or postage - as you do for direct mail. What is most attractive is that you market to an audience that will receive your message and likely respond to it because they have provided permission to accept it. 2. ………………….. When you create your own email list (as opposed to buying it) it means you follow a process whereby you contact your intended audience and gain permission to use their email address for future communications from your company. This type of marketing is very effective – particularly when you consider direct marketing or other forms of traditional advertising where you spend large amounts to reach an audience that may never receive your message. 3. ………………….. Developing an email campaign is not as resource hungry as other marketing activities. You simply develop the message, identify your audience and send the message. There is also the flexibility to alter the message for different audience groups. Email marketing also generates immediate responses since the call to action is within the message and provides an easy response mechanism for customers. For example, all they have to do is click on a link. 4. ………………………. Email marketing is a proactive medium to maintain contact with customers and build relationships with them. Leveraging information from past interactions, you can identify where your customers are in the buying process and engage them with regular communication that is tailored to their needs with personalized messages and timely information. You can deliver information that provides the most satisfaction to them and is most profitable to you. 5. …………………. Traditional marketing campaigns can take months to plan, implement and evaluate. Email marketing campaigns can be executed within days and results tracked immediately. Using various software packages, you can determine how many customers received the email, how many opened it and how many bought a product because of your message. 6. ……………………. In addition to providing an easy means to send out coupons, discounts and other promotions, email marketing enables you to provide a solid call-to-action to a specific offer, which is easy to take advantage of. If you want to increase sales, a strong offer is central to the success of your email campaign. It’s also effective to include e-commerce functionality within the email to shorten the sales process. 7. …………………….. Email provides an easy medium through which to gain the attention of a large audience, particularly if your message is entertaining, compelling, or unique. The trick is to improve the association of your message with the branding of your company. For instance, if your audience is primarily young and have a carefree attitude, you may provide a promotion to win an outdoor adventure vacation. The biggest challenge with email marketing is the collection and maintenance of email addresses. To have a successful email campaign you need to qualify your email addresses and ensure you have your customer’s permission to use their address - otherwise the long-term costs could negatively impact your business success. When you send an email message to someone who does not give you permission to do so and does not welcome the message, it is considered ‘spam’ email. To deliver successful email campaigns, inform customers about how you will use their address, develop a clear privacy clause, and make it easy for customers to remove themselves from your list. Once you have gathered the necessary information, it will be possible for you to measure the effectiveness of your campaign with real data. What is your return on investment? What was the total revenue generated from your campaign? How much did it cost to create and send each message? © Copyright 1999-2002 MarketingFind. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in any form without written permission. Please click here for legal restrictions and terms of use [http://www.marketingfind.com/pages/legal/terms_of_use.html] applicable to this site. Use of this site signifies your agreement to the terms of use. If you would like to reprint content from MarketingFind, click here [[email protected]] for pricing information. Privacy Policy. [http://www.marketingfind.com/pages/legal/privacy_policy.html]
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What is one of the first tasks you undertake when you arrive at the office? Chances are you read your email. Email use is rising fast. It has become a part of our every day lives. With people spending so much time on email, there is an enormous opportunity to market to them and build solid customer relationships. Email has emerged to become one of the most profitable and economical ways to manage customer relationships, presenting marketers with many opportunities and benefits.
