subject: Are You Making The Most Of Email Marketing Services? [print this page] For years email marketing services have acted as the engine-room of online marketing efforts, targeting sales messages directly to web users. This one to one engagement has proven to be a hugely successful marketing technique. However, with the advent of social media marketing email marketing services seem to have lost some of their appeal. Is this perhaps a case of familiarity breeding contempt? Have web marketers started to take email marketing services for granted, or has email marketing really been overtaken as the most effective and profitable way to access prospects by social media - the new kid on the Internet marketing block?
There's a reason why email marketing services have proven so popular over the year.
Because email marketing works. In fact, statistics reveal that email marketing is streets ahead of most other online marketing techniques when it comes to delivering bottom line benefits. Whether you embrace social media marketing or not, email marketing is still the boss when it comes to winning business online. Sure, it may not be shiny and new like SMM but any business serious about achieving success online would be crazy to not work with an email marketing services provider as part of their online marketing efforts.
Here's a short overview of the many reasons why you should be using email marketing services to grow your business online.
Reach: With email being the most popular online activity you're instantly accessing the biggest and most active segment of web users. People love using email and often spend large amounts of their online experience either within their email programs or with their email open and waiting whilst they are online doing other things.
Value for money: Sending email is free. Other than the admin costs of running your email marketing services, it costs you nothing to reach potentially millions of new customers.
Email marketing is dynamic: Jack be nimble, Jack be quick. Use email marketing to send time sensitive, high conversion messages.
Flexibility: Hone the style and content of your mails with rich information or graphics.
Targeting: Laser guide your messages. Use database segmentation to make sure that you maximise the relevance of your messages. Slice and dice your customer list for high response, high conversion returns. With many recipients already self-qualified through opt-ins, response rates can often smash other online marketing techniques or offline direct mail.
Track and trace: Know exactly how your audience interacts with your mails. What they do, when they do it and the results of those actions. Use this information to make ongoing refinements to your campaigns with careful measurements and adjustments.
Ongoing sales: Though the direct response nature of email marketing encourages rapid conversion you can also use emails to close sales over the longer term. Use auto responds to manage your sales by guiding prospects along your sales funnel over time. Use email marketing services to foster relationships.
As compelling as the above reasons are for using email marketing as part of your online marketing mix, they all pale into insignificance when compared to the main and single most powerful reason why you should be using marketing services - one-to-one personal contact with your prospective customer. Personalisation is the key to online marketing success. It's the directness and intimacy of email interaction that still makes it the number one online marketing tool.
