subject: Expanding Your Reach Through Email Marketing [print this page] As the name would clearly suggest, Email marketing is that wonderful idea of using email in advertising products and services.
What sort of email exactly? In a very broad business sense, it is every email sent and received by customers and other prospects, where direct promotional emails are sent in the intent of acquiring new customers with their permission of course, or persuading existing customers to make repeat business again. It is characterized by the nature of the emails designed to improve customer loyalty and nurture customer relationship. Marketing advertisements and messages are placed within the emails.
Marketing the business using the email platform is a great idea. You can just imagine how cost-effective it would be to advertise the ideas, products and services sold to the market in a wide range. Unfortunately, it is not that simple. Aside from the technicalities in the design concepts and the delivery system utilized so the messages will be delivered to proper recipients, getting these recipients to actually read, digest and respond to your advertising message is a real challenge. There's also the issue of processing the measurement and analysis of the results and the issue of permission.
The reason why email marketing is so popular these days is that the sending of emails is cost-effective compared to other online platforms. With it, you can deliver your message directly to your target markets, unlike other platforms where you find yourself limited to those can find their way to your message. Here are some common types worth noting:
Direct email - this simple format sends promotional messages in the basic email forms. It can be an announcement of events or special offers.
Retention email - an effective alternative to the direct and promotional email, retention email comes in the form of regular mails (newsletters). A newsletter carries certain advertisements and promotional messages with the aim of developing a long-term impact on the recipients through the value presented aside from the promotional messages.
Advertising with other people's emails - instead of the newsletter format, you can make use of other published newsletters so you can market your business into the emails that these other newsletters are catering.
Email marketing is in every way responsible, as it based itself on the idea of seeking permission first from prospective clients. Everything starts here. It is one complex issue, and it's no surprise to everyone that it is still subject to intense debate within the online marketing community.
The thing is, you basically need to ask permission from email address owners first before you can start sending commercial email messages. If you do not have the permission, then you can only expect your message to be dubbed "spam," or an unsolicited commercial email.
