Email Marketing Frequently Asked Questions
What is Email Marketing?
Why Would I Use Email Marketing?
What Benefits Do I Get From Email Marketing?
Does Email Marketing = SPAM?
How Can I Start Using Email Marketing?
Which is Best for Me - Email Marketing Software or an Email Marketing Service?
What Can I Know After Sending The Newsletters?
What is Email Marketing?
E-mail marketing is a form of promoting products or services via email. It is important to understand that Email Marketing does not refer to spam, or the sending of unsolicited email messages and/or newsletters without the recipients' permission.
Email marketing is a method of direct marketing that uses Email for its distribution. However, it is a much more sophisticated form of direct marketing than the traditional methods of: approaching people in the street, calling on people either personally or by 'phone and it is infinitely superior to sending paper based marketing materials. With Email increasingly being used by all sorts of businesses across the world as their main method of communication; opportunities for Email marketing are constantly evolving. Of course, every Email you send could become a marketing opportunity to improve your sales to customers, enhance customer relationships and even acquire new customers. All you'd need to do is add a piece of information that you wanted to bring to a customers attention in an Email and you could be said to be using Email marketing. However, professional Email marketing uses specialized software and service providers that will truly expand opportunities for both your company and your customers. Email marketing must not be confused with 'spam' - 'spam' is something that is easily rejected by email systems or quickly deleted by the recipient. Whereas, Email marketing is targeted and focused on specific recipients and not something that is just randomly sprayed around in the hope that something might happen.
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Why Would I Use Email Marketing?
- Email marketing provides the ability to distribute information to a wide range of potential customers at a relatively low cost.
- An exact return on investment (ROI) can be measured, and when done properly has proven to be exceptionally high.
- Compared to a mailed advertisement, the delivery time of an e-mail message is much shorter.
- An advertiser is able to "push" the message to its audience, as opposed to website-based advertising that relies on customers to manually visit the advertised website.
- E-mail messages are easy to follow. An advertiser can track users via bounce messages, unsubscribe requests, read receipts, click-throughs, etc.
- Advertisers can reach substantial amounts of subscribers who have opted to receive e-mails on subjects of interest.
- E-mail marketing is paper-free (i.e., "green").
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What Benefits Do I Get From Email Marketing?
The effectiveness of Email marketing cannot be overstated. Email marketing can enable you to take personalization and customization in your marketing materials to a new level. Every detail that you know about the company, or person, you're targeting can be included in the Email. That doesn't just mean their name or job! You could, for example, tailor the Email marketing material they receive to concentrate on their interest in products you know they like or introduce them to new ones. This level of effectiveness is enhanced by the amount and types of feedback you can get from your email marketing publications. So, if a recipient of a previous piece of Email marketing expressed an interest in a certain product you can ensure that their interest is followed up. In effect Email marketing software and service agencies - also become their own market research tools. The cost benefit of sending marketing material by Email is, of course, enormous. Once the material has been prepared the distribution cost is negligible, being but a small fraction of your annual Internet expenses.
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Does Email Marketing = SPAM?
The answer to that question is an emphatic - No! The term 'spam' is applied to unsolicited emails and faxes that are indiscriminately sent out to huge groups of recipients. No one likes receiving 'spam' and these days it is easily blocked by email filters. Just about everyone who does receive 'spam' immediately deletes it, rendering it useless and a waste of time producing it in the first place. Conversely, Email marketing is designed for and sent to businesses, or other people, that you already know and have contact with. Email marketing is about attracting people to your business - not antagonizing them! Furthermore, in the USA and Europe the practice of 'spamming' is prohibited. In the USA anyone considering launching an Email marketing campaign should ensure that they are complying with the 'CAN-SPAM' regulations. Email marketing can be set-up in several different ways that will ensure compliance with any relevant 'spam' regulations. One such way is to have an 'opt-in' or 'permission' based system - where the recipients agree to receive your marketing materials that are sent by Email. Also, a good company using Email marketing will ensure that there is an 'unsubscribe' option for the recipients.
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How Can I Start Using Email Marketing?
Simple - if you've got a computer, an Email address, a list of recipients email addresses and an Internet connection you could start Email marketing now. However, unless you're highly skilled in presenting material for viewing and reading over the Internet; you should also consider either employing an Email marketing service to work on your behalf or, at least, purchasing some specialized and dedicated Email marketing software. Of course you could always employ an email marketing service and have the software as well, so that you can use the service provider for 'big' jobs; whilst handling smaller ones yourself. There are, of course, a lot of help and resources that can be used to inform your decision over whether to use specialist software or a specialist service provider.
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Which is Best for Me - Email Marketing Software or an Email Marketing Service?
By using either of them you can be sure of getting a great deal that will quickly pay you back in increased sales and improved customer relationships. Which one might be best is, of course, dependant on your needs and circumstance.
If you already have marketing staff then putting them to work on dedicated Email marketing software makes sense. You'll have total control over every aspect of the Email marketing materials production, without any delays whilst files are transferred to and from a servicing agency. Alternatively, to employ an Email marketing service means you only need a web-browser to get started. Contacting the service provider over the Internet and letting them get on with it could be particularly effective if you have a small company. Rather than overworking your staff, you can simply get someone else to produce the email marketing material.
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What Can I Know After Sending The Newsletters?
Whether you use a professional Email marketing service or software, you'll be able to access a wealth of information about what the recipients of the Email marketing material did with it. Apart from finding out who opened the material and when; a range of other reports can be obtained detailing if any of the emails were 'bounced' or if the marketing material contained or generated any errors.
A significant advantage of Email marketing software and services is that it allows you to determine statistics about exactly which links were clicked in the Email marketing material. This will, of course, help inform you what is popular, showing promise or needs a re-vamp in the next edition. All these statistics and many more help you constantly refine your Email marketing techniques in order to maximize your sales and customer satisfaction.
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