Email marketing

When it comes to marketing your business online, your email account is one of your most powerful tools. Instead of sending out an expensive direct mail piece to all of your customers, you can email all of them for free. You no longer need to waste money on printing costs and expensive postage costs. The best part about email marketing is most of the customers have asked to be on your mailing list, so they want to receive communication from you. There are 5 main things email marketing can do for your business;

• Enhance your customer relationships by building customer loyalty.
• Attract new customers
• Convince existing customers to spend more money
• Free advertising, no need to print flyers and direct-mail pieces
• Global reach

Companies love email marketing, but the customers do not always feel the same way. Since email marketing has come about, there have been a lot of SPAM messages that get mixed in with the real messages and cause big problems for a lot of people, normally identity theft or computer viruses.

Since internet regulators are working to crack down on SPAM email, a company needs to take proper measures to make sure they are following the rules. If a company is accused of sending SPAM, they may find their accounts closed and web site turned off. Every company needs to read information about SPAM and make sure they obtain the permission of their customers before they begin sending emails.

Even though email marketing has its downsides, several companies continue to use it. This is because email marketing provides a large list to customers for a low costs. You can purchase mailing lists from other companies, but it can be pretty expensive and there may be some stipulations on how you can use the mailing list.

When done properly the ROI (return on investment) for email marketing is successful. Emails can provide you with back-tracking abilities so you know exactly which customers are responding to the emails. Next to search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing is considered the second-best form of online marketing. One of the great features about email marketing is that you will get instant feedback. Customers that are interested in the email will respond within minutes or hours versus a few days.

Companies can also send their message to their target audience, unlike other forms of internet marketing where they are advertising to a handful of people. If you only focus on web site traffic, you have to rely solely on your visits to the site and this can really take a long time to develop. With email marketing, you are encouraging people to click on the link to go to your site where they can shop and receive the information they need.

What makes email marketing so effective is because over half of all internet users check their email accounts on a daily basis. This is pretty good odds when you are trying to get your customers attention. Another reason why companies like email marketing is because they do not need to waste money on paper and printing costs. This is a perfect thing to try if you are starting to "go green" with your company.

One thing you need to remember with email marketing is to avoid sending out emails during the holidays. Since customers are being blitzed with tons of emails offering discounts and promoting products, the likelihood of customers to click on the email is relatively low. Wait until the holiday is over before you announce a big sale or event that is happening with your company. If possible, try to blitz your customers before they have spent all of their money. Instead of sending emails after thanksgiving, send them about 3 weeks before thanksgiving. Customers will think they have a long time before Christmas so they have plenty of time to re-coup the money they just spent.