Email Marketing 101 - Why use it?

Why use Email Marketing?

Those not familiar with email marketing often question what all the hype is about. I mean wasn’t it spam that killed email as a marketing tool? And if it wasn’t spam that slew the dragon, what about blogs, Twitter and all the other witty social media tools we can now use to communicate online?

Isn't email a little archaic?

Those of you curious about the state of email marketing in today's fluid web marketing environment may find some insight is this article.

What is Email Marketing?

Successful Email Marketing is the delivery of professional email communications to an audience that is interested and contains information they find valuable.

Why Email Marketing?

Email marketing works because nearly everyone your business needs to reach reads email.

Over 140 million people across the United States read and send email nearly everyday.

It’s cost effective: Direct mail as a medium costs nearly 20 Times as much as email does.

Compared to other Internet Marketing mediums, email’s ROI is higher

If done correctly email marketing can still be a highly successful marketing tool in today’s online communication industry by:

Allowing targeting

Being data driven

Driving direct sales

Building relationships, loyalty and trust

Supporting sales through other channels

Nowadays email marketing services support database integration, segmentation and various other technology and practices that improve the targeting of outgoing messages. Permission-based marketing best practices can be used to generate emails customized to an individual’s relevant interests. And every email campaign you send out generates a ton of actionable data that can be analyze and used to refine your approach and messages.

Email promotions and offers can generate immediate action, whether it be sales, downloads, additional inquiries, free trial registrations, etc. but It’s best not to get carried away and always remember you first have to get the basics right.

Looking for more email marketing guidance? Join me next time when I explore How to build a quality email list or read more about Email Marketing from Constant Contact