How To Target Email Marketing More Effectively

Email marketing is a type of direct marketing that utilities the transmission of electronic mail to broadcast commercial or fund-raising messages to the target market. Virtually every email sent to a current or potential customer could be classed as email marketing.

Email marketing can be used to improve the relationship of a company with its existing customers, to encourage customer loyalty and additional purchases.

Email marketing can also be used for getting new customers or persuading current customers to buy something.

Advertisements can also be added to email messages sent by third party companies to their contacts.

Industry experts estimate that more than US $400 million per year is being spent on email marketing in the USA alone.

There are advantages and disadvantages of using email marketing compared to paper-based direct mail.

Advantages of email marketing are that conversions are much easier to track, so the exact return on investment can be calculated much more accurately. Advertisers can also reach a lot of consumers (ie. consumers who have requested information to their inbox). More than half of people who are online check their emails every day.

Disadvantages are low rates of deliverability. Only about 56% of emails ever reach their destination. The rest are filtered out, and rejected by email servers.

Firms who are using email marketing programs should ensure that their campaign adheres to applicable legislation like the CAN-SPAM act in the United States and the European Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations in the UK and Europe.

Most email marketing is broadcast to subscribers who have opted in to receiving the communication. Firstly, the user will complete a form requesting information, then they will click a link in an email to confirm their desire to receive information. This stops any emails being sent out without prior consent.

B2B email marketing is growing in popularity and moreover is being used as an alternative to B2B telemarketing because it is more cost effective and not as time consuming. Databases of company email addresses are being bought online but the quality of the data is often dubious with many records being out of date or inaccurate.

An answer to the problem of obtaining accurate business email marketing lists comes in the form of the Email Marketing Robot, a software application designed by a group of marketing professionals in the UK. Just tell the software the classifications of companies you wish to contact and the geographical areas and the robot starts finding the businesses email addresses and sends them a personalized email on your behalf.

Consistent use of email marketing should give excellent returns on investment. With the expense of sending an email being a fraction of the cost of sticking a stamp on an envelope, email marketing really makes business sense!