Email marketing is a way to sell products, services and items using email to inform potential customers of your services through the use of email. It is the same basic idea of companies sending you flyers or advertisements through the postal service. It is relatively the same type of marketing only it is in done in electronic forms. When a company participates in email marketing they must create a message that they would like distributed. This advertisement may include pictures, text or can simply be in the form of a letter which is then emailed to everyone on their marketing list.
These messages are typically sent in bulk, just like their printed counterparts. An email marketer will send the email message to hundreds or thousands of potential and existing customers through the use of a bulk marketing program. The marketing program will provide instructions that the same message is to be delivered to multiple recipients in the companies address book. This is a cost-effective and fast way to inform the public of any specials or new products that your company is currently offering.
When companies send out a mass email marketing message they usually use information that customers have provided when they registered for a newsletter. Depending on the type of marketing software they are using, they may be able to email different customers different versions of the email. This allows companies to target customers who have shown interest in specific items, products or services. Companies typically gather this information by tracking what customers have recently purchased or products that they may have looked at on the website. Companies can also track customer's interests by offering a variety of newsletters and creating their specialized email lists from the newsletter information.
Once an email message has been sent many email marketers track who has opened and read the message. Using specially designed software companies can then view who has visited the website and made purchases relevant to the email message that was sent. Email marketing software can also detect when a recipient marks the email message as spam or when it was simply deleted without being opened. Using this information allows email marketers the chance to make their email messages more relevant to customers and try to get more messages read than deleted. If they notice that customers have opened, read and visited the website they can then use that information to continue sending that customer future emails. If they see that a customer has routinely deleted their emails they may decide to delete that person from their marketing list.
There are many benefits to using email marketing as part of your advertising program. It allows you the ability to reach hundreds or thousands of potential customers with the simple click of a mouse. Companies are no longer required to pay postage or stand in long lines in order to get their advertisements into the hands of their customers.
Greg Bray, President of Blue Tangerine Solutions, is a technical expert in all aspects of small business technology, including technology strategy, office network support, disaster recovery planning, server management and hosting, and Website design, development and marketing. To learn more business technology strategies, please visit Blue Tangerine Solutions.
