Email Marketing

These days, one of the most effective and popular forms of direct marketing is email marketing, where companies use the Internet to email both existing and possible future customers in the hope of creating a beneficial business relationship. There are a number of ways in which this can be done such as:

• Placing advertisements on emails sent by other businesses to established customers on their database. This is a bit like being introduced via another company and can be particularly effective when the businesses involved offer compatible services or products.

• Fostering customer loyalty through sending emails to previous and current customers in the hope of cementing a relationship with them that will result in increased business.

• Sending out emails in an attempt to either gain new customers, or persuade previous or current customers to buy something immediately. This could be seen as email marketing's equivalent of the cold calling used by many telemarketing companies, but through the medium of the 'Net, rather than the 'phone.

• Sending out emails about a competition or prize that the company is sponsoring. This type of promotional email can be very effective in 2 ways:

1. The competition itself acts as positive advertising for the business concerned and both existing and potential customers begin to associate that business with its apparent generosity.

2. Often when you enter such promotional competitions there is a box on the entry form that asks if you would like further information on the company, it's products and other promotions that it may run in the future. This is actually seeking your permission to be placed on their database and 'ticking' this box means that they are free to contact you about other aspects of their business as and when it suits them. This is called Opt-In Email Marketing and we will discuss it further below.

Taking this one step further, if a business is really determined to lock you in to its database, you may find that you cannot actually enter the competition without completing some kind of registration form or agreement to subscribe to the company's newsletter.

Opt-In Email Marketing

Also, known as permission marketing, this method of direct marketing relies on the person who receives the email agreeing to accept it before it is sent.

It is important to note that, ideally, this kind of marketing should be beneficial to both the company sending it out and the individual receiving it. The agreement to receive the emails means that the recipient should be interested in what the business is promoting and, in return, the business should be aware of what that customer wants and tailor future emails to those needs. Classic examples of this include newsletters highlighting products and services of particular interest to that customer and advance notice of thing like sales and promotional offers, designed to encourage customer loyalty and give the customer the sense that they are valued.

For the company, this relationship between themselves and the recipient of their marketing emails means that they can target what they are offering to specific market segments and so, hopefully, cut down on wasted emails. In addition, it allows them to automate the process of contacting customers with relevant emails sent out regularly to everyone on the database at the click of a button – a method known as Drip Marketing.