An Introduction to Email Marketing

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is the use of email to promote products or services. This includes every single email, which has a commercial purpose, sent by companies, individual businesspersons, and start-ups to their customers, prospects, registered members and donors. Such emails include concise emails used to inform clients about the arrival of new products, services, special offers and so on. The other category is of emails that have plenty of relevant information that seek to entertain and educate clients.

Free email marketing has evolved and so have the types of emails. Companies send out a combination of both of the above mentioned categories. You can design them on your own or hire a professional email marketing firm. A reputable firm handles everything in your campaign from the design of the emails to the analysis of the customer data.

Commercial aspects of email marketing

Email based marketing is very popular among organizations because it is highly cost effective, as compared to the other marketing methods. Companies have reported that over a period of time, the return on investment (ROI) is high. You can send specialized email campaigns to your target audience. Email marketing is a very effective way to build lasting relationships with customers.

The success of any email campaign depends on a number of factors. Among them, permission and value are the most important. Permission essentially means to send marketing emails to those people, who have subscribed to it. Value involves the sending of relevant and useful information to clients. Poorly designed email campaigns can inflict more damage than any other forms of marketing. Companies that send unsolicited emails to customers end up getting dubbed as spammers.

Legal aspect

Never develop an email campaign without considering the legal dynamics. Numerous countries have passed strict anti-spam laws. These laws expect companies that have email campaigns or plan to develop one, to follow certain rules. For instance, it is a must to include all contact details in the emails. This includes a postal address, a functioning phone or helpdesk number, a registered website and so on.

You are also expected to incorporate an unsubscribe link in the email so that those clients, who do not wish to receive emails from you, can opt out. Such laws have been passed to improve the standards of email marketing and stop its abuse, which is spam.

This is how free email marketing works. You can always look at free resources or free tips to understand the dynamics involved.