subject: E-mail Marketing Services For Your Business [print this page] The ubiquitous e-mail is, today, a very powerful marketing tool used extensively as a form of online direct marketing; examples being e-mail product promotion campaigns, e-newsletters, online surveys etc. Reasons for the burgeoning popularity of e-mail marketing are, among others, its wide market reach, easy operation, cost-effectiveness and speed.
Briefly, e-mail marketing may be broadly classified as sending e-mails (a) to current or previous customers to enhance relationships and encourage customer relationship; (b) to targeted individuals who may be potential customers; (c) to existing customers to persuade them to purchase something immediately; (d) sending out periodic e-newsletters; and (e) adding ads to e-mails sent by other companies to their customers and so on. Successful e-mail marketing requires the promotional messages to be sent to a very large number of people (and a large number of queries responded to). This requires large opt-in lists (often rented), automated e-mail messaging systems (list servers) and auto-responders etc.
While e-mail marketing is an attractive promotional option for most Internet marketers, there is an important caveat however; sending unsolicited e-mail marketing messages (spamming) should be strictly avoided to prevent penal action (including possible shut down of the site) by Internet administrators. The way out of this problem is the 'Opt-in' e-mail list; a list (there are various ways of developing such a list) of recipients who have consented to receive promotional e-mail messages.
When implemented on a large scale (the usual prerequisite for success), it becomes very difficult for individuals and small companies (and some large companies without designated resources, for that matter) to initiate and run an effective e-mail marketing programme without the help of professional 'E-Mail Marketing Services' providers.
'E-Mail Marketing Services' providers are specialized companies that provide professional assistance (mostly on very competitive price terms) in creating, implementing and monitoring effective bulk e-mail marketing campaigns. These services may include, depending on the scope of work entrusted, designing the e-mail campaign (including creation of the marketing messages), sending the messages (through broadcast e-mail, targeted mass e-mail, e-mail newsletters or a combination of all), campaign tracking and reporting (number of actual click-throughs, number of messages sent, forwarded, bounced, delivered, and 'unsubscribed' etc) and measuring the effectiveness of the e-mail campaigns (through analysis of the data collected).
The selection of an 'E-mail Services' provider has to be done very carefully. Apart from their existing and past customer portfolio, experience and the range of basic facilities they are expected to offer, one needs to ascertain whether they have the wherewithal to ensure providing 'Whitelist' e-mail marketing services (the opposite of 'Blacklist' where the server is blocked by the Internet Service Provider (ISP) on charges of 'spamming'; a disastrous situation for an e-mail marketer). Whitelist services can be provided by E-mail service providers (ESPs) who are very proactive in dealing with spam complaints; have built up personal relationships with all major ISPs; and are, in fact, practically 'Whitelisted' as it were, by the major ISPs. This is an important aspect often overlooked by e-mail marketers when selecting an ESP.
by: James Copper
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