Is Email Marketing Effective?

Email marketing can be one of the most effective marketing campaigns that your company does. You have a captive audience that most likely has expressed an interest in your products/services before. With email marketing you are connecting to the people who want to hear from you and hopefully attracting them to purchase from you again. However there is always a right and a wrong way to do things.

How is email marketing done wrong?
Maybe wrong isn't the correct word, but not effective. One of the biggest things that I hear from clients is "Can't you just buy a list that we can email to?", and I always say "Yes, if you want to be seen as spamming and annoying!". Even if that list is suited just for you, the chances of you seeing a good response is not good. The people on that list don't know who you are, don't have any brand recall of your company, and may or may not be interested in your products/services.

Another area that tends to be a problem is the frequency of the emails. Many customers want to send out emails everyday, or every hour (ok, maybe not that often). Lets think about this for a second. How many times have you received the same email day after day after day? How many times did you just hit the delete button or the opt-out link because you were tired of seeing the emailing? I would venture to guess that is what most people will do, I know I do.

So how is email marketing done right?
Ok, again probably should use the term more effective rather then right. The most effective email campaigns are going to be those sent to people who have subscribed to your list. These people have expressed an interest in your products/services. They know what they want and they know your company already. The chances of them reading your email and taking action are much higher then that of a "cold lead".

There are some really good companies out there that offer great email marketing tools. One of them is Constant Contact. They have been around for a while and have made their product easy to use, and feature rich. When you send out a campaign using Constant Contact you can get a real time look at who has opened it, who click the links inside and who opted out. With this information you can see how effective your emailing is.

Another way to increase the effectiveness of your emailings is to specialize them. For example, lets say that you run a home goods store and you have departments for Lawn & Garden, Kitchen, Painting, and Bathroom. You can create groups within many email marketing programs so when your website visitors sign-up for your emailings they can tell you exactly what they want to get information on. You now have an even more qualified contact. This person has told you exactly what they want to possibly purchase in the future, so you can send them and all the other people in that group an email specific to that department.

Email marketing is only as effective as the time you put into it. Make sure you have a qualified list and you know what they want to get information on and your email campaigns will be very effective.

Remember: Marketing TO THEM not AT THEM.

--------------
Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization