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Free Email TutorialsEmail MarketingWhy Consider Email Marketing?

Why Consider Email Marketing?

Email "@" symbol This tutorial examines the main reasons to seriously consider email marketing in addition to your existing marketing strategies, including offline, traditional advertising, active presence in social media, and having a (regularly updated!) website. The cost-effectiveness of email marketing, the massive distribution potential of the medium, and the real-time availability of the communication channel are just some of the compelling advantages of promoting your goods and services. We'll also cover its advantages vs. marketing on Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms (including when those are better suited).

Why Consider Email Marketing?

Massive User Base — With an ever-growing number of email users worldwide, it's an ideal medium to channel your offerings. Recipients of legitimate email marketing material are opt-in subscribers, which makes it better targeted, more welcomed than boilerplate advertising, and keeps users feeling in control. The ease of unsubscribing from newsletters minimizes the perceived risk in trying it out (i.e. increases prospects' signups and conversions).

Note: unlike social networks, older emails don't disappear out of view; Facebook users typically cannot keep up with posts on their wall - including friends, liked pages, or subscriptions. The net result? Posts not coming from personal friends have little chance of getting read, let alone generate a lead. The same holds true for tweets we follow.

Minimal Distribution Costs — Technically, the cost of blasting a marketing email to 35 subscribers or a few thousands is nearly identical. (Email marketing services typically bill by subscriber count and/or by dispatch, but the difference remains marginal.) Compared with print or TV, email marketing brings infinitely more conversions per dollar than print marketing (and is nearly always more contextually relevant to prospects). While print collaterals can work well with your organization, relative low cost of email marketing makes it worth your attention.

Real Time Marketing and Tracking — Unlike print-and-ship communication, email marketing benefits from "immediate availability." Email makes breaking news, last minute changes or surprise announcement; no files to send your printer, no lengthy proofing process, no printing or drying time, and no postal shipping delays. Once you have an email marketing system in place, and a marketing piece ready, sending out your newsletter/announcement only takes a few minutes, reaching a potentially massive subscriber base.

Unlike offline advertising, measuring an email marketing campaign's success only requires tracking link: no more custom offer codes to remember, special URLs broadcasted on TV or printed - a simple click from the prospect and everything's taken care of behind the scenes. Cost-benefit analysis will tell you, in real time, how well your campaign is going!

When Avoid Email Marketing?

Likewise, email marketing may not always be the best marketing channel for your business: if only a measurably small proportion of your prospects uses the Internet, traditional print medium marketing (like brochures and flyers) might be best suited.

Tip: Once you have a number of prospects and customers following you on Facebook or Twitter (for example), it makes sense to announce short sales on a social network - especially for time-limited offers, a call to action has greater chances of producing conversions by reaching your audience in real time (people check their social profile more often daily than their inbox, especially when they have an email account devoted to "less important" activities). As an email marketer, you'll often only get a person's secondary email address!

Announcing future events often makes more sense on print, unless you are willing to send 2-3 messages: one far before the occasion, and another or two shortly before it, depending on call to actions required by the prospects* (after personalization, relevance, and quality, e-newsletter volume is one of the top reasons for dropped subscribers - unless your run a "daily offers" business, less than two newsletters per month is preferred).
* Trips necessitate preliminary arrangements; local visits to your store can be organized within a day; leave potential customers time to get organized, but not so much time that they'll forget about you!

Keep email marketing as a possible future strategy, though: every day brings thousands of new Internet users to the rank of prospects. Email and website marketing progressively replaces traditional marketing tactics: and keep in mind that an increasing number of people use email on the go, from a mobile, internet-connected device and cell phones.

Tip: a few years ago, a product or service specifically targeting seniors may have done without an email marketing strategy of any kind.

Now in 2024, with an ever-increasing number of seniors using the internet, however, you should at least offer the option of email as communication channel, even if you keep most of your marketing efforts oriented towards print, radio, or TV - but since email marketing can be as easy as emailing a link to a PDF to your customers and prospects, there is really no excuse not to try it!

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Tutorial last updated on February 29, 2012
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