Unique Original Articles » The Benefits of Email Marketing and Newsletters

Just how important is email and online newsletters to your online marketing program? Is e-mail still useful or does it all end up in the spam filters? With blogs and social networking sites isn’t the value of e-mail marketing outmoded? If you are unfamiliar with email marketing you may wonder what all the fuss is about….



Why do businesses engage in email marketing? It’s simple- it works. And it works very well. Here are the most recent figures:



· According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing resulted in an ROI of $43.62 for every dollar spent on email marketing in 2009. The ROI figure for 2010 is expected to be $42.08. According to the stats email marketing outperforms all the other direct marketing channels like sales letters, print newsletters, promotions and catalogs.



· Forbes Media commissioned a survey on Ad effectiveness in February and March of 2009. The survey revealed that after SEO, email and e-newsletter marketing are considered to be the most effective tool for generating sales conversions.



· Epsilon marketing service determined that clients were receiving $0.14 revenue for each email that was delivered.



· In a November 2009 survey of B2B marketers indicated email marketing was likely to see more spending increase than any other form of online marketing development.



· The Marketing Outlook '09 Report by the CMO Council reviewed the plans and opinions of 650 marketers. Email marketing was the top target area for investment in 2009



Why does email marketing work? There are a variety of reasons:

· It builds relationships

· Encourages trust

· Builds loyalty-a following for what you have to communicate

· It is easy to target specific audiences

· It utilizes analytical data

· It drives direct sales

· It can be used to support sales garnered through other channels



Database integration, segmentation and various other tricks and techniques for improving the targeting of outgoing messages can all be utilized with modern email marketing services. There are advanced techniques that allow you to generate on-the-fly emails customized down to an individual client base.

Email campaigns you create generate tons of actionable data you can use to review, analyze and refine your approach and your message. Email provides the opportunity for promotions and offers which encourage immediate action by your potential clients: You can include sales, downloads, inquiries, registrations and more.



Informative email newsletters provide mutiple ways to direct clients to offline stores, online stores, webinars and other events. They can be used to build awareness, build loyalty and expertise with timely and well targeted content. They contribute to building your brand, establishing and strengthening relationships, building trust and loyalty.

Newsletters provide a good way of staying in touch with your target audience and an excellent vehicle for developing your market niche expertise by providing up to date and accurate content on subjects your audience is interested in learing more about.

Email marketing and e-newsletters are a good way of going about your marketing business. But your email marketing campaigns must be well managed. You must get the basics right. With the proper foundation your campaigns will bear fruit.



The key to any successful email marketing strategy is building an email list. It is the foundation of all email-marketing programs. You must learn the basics of building a list of people who want to hear from you.


Building Your email List



Recent studies show that most of us go online for one of two reasons. The first is to communicate and the second is to learn or gain knowledge. In general people do not like to give out their email addresses online. So, a good way to obtain someone’s email address is to offer them something in return. You could give them an informative newsletter, a free ebook, a forum membership or free software. This type of offer will increase the chance of getting them to subscribe and to provide their email address to you because you are meeting one of the two basic reasons people go online. You are providing communication or some form of education. In addition, offering subscriptions, (newsletter, ezine, ebook, software, course) is the primary, legitimate method of increasing your email list. Another benefit of offering something for free is that it increases the chance that your target will remember you and spread the word to others.


Make sure you create an easy-to-use form that they can fill in and subscribe to and place it in a very obvious location. Do not bury it deeply within your site. The easier it is for someone to find the subscription link the greater your chances or having them sign up and provide their email address to you. You should make sure there is a link to the subscription form from every page in your website and provide frequent reminders of the free item they can sign up for.

To boost trust in your site and your offering it is aso important to provide a privacy notice with a promise to never sell or disclose any information your client provides.
By addressing the privacy issue upfront you increase your chances of opt-in subscriptions to receive your emails and newsletters.






When you ask someone to subscribe to your email or newsletter, don’t ask for too much information. Your subscription box is not designed to be a marketing research survey you shouldn’t use it that way. You need to focus on creating an initial contact with potential clients. If you simply ask for their email address you are likely to see more subscribers.

You can offer your site visitors an extra incentive for subscribing to your newsletter or email communications: let them know that they will get a free gift when they sign up.

The free gift could be a free ebook, a special coupon, or information that they can use. Other ideas include giving them access to special areas on your web site that can’t be accessed by general visitors, when they sign up and register.

With this email list building technique you should see your response rates increase substantially.

The Internet is all about sharing information, and we love to let others know about good places to learn and find information. If you make your site a great one with highly focused, well-written content, you’ll begin to see people share your site with others and your web site URL will get greater and greater exposure.

Another key to successfully capturing email addresses and building your subscription list is to offer visitors different options. Some people may want to subscribe to a newsletter, others may want to read special articles and others may only want to hear about special product updates. Make your subscription box flexible by allowing them to choose what items they wish to subscirbe to. It is critical that you follow through and deliver exactly what they requested and nothing more. This approach is called ‘market segmentation’ because you are meeting the needs of different sectors of your market. This approach is a good, solid and sound sales practice that will cause your email list to expand.

The final critical step in building your list is to build relationship and trust with your potential market clients. You should email all of your current customers promptly with a response when they have a question. Craft your business communications in a polite, friendly manner. Potential clients will be more likely to sign up, subscribe, and ask for product updates if they’ve heard from you before, and if you are professional in all of your communications. We cannot stress the importance of prompt replies enough. Be as specific as possible if using an auto-responder. Make sure the message is friendly and has a tone which conveys concern for your clients needs and inquiry. Always get back to your client within 24 hrs. –less if possible.


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