Sending email is fast, free and far-reaching. This is why email marketing has become a popular way for businesses to communicate with existing and potential customers.
The advantages of email marketing make it a natural addition to your company's Internet marketing program:
- Fast -- Email marketing allows you to communicate immediately with customers. This makes it an ideal method for time-sensitive offerings. For example, a hotel or restaurant can boost their occupancy on short notice by sending local customers a special offer that may only be valid for a 48-hour period.
- Free -- You can use an existing email account to implement email marketing tactics. This means that you can communicate more often with customers at no additional cost. Also, when you extend discounts or special offers, you can do so without incurring related printing or media costs.
- Far-reaching -- Email is an effective way to get the word out to all of your customers simultaneously. You can reach international customers at the same time as local customers.
E-newsletters and special email offers can build strong relationships with your current customers that increase customer loyalty and result in repeat sales. The same tools can also attract new customers by increasing the awareness of your company and providing a platform for offering prospects additional incentives to buy your products.
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Warning
Viewing email marketing solely as a low-cost alternative to direct mail is a common mistake. This artificial paradigm can lead to a scenario where, in order to maintain a reasonable conversion rate, a company has to constantly increase the volume of email addresses collected and messages sent. In doing so, their email marketing efforts eventually fail when the company runs out of fresh email addresses or becomes ineffective by sending too many email messages to the same email addresses.
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The following are important considerations when developing an email marketing plan: