Advertising and marketing are expensive-especially for a small business just starting out. If you've come across email marketing, you might be wondering whether it's necessary or not. Research conducted in 2009 by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) found that email outperforms all other forms of direct marketing. If that alone doesn't convince you that your company should be integrating email marketing programs into your marketing initiatives, then read below for more advantages of email marketing.
Email Marketing Has a Wide Reach
Can you think of one person who doesn't have an email address? It's pretty unlikely in this day and age. Because practically everyone has an email address, email marketing enables you to reach out quickly and easily to your entire customer (current and prospective) base.
Email Marketing is Proactive
Unlike taking out a billboard or an ad in a magazine, email marketing allows you to directly reach your customers without them stumbling upon your marketing campaigns. It goes straight to them, and it gives them the opportunity to contact you with a simple click of the mouse.
Email Marketing is Targeted
One of the coolest features of email marketing services is that you are able to segment your list by specific demographics, such as: age, location, gender, etc. When you ask for clients' email addresses, take some time to get a little bit more information. This way you can cater your messaging to the right demographic, unlike with other forms of advertising, where you are mass targeting as many potential clients as possible.
With segmenting, you can even run split tests on your email campaigns in order to get a better feel for your clients.
Email Marketing Lets You Engage with Your Customers
The goal of email marketing is to create a relationship with your customers so that they will, in turn, buy your products or services. Email marketing allows you to build these bonds and engage your customers by sending them eNewsletters on a regular basis and enabling them to easily reach out to you.
Email Marketing is Less Intrusive
Email marketing doesn't interrupt the daily lives of your customers. They are already checking their email messages before opening your email campaign. If you've crafted an eNewsletter with useful content and no spam, they will likely open it and engage with you without feeling violated.
Email Marketing is Inexpensive
Most forms of advertising and marketing require large up-front investments before you're able to see any results. If you're a small business, they can be fairly expensive. Email marketing, on the other hand, has a very low up-front cost. In fact, it only costs you around $20.00/month (or less) for 500 contacts.
Email Marketing is Effective
According to the DMA, in 2009 email marketing generated a return on investment of $43.62 for every dollar spent. You just don't see the same kind of results with other forms of marketing.
When executed expertly, email marketing allows you to build a relationship with your customers at a relatively low cost. Read reviews of popular email marketing services at www.Email-Marketing-Options.com.
About the Author
Darcie Duttweiler is a copywriter for http://www.ChooseWhat.com.
