Email marketing (on the Internet) is popular with companies for several reasons:
- A mailing list provides the ability to distribute information to a wide range of specific, potential customers at a relatively low cost.
- Compared to other media investments such as direct mail or printed newsletters, e-mail is less expensive.
- An exact return on investment can be tracked and has proven to be high when done properly. E-mail marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic.[1]
- The delivery time for an e-mail message is short (i.e., seconds or minutes) as compared to a mailed advertisement (i.e., one or more days).
- An advertiser is able to “push” the message to its audience.
- Email messages are easy to track. An advertiser can track open rates, positive or negative responses, and correlate sales with marketing.
- Advertisers can generate repeat business affordably and automatically.
- Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of e-mail subscribers who have opted in (i.e., consented) to receive e-mail communications on subjects of interest to them.
- E-mail marketing is paper-free (i.e., “green”).
Disadvantages
Many companies use email marketing to communicate with existing customers, but many other companies send unsolicited bulk email, also known as spam.
One effective technique used by reputable email marketing companies is to require what is known as the “double opt-in” method of requiring a potential recipient to manually confirm their request for information by clicking a unique link to confirm that the owner of the recipient email address has indeed requested the information. Responsible e-mail marketing and autoresponder companies use this double opt-in method to confirm each request before any information is sent out.
While this double opt-in method might initially decrease the size of a mailing list, businesses will find that the list is more responsive and have a higher ROI than lists without a double opt-in.
CAN-SPAM compliance
The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 authorizes a US$11,000 penalty per violation for spamming each individual recipient. Therefore, many commercial e-mail marketers within the United States utilize a service or special software to ensure compliance with the Act. A variety of older systems exist that do not ensure compliance with the Act. To comply with the Act’s regulation of commercial e-mail, services typically require users to authenticate their return address and include a valid physical address, provide a one-click unsubscribe feature, and prohibit importing lists of purchased addresses that may not have given valid permission.
In addition to satisfying legal requirements, e-mail service providers began to help customers establish and manage their own e-mail marketing campaigns. The service providers supply methods for handling subscriptions and cancellations automatically. They also provide statistics pertaining to the number of messages received and opened, and whether the recipients clicked on any links within the messages.
The CAN-SPAM Act was recently updated with some new regulations that went into effect on July 7, 2008.
Opt-in e-mail advertising
Opt-in e-mail advertising, or permission marketing, is a method of advertising via e-mail whereby the recipient of the advertisement has consented to receive it. This method is one of several developed by marketers to eliminate the disadvantages of e-mail marketing.[2]
A common example of permission marketing is a newsletter sent to an advertising firm’s customers. Such newsletters inform customers of upcoming events or promotions, or new products.[3] In this type of advertising, a company that wants to send a newsletter to their customers may ask them at the point of purchase if they would like to receive the newsletter.
With a foundation of opted-in contact information stored in their database, marketers can send out promotional materials automatically. They can also segment their promotions to specific market segments.[4]
References
- ^ Brownlow, M: “Why do email marketing?”, E-mail Marketing Reports, September 2008
- ^ a b Fairhead, N. (2003) “All hail the brave new world of permission marketing via email” (Media 16, August 2003)
- ^ Dilworth, Dianna. (2007) Ruth’s Chris Steak House sends sizzling e-mails for special occasions, DMNews
- ^ O’Brian J. & Montazemia, A. (2004) Management Information Systems (Canada: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.)
