E-mail marketing is one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to find and keep new customers.  E-mail Marketing is the process of sending e-mails to acquire new customers and convince existing customers to make additional purchases.  It can also be used to enhance the relationship of a business with its customers and prospects and encourage customer loyalty and repeat business.

By building a mailing list, a business can create an extremely valuable asset.

The advantages of e-mail:

• E-mail lets you send information to a wide range of existing and potential customers at a much lower cost than direct mail or printed newsletters.
• E-mail marketing allows you to track your return on investment exactly and is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic.
• 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).
• E-mail marketing is paper-free (i.e., “green)
• Once you have a large list, you can “rent” your list to 3^rd party marketing firms that will mail other offers to people on your list – this can be a significant additional source of revenue for your business.

How to build your email list:

Include an e-mail sign-up box on your web site.  Giving away a free report or “how-to” white  course is a great incentive for people to subscribe to your list.

You can also collect the e-mail addresses of people that drop-off of your cart page after entering their email address. You can then send them a follow up e-mail offering a discount to complete the sale.

Once a person submits their e-mail address to you they become an opt-in subscriber. Don’t just send e-mails that attempt to sell things but rather offer them information, free reports, and tidbits of news and advice. That way they will be more likely to purchase it as something you recommend to them, not just as something you are selling.

Key points:

The sending of unsolicited e-mail is forbidden by law in most western countries and can involve severe penalties for violators.

You should only send e-mail to a person when they have “opted-in” to receive it. When you collect a person’s email address, be sure that you explain how you intend to use their e-mail.  Include a privacy policy on your web site and place a link to it next to your e-mail.

Due to the large amount of spam email, it is getting harder to get legitimate commercial email delivered into people’s inbox.  Specialty software and service firms have emerged to help business manage their e-mail programs and ensure that their emails are not blocked as spam.

Although it takes time and effort to maintain and grow, a mailing list can end up being the most powerful tool in your internet marketing arsenal.

E-mail templates:

One of the difficulties with sending e-mails is you need to design a template which is ideally similar if not the same in design to your web site. Furthermore, due to some of the restrictions within the most common e-mail clients, the design process can be limited. However, there are a number of free resources and templates on the Internet that will help you do this.

Click on the banner below to find help getting started with your e-mail marketing efforts: