Email Marketing - The Right And Wrong Way
Without a doubt, e-mail is one of the most powerful tools ever invented, enabling virtually instant communication with people from just about anywhere in the world. In terms of marketing, e-mail can be very effective in bringing customers to your website. However, there is a right way and a wrong way of using e-mail for promoting your site. The wrong way to use e-mail The wrong way is to send out your message to thousands of e-mail addresses that you have collected, unsolicited, from the internet. This is called spamming and although it is far cheaper than sending out mailshots through the post, there are several reasons why we do not recommend this method: Your list is probably untargetted, which means that only a very small percentage of recipients will be interested in your product or service. Spamming is usually ignored at best, and hated at worst, by the internet community. You run the risk of losing your credibility every time you spam. There is a high probability that you will receive lots of abusive e-mail from spam-haters, and you could well lose your account with your Internet Service Provider (ISP). The conclusion? Don't Spam! It's far more trouble than it's worth. The right way to market by e-mail Does that mean e-mail cannot be used for marketing purposes? Not at all there is a right way of getting your message out. It's called opt-in direct e-mail. This is the practice of sending commercial e-mail to people who have approved of receiving such e-mail. Although more expensive than spamming, it is by far the better option for several reasons: The cost per thousand mailings is still much lower than traditional mail (called "snail mail"). The list of e-mail addresses will be highly targetted, since the recipient has asked to be put on a mailing list for that particular subject. The risk of receiving abusive e-mail replies is virtually eliminated.
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