The Why and How of Email Marketing?

The Why and How of Email Marketing?
By Gabriel Adams

Why is email marketing a good choice to help grow your
business? Are there any downsides you should be aware of?
Let’s take a look and help you decide whether email marketing is
right for you.

Let’s face it: without advertising and marketing a business is
just one big expense. Even word of mouth is a form of
marketing. But no company, even a small business, can truly
survive on word of mouth alone.

With that said, you have a few options on how to get the word
out. Prior to the 21st century, the standard forms of marketing
and advertising generally consisted of the following options:
radio, television, print and other. Let’s look at each of these
first, and then consider the advantages and disadvantages of
email marketing, versus these other traditional formats.

Radio advertising can be a bit pricey, depending on what kind
of schedule you purchase. The time of day, the ratings and
number of listeners on the station, and even the time of year
can affect the budget you’ll need in order to run a successful
radio campaign.

While many radio stations will allow you to run short schedules
with a very basic message, the likelihood of limited radio
advertising being effective in helping your business see
significant growth is slim to none. You may be able to generate
a response to a single sale on a one-time basis, but a short or
limited radio schedule could put you in a position to not break
even.

Television advertising is thought to be more effective than
radio because of the visual aspect. However, television
stations know this and may charge more. You could run into the
same problems as you may with radio, budget-wise.

Print advertising generally refers to newspaper ads, but also
includes magazines and so on. While print tends to be more
affordable, modern trends show that more people are online doing
their reading, and less people are reading physical print
anymore.

The “other” category of marketing and advertising includes a
variety of promotional tools. This can include direct mail,
promotional items (such as pens, cups, t-shirts, and hats), etc.

Email marketing has a few advantages you won’t find with any of
the conventional marketing tools. First of all, the number of
impressions you can achieve for the same amount of money exceeds
all other forms of advertising. This is because your audience
is only limited to your list of email addresses.

The question becomes whether or not people truly respond to
email marketing, or if they just regard all advertising via
email as junk mail, also known as “spam.” Your gut may tell you
that people don’t read email advertising, but you’ll be
surprised at the truth about this.

First of all, while people may disregard a large percentage of
the business email they receive, they do not disregard all of
it. If the email is from a trusted source and contains
information relevant to their lifestyle, they may very well read
and respond to the messages.

It becomes important, with that fact in mind, to establish
rapport with your potential buyers, and to choose your target
demographic carefully. An email marketing specialist can help
you determine exactly who your target audience is, based on
factors like age, gender, annual household income, location, and
other factors.

Now that your email marketing campaign is ‘targeted,’ its
success is much more likely. However, only a marketing
specialist has the knowledge needed to then create a message
that will turn those impressions into a point of sale. Proper
marketing is said to be a combination of the ideal medium and an
effective message: ‘the medium and the message’ are key!

The verdict is that email marketing has many advantages over
other forms of advertising, including budget. However, it is
important that email marketing is done appropriately. If you do
not consult an email marketing specialist, you could end up
blocked by entire internet service providers’ servers, or worse,
sued!

If you do choose email marketing, be sure to do so through a
company that specializes in targeted marketing and advertising,
which has aggregated the data needed to create a successful
campaign to help grow your business. In fact, this is true with
all forms of media marketing.

About the Author: Track your email marketing campaigns with
http://statanalyzer.com – http://www.statanalyzer.com

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