Why Email Marketing Works and Can do Wonders for Your Business

Hitting the bull's eye in marketing is what every business longs and prays for. Getting to grow sales is one of the biggest challenges in business and one that holds the key to success. While other key functions of management are vital, getting the product or service into the hands of consumers is by far the most crucial. Consumers play hard-to-get for many reasons, including the desire for value and the tough job of choosing from multiple contending (competing) marketers. That's why businesses spend tonnes of money on the business of marketing: from finding new customers, through getting them to take buying action, to keeping them for repeat business. Many top tools are in the hands of marketing experts for driving these objectives. Direct marketing, of which email marketing is part, has proved attractive for its targeting, personalisation and trackability benefits. Technology turned up email marketing, and today, it is a leading tool in the marketing mix of most well-run businesses. Email's popularity as a marketing platform is not without cause: it has inherent attributes that strongly recommend it, in spite of the challenges that spamming abuse has thrown in. Email marketing works and can be of great help to your business. Here's why:

• Email is Tops on Speed
  In business, speed of action counts a great deal and when it comes to direct marketing, email is doubly the winner on speed. The nearest is possibly fax, but that's only close when you are sending to one recipient. To send faxes to a hundred, not to think of million recipients, is quite a job and will take time. Not so, email. It's virtually instantaneous, letting you reach hundreds of thousands of people in an instant. Major plus, this one.
• Considerably Cheap to Use
  Another huge plus for email marketing: email is one of the cheapest resources, of such value magnitude, on earth today. You virtually send emails for free, except for the cost of internet access and perhaps an email marketing system. But all that is a pittance compared to other communication options or the value delivered.
• Easy Ride too
  Using email is perhaps one of the easiest marketing channels for do-it-your-self. Scripting a mail is as easy as writing a note. Okay, maybe not exactly. A good sales copy does require some skill, but then, you can still pass on your message without getting to be an expert copywriter. More importantly, the task of working with email will easily be rated 'simple'.
• Wide, Wide Reach
  Email is widely used, no doubt, and that includes in developing societies. Most people get on the internet, first for email. Before progressing to other uses of the internet, the majority of internet users started by opening and reading emails and sending some. Email addresses are growing by the numbers everyday and they are easier to legitimately obtain than other mailing addresses. People are more comfortable giving out an email than house, postal or office address. Think of it too, it's so easy to reach folks in every part of the world, if your business interest requires that.
• Targeting, so Easy
  Its so easy to target your emails, because of its automation and the ease of using email lists. Your contacts and prospects can easily be segmented into interest groups, allowing you to target messages more effectively. If you have five different lists and your campaign is only appropriate for one, you don't have to dissipate energy or risk offending recipients with a "pump-action" shot. Simply select the one list that fits and neatly send a message that has better prospect of good reception and impact.
• Personalisation Advantage
  There's no easier way to personalise messages and boost resonance. When you can personally address each recipient, not withstanding that there are a hundred thousand of them, it is a powerful tool. Good email marketing tools enable you speak to each recipient, even in the body of your message, as if it was exclusively for him. The effect is far-reaching.
• Tracking Power
  Email technology tools also permit a lot of detailed tracking: what was actually delivered, how many got opened, what links were clicked (which shows you what attracts interest), etc. That feedback mechanism is a huge bonus for your marketing process. Being able to stay on your desk and see what happened to mails you send out gives a lot of leverage for further optimisation and better effectiveness.
• Automation with Auto responders
  That's the best of it: emails systems with auto responders can allow you load messages ahead and in sequence and have them relayed automatically to subscribers. Use that with a campaign and each person that signs up, no matter when, begins to receive the series of messages you have lined up, as if you just wrote them, even one year on. The impact in terms of cost-saving in money, time and other resources is unquantifiable.

Email has been a momentous boost to marketing, no doubt. It's wonderful with getting new customers, and exceptionally effective with keeping existing ones. Marketing experts estimate that up to eight interfaces with the prospect are required, on the average, to close a sale. One easy way to keep up with that process is by email: once he has signed up to be mailed, well-crafted and reasonably targeted mails can sustain effective presence until a buy action. When he does, staying warmed to the customer can bring immediate up-sales or future repeat business and that again is smooth job for email. So, whether you seek to gain new customers or to keep the existing ones, a ready powerful tool in your hands is email marketing. You just need the right tool, the basic know-how for better results and practice to begin to reap from this marketing option which can profitably complement your marketing mix.

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