Email marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. However, the term is usually used to refer to:
Sending emails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or old customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business.
Sending emails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing old customers to buy something immediately.
Adding advertisements in emails sent by other companies to their customers.
Emails that are being sent on the Internet (Email did and does exist outside the Internet, Network Email, FIDO etc.)
Researchers estimate that US firms alone spent $400 million on email marketing in 2006.Email marketing (on the Internet) is popular with companies because:
The advantage of a mailing list is clearly 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, it is less expensive.
An exact Return on investment can be tracked ("track to basket") and has proven to be high when done properly. Email marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic.[2]
It is instant, as opposed to a mailed advertisement, an email arrives in a few seconds or minutes.
It lets the advertiser "push" the message to its audience, as opposed to a website that waits for customers to come in.
It is easy to track. An advertiser can track users via web bugs, bounce messages, un-subscribes, read-receipts, click-throughs, etc. These can be used to measure open rates, positive or negative responses, correlate sales with marketing.
Advertisers can generate repeat business affordably and automatically
Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of email subscribers who have opted in (consented) to receive email communications on subjects of interest to them
Over half of Internet users check or send email on a typical day.
Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger other messages to be automatically delivered.
Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger other events such as updating the profile of the recipient to indicate a specific interest category.
Green - email marketing is paper-free There are number of terms used in email marketing, marketers in this space have to be familiar with, to name a few: auto-responder, bounce message, click-through rate, double opt-in or opt-in, open rate and spam
