What is Email Marketing and how do you use it in your small business?
Email marketing by definition is the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product, service & information by utilizing the digital channel of email.
Email marketing finds its roots in the offline world of direct mail where companies build databases of prospects and client names & addresses. These databases, otherwise known as lists are developed over time and in some cases used to be rented by list brokers to the company who was looking to mail to a specific region or demographic.
It’s important to understand how offline direct mail/direct response has impacted email marketing, so if you decide to use this channel you’ll be able to better understand and comprehend how to maximize your efforts.
Email Marketing for the Online Marketer
As one of the most powerful tools for businesses to communicate and connect with their subscribers and clients, email marketing is the medium by which both offline or online businesses can sell products and services in addition to surveying and providing quality information to the end user (subscriber or client).
Email marketing is the one communication channel that allows for different variations of messages, from HTML or text and can also include video and audio(link) to mix things up. With online software called auto responders, email marketing has become even more popular in the last decade, allowing more and more businesses to expand their horizons. Without this valuable software it would be nearly impossible to develop and grow an email list of any size.
There are a number of functions that the email software provides, allowing the marketer to create, develop and manage the list of subscribers and clients.
Four of these Features are:
- The Lead capture web form.
- The Interface to create, write and store email messages.
- The Database which maintains the subscriber’s information.
- The Reports that provide the marketer with a variety of useful information.
So email marketing now enables the online and offline marketer/business to develop relationships and have a sales channel that was never possible in the offline channel of direct mail.
Should you decide to take the next step and into the world of email marketing, subscribe here and get your hands on the List Building Guide.