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In today’s fast paced society, just about everywhere you look people are connected to the internet. Via their laptop or now the more popular mobile phones and pocket PC’s. The business world has noticed and is now taking advantage of the web to attract new customers and gain an edge over the competition. More and more companies are finding it absolutely crucial to seek out new and innovative ways to connect with their clients. While it has gained in popularity and acceptance, the internet is still far too often overlooked as a marketing tool in today’s market. The internet offers a wide range of marketing opportunities that are unsurpassed by any other medium to date. One such tool being utilized by successful businesses is email marketing. Recently, email marketing began to gain attention and recognition due to its low cost and proven results.

Email marketing is a simple and direct way to literally reach innumerous amount of customers with the same ease it takes to send just a single email. Utilizing such an email marketing tool saves valuable time, which in business, directly translates into increased profits. A reputable email marketing tool will allow you the ability to include all of the valuable information of a letter in standard text email format or with rich media, such as graphics and photos.

Email marketing campaigns can be directed to a select group of individuals that might have a need for your company’s products or services, or is often used to simplify the process of keeping up with existing clientele like sending monthly newsletters. What’s more is that email marketing campaigns can be personalized in order to appeal exclusively to individual recipients. A person’s name, business, address or any other variable piece of information is often included in mass mailings without actually typing them individually. By including someone’s name or other personal information in an email, it gives each email a personal touch, that often gets noticed and feedback from recipients.

Email marketing has numerous benefits for those that use it to its full advantage. One major advantage is the ability to track sent emails. Tracking enables you to see how many people read the email, forwarded the email, and clicked on any website links. Tracking is a key tool in determining who is interested in your company’s products and services. Mailing lists can be created to facilitate repeat mailings or follow-up emails. In order to avoid resending information to those who have already read the email, responded, or requested to no longer receive information, you can easily manage the mailing lists directly in the email marketing system.

Some companies are apprehensive about email marketing because it is commonly misinterpreted as SPAM. The frequent inundation of mailboxes with unnecessary email advertisements, or “SPAM”, is enough to turn anyone off of the idea of marketing through email. SPAM, or the unsolicited mailing of irrelevant bulk emails, has given email marketing a bad name. Legitimate email marketing campaigns seek out potential clients and tailor information to their interests, unlike SPAM which sends identical advertisements to anyone’s email address.

The popularity and ease of email marketing has provided many ways to implement the marketing technique. One simple and low-cost approach to email marketing is to use a service called ReadNotify.com. This website has an email tracking system that tracks the time, date, and location of opened messages, how long the message was opened and other message history. The service costs between $24 and $36 a year, based on which options you choose. But service is intended to be used for single emails at a time, and not mass mailings, mainly because it does not allow for the personalization features of larger systems. It does, however, provide a good way to test if email marketing will work for you.

Mass mailings are the most productive form of email marketing since it can be used to reach large numbers of potential clients while still providing a personal touch. There are many helpful websites and email marketing software providers available if you want to manage an email marketing campaign on your own. Despite these services, however, mass email marketing campaigns are frequently handled by interactive agencies as opposed to individual companies due to the overwhelming complexities of SPAM regulations. Either an email marketing software provider or an interactive agency with extensive knowledge of SPAM regulations should be used in order to stay within the parameters of the law. The main advantage of using an interactive agency is that they can not only send and track the email marketing campaign but they can also help in the creative aspects of it as well.

Clearly email marketing is a fascinating direct marketing technique. As the numbers of marketing mediums become more and more crowded, businesses need to look for new and engaging ways to reach potential clients. Email has become a primary form of communication and the average business user checks their email at least 6 times a day.

Whether you handle email marketing yourself or hire an agency to work with you, email marketing is a proven and profitable direct advertising medium. The age of the internet is upon us. It is time to move towards new forms of marketing and step into the progressive field of web communication. Embrace the new marketing opportunities and mediums that technological advancements have made a reality.