Chapter 4: Why Not Email Marketing?
If you are currently participating in other types of Internet marketing but not email marketing you should seriously consider why you are avoiding this type of advertising.
This is important because email marketing can be a very important part of an Internet marketing campaign. Many business owners avoid email marketing for fear of being accused of spamming. Internet markets may not have a clear understanding of what is spam and what is not so they avoid participation in email marketing campaigns to avoid the potential for being labeled a spammer.
Why are Internet marketers so afraid of being accused of being purveyors of spam? This is a common fear for a number of reasons. First of all, there may be harsh penalties associated with sending spam emails. Recipients of spam have the option of reporting the spam to their Internet service provider who will investigate the validity of the claim. If the originator of the email is determined to be a spammer there can be harsh consequences.
Internet marketers are also afraid of email marketing because they believe it will not be well received by potential customers. This is an important concept because Internet users are bombarded with spam each day.
Receiving this quantity of spam each day can be frustrating and can anger some Internet users.
These Internet users are not likely to be receptive to email marketing. The fear that these potential customers will view email marketing and stray to competitors keeps many Internet marketers from taking advantage of this type of marketing strategy.
However, it is important to note that despite the prevalent problem with spam, many Internet users are quite receptive to email marketing. This is especially true in situations where they specifically requested to receive more information from the business owner regarding his products and services.
Potential clients are particularly receptive to email marketing which provides something of value to the recipient of the email. Emails which contain in depth articles, useful tips or product reviews may be appreciated by consumers.
Additionally, items such as e-newsletters and correspondence courses offered via email can be of particular interest to potential customers. E- newsletters are typically longer documents than traditional email marketing pieces and can provide a great deal of additional information to the email recipient.
Email correspondence courses may be offered in short segments and typically amount to a significant amount of information which is likely to be greatly appreciated by the email recipients.
One final way to prevent email recipients from viewing your email marketing efforts as spam is to only send the emails to recipients who register with your website and specifically request for you to send them additional information and promotional materials. This opt in formula is ideal because it ensures you are not wasting your email marketing efforts on recipients who are not interested in your products or services.
It also ensures the recipients of the email marketing campaign do not view the informative and promotional materials they are receiving as spam.
This technique for compiling an email distribution list is quite effective but it is important to remember you should always include information on how recipients can opt out of receiving future emails, www.Automatic- Responder.com is a great service to help with this.
This is important because the email recipients may have once been interested in receiving marketing emails but over time this may change. If they are no longer interested in these emails, they may begin to view the emails as spam if they are not given the option of being removed from the distribution list.