Commercial Ink - Benefits of Email Marketing

Benefits of Email Marketing

Email marketing is currently one of the fastest growing marketing mediums. This probably comes as no surprise since the majority of individuals spend more time on the internet than they do reading newspapers, magazines, or watching television. Email marketing is considered to be the second most effective tool (behind SEO) by the Ad Effectiveness Survey, conducted by Forbes in March 2009. Still, some are skeptical about this innovative approach to marketing. There are many reasons why, if designed and executed correctly, email marketing is a remarkable tool for increasing exposure and revenue, as well as return on marketing dollars.

Increasing sales is something that every business strives for, and promotions, in store sales, and internet exclusives may not be enough. It is important to remember that customers will usually not make a purchase the first time they visit a website. On the contrary, research indicates that it takes the average customer nine visits before they make a purchasing decision. Most of the time, when the customer leaves the site, they are gone for good - unless you retain their email address. Email marketing makes staying in front of potential customers easy by sending a monthly newsletter, updates, or information on sales, driving them back to your site for a possible purchase and leading to an increase in repeat purchases.

Email marketing is also a great way to personalize the message to your specific target market. Assuming you have targeted the needs of a group correctly, an email marketing campaign gives you the opportunity to appeal specifically to them. Only your intended audience is reached, and resources are not wasted, as opposed to other forms of "shotgun" marketing. The email also has an "unsubscribe" option, which allows businesses to even more efficiently reach their target market by only sending the campaign to those who are truly interested.

It is safe to say that email marketing is not just a trend - in fact, it is on pace to take over direct mail as a primary means of targeted marketing. It's cost effective, environmentally friendly, and easy to track - none of which can be said for direct mail. Designing, executing, testing, sending and receiving five thousand emails costs up to 78% less than the paper based direct mail version. It's low cost is one of the biggest draws to email marketing, however, it's not just inexpensive, it is money well spent; according to the Direct Marketing Association, the return on investment generated for email marketing in 2008 was $45.06 for every dollar spent. To put it in perspective, the ROI for non-email internet marketing delivered $19.94 for every dollar spent and catalog marketing generated $7.28 per dollar in 2008. The DMA estimates that these numbers will continue to be respectable for some time. And why wouldn't they? Even if these numbers fell by ten percent, email marketing would still be a solid ROI for any company to pursue.

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