At its most basic level, email marketing can be described as touching your intended audience by using email. This particular method should be thought of in the same way as the use of direct postal mail, telemarketing, selling in person, websites, radio, and television. The reality is that email can be employed hand-in-hand with any or all of the above methods with often remarkable results.
The idea behind email marketing is basically to get your message out to those individuals who have “raised their hand” and expressed an interest in what you have to say. By “raised their hand”, we mean that the person has initiated the relationship by clicking on a link that adds their email address to your email list. In the case of a double opt-in list, the recipient also must confirm the email subscription by clicking on a separate link inside an email that is sent specifically to their email address for the purpose of confirming that only those who want to be on the list actually are.
Due to these precautions, email marketing should not automatically be labeled as “spam”. What is spam? Briefly, it can be described as unwanted commercial email. Your uncle Bob who forwards all those corny jokes is not spamming you. Ethical email marketers are not in the same class as spammers due to the fact that the recipient is added only with their express permission, and in addition, every email contains a unsubscribe method that is easy to carry out.
What are the contents of email marketing communications?
You can usually expect commercial email marketing to include the following:
Industry news. Let’s say you are marketing to fanciers of Shetland ponies. In that case, you may want to discuss recent and upcoming events relevant to Shetland pony breeders and enthusiasts. This will help position you as a leader in your field, someone whom your readers can trust.
Helpful tips and hints. One common use of email marketing is to provide introductory level training. A great example would be sending out a short course via email on how to get started playing the guitar. Or you could merely address one issue that new guitar players often struggle with.
Offer products and services for sale. This probably will not surprise you: a marketer might want to sell you something! The specific action you encourage your reader to take will depend on your individual circumstance. If you’re not offering something for sale today, you will likely be leading them farther along your sales funnel.
Here are some examples:
* Click on link to sales page
* Call a phone number for information package
* Participating in a complimentary teleseminar
Commercial bulk emails can be classified as “broadcast” messages or “sequential” messages. The latter are often labeled “autoresponders” for the fact that process behind including a subscriber to your list is automated, and in addition, the system keeps track of when to send follow up messages.
