EMAIL MARKETING

Introduction

The Director of PanoConsulting, Nicholas Swift wrote this article on the 19th August 2007. In this article, Nicholas introduces email marketing. He begins by discussing what email marketing actually is before progressing onto the advantages and disadvantages of email marketing. Then, he provides information on how to practice successful email marketing. Finally, Nicholas concludes the article with information on how PanoConsulting can help you with their email marketing solution.

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is a powerful method of direct marketing that enables businesses to promote their products or services in a quick and cost effective way. It refers to the sending of emails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a business with its current and old customers with the aim of encouraging customer loyalty and repeat business. To achieve this, the emails often inform customers of things such as special offers and new products or services. Marketing emails can only be sent to e-mail addresses that have been 'opted-in' (agreed to receive such emails via the submission of there email address on your website). Businesses entice their customers to opt-in to there email marketing campaigns with the lure of being the first to hear of special offers and new products or services for example.

Advantages of email marketing

• Quick and easy to do.
• Cheap method of advertising.
• Can be attractive to customers.

Disadvantages of email marketing

• Chance of your email being detected as spam mail.
• If it is not implemented correctly then it could result in disgruntled customers who don't want to receive your emails anymore and will not provide you with return custom.

The key to successful email marketing

Perhaps the biggest key to email marketing is the analysis and subsequent on-going tweaking of the email you are sending out. For example, if hardly anybody clicks on a 'special offer' link in your email then next time you design an email to send out to your customers, make sure the 'special offer' section is more prominent. Similarly, if you find that hardly anybody is opening your email then try altering the 'subject' you use or even change the time of day that you send the email out (sending the email after midnight will more than likely mean that your email will be at the top of a customers email list when they go to read them in the morning).

Will email marketing benefit me?

Below is a list of the kind of people who could benefit from using email marketing. This list is not exhaustive.

• Big and small businesses.
• Charities and other worthy causes.
• Churches.
• E-commerce sites.
• Nightclubs.
• Web designers/developers and creative agencies.
• Publications.
• Restaurants.
• Universities.

Email marketing the PanoConsulting way!

PanoConsulting are experienced email marketers and offer a powerful and flexible solution to maximise the benefits that email marketing can bring to your business. If you enlist the services of PanoConsulting for your email marketing needs you can be sure that your campaigns will:

• Feature professional looking HTML emails.
• Adhere to email etiquette.
• Be tested in multiple email environments to ensure high compability.
• Employ the latest methods to avoid spam filters and prevent abuse reports.
• Enable you to track statistics through reports that logs statistics like clicks, opens, bounces, opt-outs, and more.

How can I find out more?

Contact Nicholas Swift on 07813 025134 or n.swift@panoconsulting.co.uk to discuss how PanoConsulting can provide an email marketing solution for you.