Email is proving itself to be one of more cost-effective
marketing tools available - which is why some 68 percent of
medium- to large-sized U.S. firms incorporated email into
their marketing strategies in 2000.
Several attributes account for the rise of email as a
marketing tool:
Faster Prep Time
Depending on the campaign creation tools that you use,
email marketing programs can be quick to create and may
arrive in the customer's inbox immediately.
More Flexibility
It is much easier and less expensive to create multiple
offers and test various creative and copy schemes in email
than in traditional "snail mail."
Reduced CPM
Email messages cost only a few cents per recipient compared
to traditional direct mail costs because email campaigns
don't incur printing or postage costs. Email costs range
from $.01 to $0.25 for per message, compared about $1.70 to
$2.00 for each item mailed in traditional direct snail mail.
Greater Acceptance
Some 73 percent of U.S. consumers say they prefer email as
their method of contact with online merchants. (Virtually
the same percentage also say they prefer rich-content media
email - with graphics and typography - versus plain-text
email.
Quick Response
Responses from recipients usually arrive within 48 hours
rather than taking days or weeks via printed and posted
mail.
Higher Response Rates
It is easier and more inviting for someone to respond to an
email message than to pick up the phone or mail a response
card. And email has a much higher average click-through
rates (between 5-15%) than online banner ads.
Accurate Reporting
Electronic forms of delivery and response make tracking and
reporting fast and easy. It is much easier than waiting
weeks for responses and returns.
Email marketing can use a variety of tactics - including
offers, coupons, contests, newsletters and other
value-added links and information.
Those tactics can basically be divided into two types -
permission-based marketing and spam.
Spam is the electronic equivalent of junk mail or that
annoying telemarketing call during dinner. It is
unsolicited and unwanted. Unfortunately for consumers,
today spam represents 10% of all email.
In response to this invasion, email users have created
inbox filters and dummy email addresses.
Permission emails are those messages that users have
requested. This can take the form of newsletters, or a
checkbox in the registration process on various Web sites
giving the marketer permission to deliver product updates
or other marketing information.
Forrester Research predicts that the number of solicited
emails will grow to 250 billion in 2002. Permission emails
have higher success rates than spam - both in terms of ROI
and in preserving a company's reputation.
Permission email can take the form of acquisition or
retention email - that is, mailings whose primary objective
is to prospect for customers or whose objective is to forge
a relationship with an existing customer base. In 2000,
some 57 percent of permission email dollars were spent on
retention and 43 percent on customer acquisition.
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Mischelle (Schelly) Weedman-Davis has over 15 years of
marketing experience with high tech and internet businesses
such as Microsoft, Primus, Summit Software, Qpass, and
others. She recently left the high tech world behind to
focus her energy and attention on being a mother and
supporting her husband's Seattle law firm. To learn more
about Davis Law Group visit
http://www.InjuryTrialLawyer.com or
http://www.washingtonaccidentbook.com .
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