Aviva Directory » Computers & Internet » Internet » Marketing & Advertising » Email Marketing

This is a guide to resources on email marketing, which generally refers to sending advertising to groups of people by email, soliciting sales or donations, or for the purpose of building brand loyalty or trust

Marketing emails might be sent to a purchased lead list, a customer database, or a subscriber list, and can be used to acquire new customers, to encourage previous customers to make another purchase, or to maintain loyalty among customers.

Although email marketing has faced challenges since the 1990s, when Internet users began to refer to as spam, and technologies were devised to filter or block unwanted emails, the technique continues to be an effective means of reaching customers.

Types of email marketing include transactional and direct emails. Transactional email advertising is triggered on a customer's actions with a company, and are intended to facilitate, complete, or confirm a transaction that the email recipient has entered into or agreed to. The main purpose of transactional email messages is to provide information about whatever triggered the message, whether it be a dropped online shopping basket, a password reset request, an order confirmation, or a receipt. Others may include email support requests. Direct email advertising refers to promotional messages that are sent to a list of previous customers or to those who are on email lists that may be rented from service companies.

Another type of email marketing is known as opt-in email marketing. It is a common practice for companies to offer a newsletter that a customer or prospective customer may agree to receive. Newsletters typically include news of the company's products or services, promotional offers, or upcoming products or activities.

Email marketing is cheaper and faster than traditional advertising and, despite spam filters, nearly half of Internet users in the United States check their email at least once a day. Businesses that send a large volume of email can use an email service provider (ESP) to gather information about the behavior of the recipients, which can be used to better target subsequent email campaigns.

On the top of the list of disadvantages to email marketing is the fact that many users will never see it, as unsolicited advertising emails will be filtered out as spam. Somewhat related, most Internet users receive about ninety emails per day and do not read most of those that are delivered to their inbox. Keep in mind, also, that anti-spam laws differ from one country to another, so email marketers need to make sure that their email advertising campaigns don't violate these laws.

The resources listed below should include websites offering information of use to those who may want to begin or optimize existing email marketing campaigns in-house, as well as those of companies offering various email marketing services or tools.

 

 

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