How does Email Marketing Work?

Email marketing is a type of direct marketing strategy that is used to communicate fundraising or commercial messages. Many companies have a direct mailing campaign and gather email addresses from its shoppers, supporters, or constituents. In the last presidential election every candidate had an email marketing campaign.

The first step in developing a campaign is to create a database of thousands even millions of users. Once the database is created, they must be imported into an eBlast provider, such as ConstantContact, FuseMail, VerticalResponse, or Campaigner. Each service offers unique pricing plans and features that are different.

The next step is to design your email marketing documents. Each eBlast should use the same style and template. You can have a number of different eBlast templates. Examples of the various eBlasts include product launches, scheduled newsletters (i.e. weekly, monthly, and quarterly), tour schedules, letters from the CEO, etc. Each blast can be targeted to a specific demographic within your database. For example, if your band is touring in California, send the eBlast only to those who have California addresses.

Certain aspects of your campaign need to be decided before production. Having an eBlast schedule is important, and determining how often you will send out newsletters. The issue of what is too much is a common debate in the realm of email marketing. Users who feel they are bombarded will remove themselves from your list, while users who do not receive enough updates will forget about your product or service.

Never send more than one or two messages per week to the same person. The key is to use targeted demographics. Do not send a 75 year old man a press release about your new fat burner miracle pill. Collecting demographics is fairly easy, and you should make note of each users relative age and location. It all depends on the services and products you provide.

Depending on the size of your company and financial restraints you can hire third parties to execute your entire email marketing campaign. Once everything is setup it is quite easy to maintain, and requires little technical knowledge. You can even send eBlasts for free using your own email provider. If you are sending more than one type of eBlast or when your mailing list reaches in excess of 300 people it is time to consider a managed solution.

Services such as ConstantContact can ensure you are receiving an investment from your email marketing efforts. For example, they can tell you how many people open the message, click on links, visit your Web site, or even buy your product after reading the message. They also tell you how many delete the message, and how often your eBlasts are placed in junk email folders.

You also must decide as per what format to send your messages in, HTML or plain text. Services such as ConstantContact can decide, based on ISP, what format to send the message in. It also allows users to select their own preference.