A Quick Guide to the Different Uses of Email Marketing
One of the most effective means of communication on the Internet is e-mail. A letter sent via the Internet arrives at the addressee on the other side of the planet in a few minutes, which is one of the main advantages of e-mail. In addition, the cost of such shipping is minimal. Therefore, e-mail in many companies is becoming an indispensable tool for doing business.
The first mailing list appeared in 1975 and was specifically for science fiction fans. In subsequent e-mails begin to be used in other computer networks. The year of the beginning of the use of email is considered to be 1994.
Today, millions of people use email as one of their primary means of communication. Including it is actively used in the field of business. E-mail can use various means - for correspondence with business services, distribution of goods and services.
Let's take a look at the main uses of email as a marketing tool.
Advertising
Email is actively used for advertising purposes. E-mail advertising methods include:
- Sending advertising offers without the direct consent of the recipients (“ spam ”);
- Sending advertising offers with the direct consent of the recipients (opt-in marketing);
- Advertising inserts in electronic magazines sent by e-mail;
Spam
Nowadays, many advertisers, as a result of their inexperience ordeliberately misuse the distribution of advertising messages by email.Spam is strongly disapproved by a significant proportion of Internet users and can seriously damage the image of a company using this advertising method.Despite this, even after being informed of the enormous damage this can cause to the company, spam is actively used by many companies, as they are guided by the principle of commercial efficiency: from several hundred thousand to several million advertising letters are sent at relatively low costs. Mass mailing allows you to dramatically increase the likelihood of advertising reaching those recipients who need this product at the moment and have not yet developed the habit of deleting advertising letters.
Today, most of the services responsible for forwarding users' e-mails have anti-spam filters that block spam from being sent. Therefore, professional spammers invent more and more new ways to deceive such filters.
When using spam, one must be prepared for the fact that, in addition to interested consumers, a large number of irritated users will turn to the company and express their dissatisfaction with unnecessary advertising.Some consumers may demand compensation for material damage due to the cost of receiving and processing unnecessary correspondence. In addition, there may be appeals and claims against the provider, from whose computers the mailing was carried out, which threatens to disconnect the organization from using the Internet.
Opt-in marketing
An alternative to spam is "opt-in marketing": Internet users subscribe themselves and express explicit consent to receive advertising information about certain goods and services. This method of advertising is quite effective, since there is a direct interest on the part of consumers in receiving advertising information.
Advertising inserts in thematic emails
Another way of advertising via e-mail is advertising inserts (banners, text, text-graphic blocks) inside electronic magazines sent by e-mail. Users subscribe to them in order to receive useful information materials by e-mail.
When placing ad units in such mailings, it is necessary to take into account the specifics of the latter.As a rule, they offer two main ad spots - at the very top and at the very bottom of the main text of the mailing. Placement at the bottom is considered the least attractive, since a significant part of Internet users do not read the newsletter to the end, especially if there are a lot of materials and you need to scroll the screen several times.
The materials placed at the beginning of the mailing text are more visible, but special approaches are required to capture the attention of the reader. The fact is that subscribers quickly get used to the fact that advertising information is published in clearly defined areas of the mailing list, and can eventually begin to ignore these areas, without even reading the advertising headlines. Therefore, when creating an ad unit, you need to think about how to capture the attention of a newsletter reader who is used to ignoring ads. The most effective, as a rule, turn out to be non-standard ad units that attract attention due to their unusualness.You can also agree with the owners of periodic electronic mailings to include certain information in the mailing list in the form of news, articles, announcements, which may be interesting or useful to readers. This can have a significantly greater effect than an ad unit.
Corporate mailings
Recently, many companies have begun to actively use their own corporate mailings to keep in touch with consumers.The following types of such mailings can be distinguished:
- advertising;
- electronic newsletter;
- Site news;
- subscription to updated information;
It was already mentioned above about advertising mailings with the direct consent of the recipient (opt-in marketing). In such mailings, the company publishes information about its new products, promotions and other promotional materials.
Electronic newsletters include mailings in which various news materials are published in full - Internet users do not need to follow the links to read the news in full.
Many corporate portals actively publish fresh materials related in one way or another to the company's activities. Often the volume of such materials is large for mailing, therefore, only announcements of materials that have appeared on the site are published in it, with direct links to fully published information. This type of mailing belongs to the category "Site news".
Some companies provide Internet users with the opportunity to receive periodically updated information materials by e-mail: price lists, stock quotes, etc. In this case, the consumer does not need to remember to visit the company's website to find out the latest information.
In practice, a combination of several types of mailings is often used.
Each of the presented types of mailings has its own specifics, which must be taken into account when creating and maintaining it.
Electronic newsletter
An electronic newsletter is the most attractive form of obtaining information for Internet users. However, this is one of the most time consuming and complex ways to organize e-mail marketing, as it requires the involvement of authors to write news, create reviews and other materials that can interest Internet users.News posted in an electronic magazine most often duplicates news information that appears on the corporate website itself.
Hire competent writers. The quality of the information materials published in the mailing list will judge the company itself. If, for example, an overview of a particular industry, which was made by an incompetent specialist, appears in the mailing list, then this can harm the company's image and its services.
Use informative headlines. The most common mistake is the unjustified use of catchy headlines that do not give an idea of the content of the material. Readers will have to familiarize themselves with the material itself in order to understand exactly what it is about, and if they think that the title does not correspond to the essence, then they will lose confidence in future materials and the company itself.
Don't overdo it with ads. An electronic newsletter should be interesting and useful for readers. If all the material consists only of the company's advertising, then this may lead to the fact that new subscribers to the newsletter will unsubscribe from it after reading one or two issues.
Provide subscribers with a variety of information that may interest them. One of the main tasks facing the newsletter is to retain existing subscribers and attracting new ones. For this, it is necessary to take into account that the interests of the target audience can be very versatile and that readers may not be satisfied with the low information content of the mailing list. In order to avoid this, it is necessary to provide diverse information, but within the framework of the stated topic.
Choose the correct frequency of mailing. The question of the frequency of mailing plays an important role in audience retention. If you send too often, subscribers may not like it; if it is too rare, it will be considered that you have an uninformative resource. The decision about frequency is best made based on the characteristics of the target audience and the type and purpose of the information provided.
Methods of technical organization of e-mailing
When opening an electronic mailing list, special attention should be paid to the method of technical support: using independent mailing servers, proprietary or paid software.
The advantages of using specialized mailing servers include: ease of use, there is no need to involve a programmer, the ability to attract additional subscribers from the mailing server audience. Moreover, the last point is most relevant when the traffic to your own website allows you to attract only a few subscribers, while the inclusion of a mailing list and its announcement among the users of the mailing server can attract thousands of subscribers in a short period of time.
However, it is worth mentioning the disadvantages of using mailing servers: as a rule, there is no access to the subscriber database (except for cases when the organization pays only for technical support and does not use the services to attract subscribers), there is dependence on a foreign organization, there is a charge.
If an organization wants to independently manage the list of subscribers, prevent the placement of someone else's advertising, or the mailing is intended only for customers, then it is necessary to use its own or purchased software. However, in this case, you will have to involve technical specialists to set it up and work smoothly.
Conclusion
Email is still a little researched marketing tool. Because of this, many companies use a small part of the possibilities of this channel of influence on consumers, often limiting themselves only to advertising mailings without the consent of the recipients (spam), which damages the company's image and forms a negative attitude of Internet users towards advertising by e-mail. At the same time, the competent use of the new tool allows you to form a circle of loyal consumers and significantly increase the efficiency of business.