Marketing, both online and offline, is an important part of running a business as it assists in attracting new customers and growing your brand’s reach. There are multiple means of marketing your products and services such as the more traditional methods of radio or television advertisements and newspaper or magazine articles, but with the world quickly progressing further and further into a digital age dominated by the internet, it’s important to broaden your marketing efforts and look at various forms of online marketing.
One form of online marketing that is particularly effective and will/can prove to be a positive asset in your marketing efforts is email marketing. No doubt you’d have received email marketing campaigns to your email inbox before, but have you ever thought of trying it for yourself?
What Is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is the act of directly marketing a product, service, event or generally anything commercial in nature to a group of people via email. In saying this, generally any email sent to a customer, or commercial customer, can be classed as email marketing due to it’s intent to sell a product or service, build trust, interact or solicit sales and interest.
The following is a complete list of reasons and uses for email marketing:
- Solicit sales or acquire new customers
- Request business
- Customer retention
- Prompt repeat business
- Build trust and loyalty
- Create brand awareness
- Provide news and updates to an existing database of customers
Email marketing is a proven marketing method that is utilized and highly prioritized by some of the biggest brands in the world to effectively communicate with their customers such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Nike.
About Email Marketing Software
Many companies exist to make the process of email marketing easier for individuals and corporations by designing, developing and distributing compliant dedicated email marketing software. These pieces of software provide the following benefits:
- Manage customer email lists
- Create and send marketing campaigns
- Create and run autoresponders
- Opt-In and Opt-Out features
- Analytics – Such as email open and click rates
- Spam filter diagnostics
- Spam Act compliant
Due to legal requirements of email marketing, one of the main benefits to using a commercial email marketing product is, for the majority of them, their strict spam act compliance policies and filters. The CAN-SPAM act restricts marketers from sending unsolicited marketing material to personal email addresses, enforcing fairly large fines and penalties. In order to combat this, the majority of email marketing software includes an opt-in feature which allows individuals to choose whether they would like to receive marketing material via email or not.
Available Email Marketing Software
There is a large variety of different email marketing software providers available online, most of which share the same general features but feature different pricing options. Choosing the right one for your use requires a look through their features, options and price points in order to best decide on which one offers the best value for your usage. The following is a list of some popular email marketing software providers:
Each of the above companies offer a similar set of tools designed assist you in creating a successful email marketing campaign with little effort. For those newer to email marketing or just aren’t sure what one is right for you, most will offer you a free trial for a set duration, allowing you to test out their tools and get yourself started.
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