Email Marketing [Paperback]

In these days of fancy, sometimes over-designed Web sites, banner advertising and TV advertising, we often forget that everyone on the Internet has an e-mail address too, and so e-mail has huge potential as a marketing tool. This book aims to remind us of this fact, and that as a cheap, easy to use tool, e-mail can be one of your online business's best assets. The authors are keen to point out that they are not advocating spam (huge numbers of cloned e-mails indiscriminately sent to tens of thousands of people), but targeted, well-constructed marketing messages. To make effective use of e-mail as a marketing tool you need a strategy rather than a splatter gun, and one chapter of the book talks you through the process of designing one.

You also need to know how to write a good e-mail, and one of the book's key sections takes you through the do's and don'ts from the wording of the header right through to how to sign off. Examples from the real world are included so you can see how the big guns do it. Standard e-mails are not your only option, and the book devotes space to alternatives such as e-newsletters and e-promotions. Both can help people feel an affinity with your Web site, while e-promotions offer something free in return for a site visit perhaps money off a purchase for example.

The book explores other avenues too, such as getting mailing lists together, and doing market research to help you improve. Sterne and Priore cover their ground well, write in an easy style, and encourage you to do a lot of thinking for yourself. --Sandra Vogel

"...this book empowers every business..."

"...gives a well–detailed and skillful insight into developing highly cost–effective and personal campaigns" (Marketing, 4th January 2001)

The most powerful tool for marketing, branding, direct response, and building customer relationships is email. It′s cheap, easy–to–use, and almost everybody on the Internet has an email address. The only problem is that not everyone knows how to use it correctly. Sending out a bad email not only discourages potential customers but can also damage your brand and your reputation. Written by the leading experts on Internet direct marketing and permission email marketing, this book arms you with the latest email strategies and techniques to help you dramatically improve response rates and forge lasting customer relationships. The authors provide a comprehensive introduction to what email marketing is and how it can be used to reach a larger group of people at a lower cost. You′ll discover the ins and outs of creating an effective email marketing strategy and how it can play a significant role with your customers. And you′ll find a collection of valuable templates that will help you get started immediately!

This book takes you step–by–step through the process of creating a successful permission email marketing campaign. Inside, you′ll learn how to:
∗ Develop a campaign strategy
∗ Write an email masterpiece
∗ Reach your target audience
∗ Enhance a campaign for a better response rate
∗ Measure the success of email marketing strategies
∗ Advertise on other people′s electronic newsletters
∗ Host your own discussion group

The most powerful tool for marketing, branding, direct response, and building customer relationships is email. It′s cheap, easy–to–use, and almost everybody on the Internet has an email address. The only problem is that not everyone knows how to use it correctly. Sending out a bad email not only discourages potential customers but can also damage your brand and your reputation. Written by the leading experts on Internet direct marketing and permission email marketing, this book arms you with the latest email strategies and techniques to help you dramatically improve response rates and forge lasting customer relationships. The authors provide a comprehensive introduction to what email marketing is and how it can be used to reach a larger group of people at a lower cost. You′ll discover the ins and outs of creating an effective email marketing strategy and how it can play a significant role with your customers. And you′ll find a collection of valuable templates that will help you get started immediately!

This book takes you step–by–step through the process of creating a successful permission email marketing campaign. Inside, you′ll learn how to:
∗ Develop a campaign strategy
∗ Write an email masterpiece
∗ Reach your target audience
∗ Enhance a campaign for a better response rate
∗ Measure the success of email marketing strategies
∗ Advertise on other people′s electronic newsletters
∗ Host your own discussion group

JIM STERNE is a leading world expert on Internet marketing. He specializes in creating Internet marketing strategies for businesses. Sterne produced the world′s first seminar on Internet marketing in 1994 and is an internationally recognized speaker at industry conferences. Information about his company, Target Marketing of Santa Barbara, can be found at www.targeting.com.

ANTHONY PRIORE is Vice President of Marketing for yesmail.com, the premier outsourcer of permission email marketing technologies and services (www.yesmail.com). Priore is a recognized leader in the direct marketing and e–commerce marketing fields. His career in marketing spans nearly 20 years and includes executive positions with Peapod, The Leo Burnett Company, Citicorp Diners Club, and DDB Needham Worldwide.

You've Got Mail! And so does everybody else. It's everywhere. Web sites may have been the first wonder of the Internet. Banner advertising may have astonished marketing mavens around the world. Streaming media might someday give us the video phones we were promised at the New York World's Fair in 1964. But the most powerful tool for marketing, the most powerful tool for branding, the most powerful tool for direct response, and the most powerful tool for building customer relationships turns out to be plain old, ordinary email. It's cheap, it's easy, and everybody on the Internet has an address.

Why then is so much of the email you get so bad? Because it's so cheap and so easy, and reaching everybody on the Internet is as simple as hitting the Send button.

Bad email is the bane of our existence. We hate it because we love our email. A PriceWaterhouseCoopers survey found 83 percent of Internet users felt email was their primary reason for using the Internet. Given the choice, an overwhelming majority turned down books, radios, and televisions in favor of an Internet connection with email on a desert island.

In their report Opt-in Email Gets Personal Forrester Research (www. forrester. com) said opt-in email "will spread like wildfire." They believe using opt-in email for marketing "will explode" because companies will be lured by high response rates, low costs, and the ease with which any firm, large or small, can get started.

As for wildfires, in an April 1999 Forrester survey of 47 marketing managers 77 percent said email marketing was crucial to their marketing plans, having found it as effective as affiliate programs, but much less expensive. An August 1999 study by IMT Strategies, a research and advisory firm focused on sales and marketing technology trends, preliminarily showed signing people up to receive email announcements sat at the top of their priority list. Why?

Quick Lead Generation. Email has quick output and quick response for lead generation.

Selectivity. Email offers the same list selectivity as traditional list rental.

Media Reinforcement. Email can be an adjunct to any media to quickly reinforce a message, product announcement, seminar date or trade show.

Cost Effective. Email is extremely cost effective on a cost per contact basis for customer acquisition.

Higher Response. Overall responses may be higher as only relevant materials will be sent which assures a more receptive audience to the offer.

Lower Costs. There are no production paper, or postage costs--only the cost of the Email server companies.

Privacy Issues. Subscribers choose to receive Email solicitation through a negative option given upon subscribing. Subscribers are also aware of the source of their name and are always given the choice to opt out. This addresses the privacy issue directly and again assures a responsive audience.

Customer Dialogue. As an interactive medium, Email establishes a dialogue with new and present customers. Repeated messages can create an effective brand awareness or a continued response from and conversation with the customer.

Trackable. Email is also a trackable medium, as you can direct responders to answer through many types of response vehicles.

No Postal Undeliverables. Undeliverables are quickly identified and an effort is made to correct them and resend.

Ask a different research company and you will get a different answer for the average response rate of opt-in email campaigns. Jupiter Communications will tell you 5 to 15 percent. Forrester will tell you 14 to 22 percent. Ask a different email marketer and get a different answer. Some are getting only 3 percent and some are getting 40 percent.