Email Marketing - How Best To Manage and Distribute Your Messages

This holiday season 15 percent of consumers in the US plan to buy online, spending an average of $585. That's 9 percent more revenue for online merchants in comparison to last year's results.

A recent report estimates that Canadians will spend half a billion dollars online for gifts this holiday season. Even by conservative estimates the total number predicted is double the $282 million predicted for Christmas, 1999.

Whatever way you look at it - doing business over the net is growing at incredible rates and email marketing is becoming a 'given' element of many marketing campaigns. It should come as no surprise that tools to help us manage our email lists and distribution are becoming increasingly important.

The challenge in incorporating email marketing into a campaign is determining what type of email service best suits your business needs, today and in the long-term.

There are two main choices when establishing and maintaining email marketing programs: A desktop email marketing application or an email campaign submission service.

Let me describe the two options in greater detail -

Email Marketing Application- Tools such as these allow you to create, manage and distribute your own customized email campaigns. Cost is usually a one-time software purchase. This approach is best suited to those companies with a fairly well defined target market and corresponding email distribution list. This approach can also be used if your target audience is growing and/or change. The software applications available allow the user to build, maintain and change their own email distribution lists, create rich messages and distribute your campaigns.

I would recommend this type of product to those businesses with a pre-identified target audience and an ability to access a distribution list to reach this audience. With a desktop application your original investment provides you with the flexibility to manage and define your own e-mail distribution lists - this is the type of service for you if you're interested in owning and maintaining your own list and using this list as part of the intellectual property of your business.

Campaign Submission Service - When you use this type of service you are contracting a third-party to provide you with the interface to your customers and/or target audience. The agent will distribute your message to one or several opt-in e-mail lists that have been provided based upon some stated interest on the part of the recipients. These are lists of people who have registered for certain websites, e-zines or newsletters or have asked to receive information via e-mail and have stated their interested in certain subjects.

The agent or submission service will work with you to determine the list that best matches your product, service or announcement - working together you will use pre-existing lists to create a target email audience for your company's use. The submission service will receive your message and distribute to one or more of the email lists - the quality control element in place is that you are sending relevant information to recipients that have already stated an interest in a related subject matter and most likely the message will not be viewed as SPAM. Cost usually runs on an 8 to 30 cent per email sent charge.

The submission service allows you to work with experts in the field of gathering e-mail distribution lists based on subject(s) interest and the application of this technology in receiving information. Each time you want to distribute a message you rely on these service providers for their advice, lists and expertise in distributing your information. If you're new to the e-mail marketing forum and your business does not yet have a substantial e-mail distribution list - this service may be able to fill the gap and get you into the game.

A couple of items to keep in mind - the overall cost of your e-mail marketing efforts, campaign tracking reports and the future role of email marketing in your overall direct marketing plans.

There are plenty of choices in the marketplace - educate yourself and make the best decision for your organization.

About The Author

Karen Fegarty is with MailWorkZ. MailWorkZ has been instrumental in developing new email technology. MailWorkZ's award winning email marketing tool, is key to reaching your customers in a highly efficient, personalized manner. Reach Karen at karen@mailworkz.com

---

How Autoresponders Boost Sales By Up To 400%

Imagine going to bed and waking up in the morning... Read More

8 Quick, Hot Reasons You Should Offer an E-mail Course Today

1. E-mail courses are generally quick and easy to create.... Read More

The Power Of Email Marketing

Have You Considered The Power Of Email MarketingOld vs. NewIf... Read More

Are Opt-in Email Lists Still Valuable in this SPAM Age?

One of the things that the introduction of blogs has... Read More

Spam Check Your Newsletter for FREE

Spam is a bigger and bigger problem nowadays. Recently Ralph... Read More

10 Terrific Ways To Enlarge Your Subscriber Base

1. Create a unique selling proposition (USP).Developing a USP for... Read More

The Best Way To Promote Your Website, or Anything Else!

Have you ever wondered how some websites get so many... Read More

The Ultimate Business Network: One Secret Power of the Masters

Dear Friend:If you're out there networking and have been for... Read More

Internet Marketing Strategies: 20 Secrets To Using Free Autoresponder Courses To Magnify Your Sales

Among internet marketing strategies that most marketers are not using... Read More

Protect Yourself from Being Accused of Sending SPAM

Email is a vital part of doing business online, but... Read More

Viral Marketing - Your Key to Gaining New Clients

Email newsletters are an excellent means of promoting the products... Read More

Effective Email Marketing

I've been sending out email camapigns for clients for over... Read More

8 Tips to Increase Response in Email

Opt in email marketing is no different than normal direct... Read More

Autoresponder Tips

An autoresponder is useful for, well, responding to people who... Read More

Market Your Business through Newsletters

Most business people on the web subscribe to at least... Read More

How to Start A Money Making Newsletter

Writing and publishing a successful newsletter is perhaps the most... Read More

The Name Squeeze ? Should You? Shouldn?t You?

This is a little "beauty" of an idea if you... Read More

Are You Making These Email Mistakes?

Every day, I receive at least 300 emails. I will... Read More

How To Set Up an Ezine Encyclopedia

Do you read all your Ezines? Or do you file... Read More

Tips to Bounce-Proof Your Email List

Keeping your email lists fresh is critical to the success... Read More

Spam! Whats the Real Problem

Most people now know the official definition of spam- Unsolicited... Read More

Email Etiquette: How To Send Emails People Will Read

You may remember a time before there was email?a time... Read More

Autoresponders, Which Autoresponder Is Right For Your Business?

An autoresponder is a software program that automatically sends a... Read More

What Is An Email Signature And What Do I Do With It?

You hear it all the time... email signature, sig file,... Read More

A Lesson In Email: The Money Is In The List... With The Back-End Sales

Firstly, back-end sales is eMail Marketing at its best, so... Read More

Do You Build Or Buy? (Tips On Leadgeneration)

Every marketer needs leads, they are the lifeblood of your... Read More

Click for Success!

Being online for the last five or so years has... Read More

Taking Care of Busines... E-mail

In this digital day and age, communicating through email is... Read More

Autoresponder Services that Boost Your Business

In the world of ecommerce, millions of sites are fiercely... Read More

Lumpy Mail Gets Your Message Through

When it comes to your gravy, lumps are bad. When... Read More

Autoresponders - One Simple Trick That Will Improve Your Results

Autoresponders, or responders, are simply programs that allow you to... Read More

Add Email To Your Marketing Mix

If you are serious about adding email to your marketing... Read More

Email Marketing Best Practices

Now that we've explored the importance of sending permission-based email,... Read More