Email marketing evolved from direct marketing. Before the internet was introduced to a, generally speaking, unsuspecting world, direct marketing was the king of salesmanship-through-print methods. Remember those times when you’d receive unsolicited mails in your mailbox – your actual, real, brick and mortar mailbox, that is? Remember reading some of them? A lot were actually junk that never invited further scrutiny, but quite a few were able to win your interest, and perhaps, they even made you say “I want whatever this guy is offering!”
When the age of the internet began, direct mail marketers found a new venue for their previous tactics, albeit with some adjustments. It was apparent that the internet will use words as the primary vehicles of communication, much like direct mail marketing before it. The transition was easy. But it had to be customized to suit the new medium.
* Writing for an online audience is very much different than writing for print consumers. Online users are more impatient, and they have more choices available for them. Hence, writing in short paragraphs, simple but engaging sentences, and using bulleting and numbering as much as possible, has been integrated with email marketing campaigns.
* Spam filters have emerged as an email marketers enemy. Hence, unsolicited emails are no longer an option. Opt-in pages have been developed to ensure that no spam complaints will be forwarded. Spam complaints can severely cripple a businessman’s email marketing campaign.
* Spam filters, as well as some technical issues, have gravely decreased the deliverability rate of marketing mails. Indeed, direct mails have a higher deliverability rate than emails.
* Also, direct mails enjoy a higher readability rate than emails. Since direct mails are encapsulated in physical form, they can be read in bed, while taking breakfast, are while on the go. Emails can only be read in front of a PC terminal.
Despite these differences, email marketing still possessed some features that make it a more efficient alternative to direct mails.
* Email marketing is a more inexpensive option. Sending emails is far cheaper than actually printing and mailing real letters.
* Generating leads for an email marketing campaign is easier. People are more likely to leave their email addresses rather then real, physical address. The former is a safer and more secure choice.
* Email marketing has one distinct advantage over direct mails: multiple levels of follow-ups. Direct mails have but one chance to convince the recipient to purchase a product or avail of a service. Email marketing can hook the prospect into subscribing to a mailing list, ensuring in the process that he or she would receive future emails for future offers. Additionally, the recipients of emails can be led to a website for further conversion possibilities.
It is essential to look at email marketing based on its history and how it developed. Not only will you get a clearer understanding of this strategy, you’d also be able to avoid the pitfalls its previous incarnation experienced.
Basically, you only have one shot.
Though email marketing, as we have discussed above, offers more levels of follow ups, you have one shot to hook your prospects, not necessarily to make an immediate purchase, but to at least allow themselves to become your leads for future offers.
In this light, email marketing is said to have two purposes:
1. To win some sales; and
2. To garner some leads
Just because your sales rate would remain low after you employ an email marketing campaign doesn’t mean it is a failure. The leads you will manage to get will serve you well come your future offers. Additionally, the size of your mailing list can be used as a bargaining point in many projects you could embark on in this, the wonderful world of internet marketing.
