Email Newsletters

E-mail newsletter marketing is a type of direct marketing that makes use of electronic mail as its communicating medium. E-mail marketing is regularly used as a means of communicating messages about commercial or fundraising efforts to a large audience, and one of the best ways to achieve this is through the use of e-mail newsletters. In the broadest sense, e-mail newsletters need to be signed up for, subscribed to or opted-in two, and then the owner of the e-mail newsletter will send periodic messages to everyone on the membership list, usually on a pre-determined basis. Some e-mail newsletters go out daily, weekly or monthly, while others only go out when there is something specific to say.

The term e-mail marketing, which is the foundation for e-mail newsletters, is often used to refer to the following characteristics:

• Sending out e-mail messages with the primary purpose of enhancing a specific relationship between merchants and their current or past customers, as well as to encourage loyalty from customers and repeat business,
• Sending out e-mail messages with the purpose of acquiring new potential customers, or in order to convince current and recent customers to purchase something new,
• Adding advertisements to e-mail messages that are sent by other companies to their list of customers, and then sending those e-mails over the internet,

E-mail marketing through the use of email newsletters has become popular among many companies, individuals and marketing endeavors for a number of reasons. There are a variety of advantages that are associated with e-mail marketing, especially when e-mail newsletters are involved. Some of these advantages include:

• The fact that mailing lists provide marketers with the ability to distribute a lot of information to a wide range of customers from a specific market or group at a cost that is relatively low,
• The fact that mailing lists and email newsletters allow for an exact ROI or return on investment to be tracked,
• The fact that the delivery time is short for e-mail messages and email newsletters in comparison to advertisements and newsletters that are mailed normally,
• The fact that compared to other media investments like direct mail and printed newsletter marketing, email newsletters are much more cost effective and less expensive overall.
• Email newsletters allow advertisers to push the message to the audiences rather than relying on a customer to visit the website such as in website based advertising.
• Email newsletters can be easily tracked. Advertisers can use web bugs, auto responders, bounce messages, unsubscribe requests, click throughs and read receipts in order to measure both positive and negative responses and open rates as well as to correlate sales through marketing,
• Through email newsletter marketing, advertisers are capable of generating repeat business both automatically and affordably as well,
• Through email newsletter marketing, advertisers will be capable of reaching much more substantial numbers of e-mail subscribers that have opted in to receive the communication. Opting in means that they have consented to receiving e-mail correspondence from you on subjects that interest them,
• Because over half of all internet users access email on a single typical day, using email newsletters as a marketing endeavor means reaching out to many more people than other means of advertising or marketing,
• Specific interaction with messages is capable of triggering other email newsletter messages to be delivered, or even other events, such as updating the recipient's profile in order to indicate their interest in a specific interest category for example,
• Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of all for this type of marketing is that it is completely paper free, and therefore eco friendly.

There are also some disadvantages that are associated with email marketing through email newsletters and using this marketing means to communicate with people. While many companies use email newsletters as a means of communicating with their existing customers and past customers, there are also companies that send unsolicited email messages to large groups of people in the form of spam. Internet system administrators often consider themselves to be responsible for dealing with abuse of the net, including the sending of spam messages. Most administrators possess what is a passionate dislike for receiving spam, which is defined as any email message that was unsolicited. An entirely normal response to spamming is to take down an entire corporate website if they can trace the spam back to its creator. Most internet service providers do not tolerate spam, and their contracts permit such rash actions meaning that the spammer has no resource if he or she is caught and punished for the act.

Illicit email marketing actually predates the legitimate versions of email marketing and email newsletter marketing. Because criminal spam operations have long been billing themselves as legitimate businesses, real legitimate businesses have had difficulty establishing themselves as legitimate. Sometimes email newsletters and spam look similar, so people have difficulty distinguishing between the two. This is not because email newsletter marketing is nefarious by any means, but rather because illegitimate spammers are constantly trying to pass themselves off as the real deal.

One of the most effective techniques for establishing an email newsletter is to require a double opt in method, which requires that potential recipients manually confirm that they requested the email newsletters by clicking on a unique link in an e-mail message and then entering a unique code that confirms that yes, they actually did request the information in question. Responsible auto responder companies and email marking companies regularly utilize this particular double opt in method in order to confirm each of their requests for an email newsletter before they add those names and e-mail addresses to their member list.

Legitimate companies that are considering the use of email newsletter marketing need to make sure that the program that they use does not violate spam laws in the country that they are operating within. For example, the CAN-SPAM act is the United States Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act. In addition to the CAN-SPAM act, there is also a European Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations act. Companies must also follow the guidelines set by their internet service provider's acceptable use policy and terms of service as well. Even if a company adheres to all of the applicable laws, the company can still be blacklisted by an ISP if their administrators perceive the email newsletters as spam.

Opt In E-mail Newsletters

Opt in email newsletters are known as permission marketing. This is a form of advertising through the email where the recipient has consented ahead of time to receiving the email messages. This is one of several methods of advertising via email that have been developed by marketers in order to eliminate the numerous disadvantages that were associated with email marketing in the past.

Opt in email newsletters and other email marketing is evolving into a technology utilizing a handshake protocol that exists between the receiver and the sender. This email newsletter or email marketing system is intended to create a higher degree of satisfaction between the marketer and the consumers. If opt-in email newsletters and opt-in email advertising are used, then the material that is emailed to the consumers will be anticipated and looked forward to. It is assumed, then, that the consumer is interested in receiving the material, making these emails unlike the unsolicited advertisements that spam marketers are sending. Ideally, opt in email newsletters and advertisements will be much more personal, and will be relevant in some way to the consumer rather than untargeted in the way that spam email messages are.

Email newsletters are a popular example for what permission marketing can achieve. Email newsletters are sent to the customers of a business, or to subscribers that are looking to receive certain information. These email newsletters are capable of informing customers and other subscribers about upcoming events, special promotions, special deals for members, industry news, and all kinds of additional information. While email newsletters are specifically designed to be informative and useful or relevant to the subscribers, they can also contain advertisements and marketing efforts that will allow the owner of the newsletter to sell more products or services in the process.

When a marketer has a foundation of contact information from users that opted in, they can send their promotional materials out automatically in the form of email newsletters. They can also segment their promotions out in order to reach out to a myriad of different market segments, making email newsletters a good way to promote your business without your email marketing endeavors looking like purely advertisement.

Email newsletters originally began when companies created newsletters to serve their clients and their employees by sharing information about upcoming events, current highlights and the latest company news. With today's website and blogging capabilities, many companies have turned their once paper newsletters into web based versions which allows more people including customers and employees to access the latest news and most critical information about the company. Email newsletters offer a number of benefits that make it better than printed newsletters, and email newsletters can reach out both to current customers and potential customers as well. Here are six benefits that are associated with email newsletters and their many capabilities.

1 - Email newsletters can allow you to be regarded as an expert. By allowing your readers access to information about the latest trends in your industry, you can allow your customers to keep up with research, reports and news, allowing you to position yourself as an authority in your field in the process. This is a great way for you to position yourself and your company as an industry expert as well as a market leader.

2 - Email newsletters can teach your customers and clients how to do something brand new. Most customers and readers will receive how to articles well. How two articles are not only well received, but they are also capable of providing unique content without bogging your newsletter down with reports, facts, figures and statistics. Any topic that is related to your industry can turn your email newsletter into an even more readable marketing method.

3 - Email newsletters can allow you to promote your brand. The more consistency that you can deliver in your newsletter, the easier you will find it to promote your brand, raising awareness for your brand in the process. Your theme, your logo and your colors can all be incorporated into your email newsletters, encouraging a connection with your customers in the process.

4 - Email newsletters can allow you to spend far less money on your marketing endeavors. No matter what type of marketing budget you have, email newsletters are low cost and simple to implement and they create an immediate impact as a result. Many programs for email newsletters are equipped with tracking software, allowing you to see how many of your newsletters were read and how many of your links were clicked through.

5 - Email newsletters can help you build more web traffic. Direct links to blog posts, articles and your website in general should be included in your email newsletters so that readers can quickly and easily get to your website.

6 - Email newsletters can help you share new content with current and future customers. Email newsletters can link back to articles and other content on your website, making it much easier for you to share your content. All you have to do is add a "Forward this to a friend" button and you will increase readership by easily allowing your readers to pass your content on to other people that they know as well.