Terri draped her bags over her arms and ventured back to her SUV. She used her keyless remote to open the door and entered the driver’s side and buckled up. That’s when she noticed it.

The front window was multi-colored as sales flyer and handbills oozed color onto her windshield. She tried using her windshield wipers to clear off the debris, but it simply smeared the mess over the entire surface of the window making the mess more pronounced than when she started.

“Why would someone do this to me?” she said as she slapped her fist against the steering wheel.

To be fair, the individuals placing the flyers on the windshield probably didn’t know rain was coming and there certainly were more flyers than Terri was used to seeing, but the end result was a potential consumer who would never think of purchasing a product from whoever made a mess of her SUV.

This story is a bit like unwanted email marketing. People who are new to the Internet typically think of their email box as an extension of their mailbox. The hope is that the mail received would be beneficial and personal. The belief is that email is reserved for people you actually know who will send you electronic mail that you are thrilled to receive, yet time after time emails come from people and businesses they don’t know selling products they either don’t want or would never use and the email recipient becomes a very unhappy camper and are often disillusioned about the personal nature they thought was associated with email.

It’s as if the colorful email marketing is smeared across their computer screen and they wonder, “Why would someone do this to me?” In this type of case there is the underlying feeling that their privacy has been compromised. Some may even shake their heads wondering how anyone even found their email address.

This scenario emphasizes the need to provide an opt out methods for email marketing, but it still has the feel of junk mail, telemarketers or colorful flyers stuck on the windshield after a rainstorm ñ an undesirable nuisance.

Many businesses are using site registration as the means of capturing email addresses. When a customer receives email marketing from these businesses they should already know about the business and their products or services.

This type of email marketing is much better received and carries with it both goodwill and a measure of trust. You may start with a smaller list, but the recipients tend to like you better.

Most marketing experts would likely rank Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies as the number one marketing mechanism for online businesses. However, it is email marketing that comes in second. The reason this marketing technique is so highly touted is because it doesn’t wait for business to trickle in. Email marketing takes your message directly to the people providing a sense of immediacy and purpose.

SEO strategies are essential for the long term viability of your marketing strategy, but for the most significant return on investment (ROI) email marketing has consistently held an edge over other marketing strategies such as Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising or banner advertising.

Email lists that are organically grown typically hold the greatest ROI, but some online businesses have found a modicum of success using rented or purchased lists, but there is always a price.

The reason many businesses look for lists that have already been compiled by third parities is because they can begin to market immediately. The problem many encounter with this strategy is that many of those on the email list may not be very happy with their private information being made available to the highest bidder. Recipients may also be hostile to any overtures from unknown companies.

You will discover that the best response you receive will be a direct result of interacting with existing, satisfied customers. They are the ones who already have an affinity for your product and do not tend to view your emails as unwanted material or spam. 

The propagation of spam has made email marketing a bit more of a challenge for online businesses, which has placed a greater emphasis on trust, worthwhile correspondence and value for the existing customer. 

Another reason purchased or rented lists are suspect with recipients is that legitimate email delivery is either personal or opt-in. If recipients have not signed up for the email in question they will not likely be excited to receive it. These unhappy recipients can (and often will) report your email as spam and you could be blocked from being able to send future emails – not just to the recipient who reported you, but also to any others that may be using the email service provider (e.g. Yahoo, MSN, etc.).

The value of email marketing is well noted and it can be tempting to take shortcuts from which to glean potential customers. In the end you may be gambling with your potential to send email to customers in the future if hostile recipients view your company email as spam.

Since every internet user receives a huge amount of spam email messages, the time for distinguishing the legal opt-in subscriptions messages from spam has increased considerably. Therefore it’s highly possible for the user to erase the genuine messages with the spam messages.

Although these facts are true, the “Death of email marketing” as some internet marketers call it, will not happen. Solid proofs for that are the many corporations, small businesses, and home business entrepreneurs running successful and profitable email campaigns.

All these successful email marketing campaigns do have something in common, some specific principals that any online business entrepreneurs should incorporate into their marketing plans.

1. Personalization. Research has proven that when Personalization is used the click through rate of the email increases dramatically. The friendly tone is the key to build rapport with the subscriber. Most of the autoresponder services and email software contain this feature. One thing must be specified though. There must be no exaggeration in the personalization otherwise the results will be reversed. 

2. Email marketing schedules. The frequency of the mailings is extremely important. Although it seems tempting to send emails daily, with that strategy many of the subscribers will unsubscribe, especially if the mails contain advertisements most of the times and not useful information. One of the best email marketing tactics is to broadcast one time per week and not exceed two times per week maximum.

3. Which is the Best Day for campaigns? The answer is simple, Friday. The internet user has the whole weekend to check his email and distinguish the spam with the luxury of time, something not possible in other days of the week.

4. Use of double opt-in. The subscribers who signed double opt-in are extremely targeted, because they verified their interest for the newsletter and they are more disposed to buy the products or services the email list owner recommends. Plus, this feature provides maximum safety to newsletter owner from spam complaints and the relevant consequences.

5. Recommend not sell, plus unique content. The internet user searches for information on the internet. The same happens with the user’s email. The subscription happens for that reason for over 95% of the times. The messages must contain a combination of useful information and personal recommendations of tested and proven products or services.

6. No Co-Registrations.  This is the easy way to boost the number of the subscribers on the email list. Co-Registrations offer forms to users with many other email list owners with different fields of interest. The danger of spam accusations relies on that method and the effectiveness is questionable.

7. Buying leads to send emails. Another hyped email marketing technique. The list owner who bought the leads will not be clearly informed how the “subscriber’s” emails have been acquired.  Have they been gathered with ethical opt-in methods or email script crawler has been used? There is no control on that tactic and here too relies the danger of spam accusations.

8. No Red flag words. Words and phrases like free, discount, bonus, make money, opportunity, income .e.t.c. lead the email to spam folders. These phrases should be avoided at all costs. There is software that provides spam check features for that and free services as well.

Enterprising marketers have found the Internet a fertile ground to launch their products and services. They employ what is known as bulk email marketing or sending advertisements and infomercials to email users. In the 1990’s, this method went unchecked and unmonitored. This resulted in the birth of the term spam mail- unsolicited email. And the problem goes on today although measures are being taken to stop spammers. 

To ensure the success of bulk email marketing strategies, the sender must have a clean list of targeted email addresses. This wills not only help the company assess the success of their campaigns; it will more importantly curb the risk of breaking the anti-spamming laws. Several US states and countries around the world have already enacted these laws to protect the public against unwanted mail. 

Through the use of available software, generating a useful addressee list is fast and easy. Targeted email addresses can be extracted from URL’s and email service providers. Another option is to purchase a ready made list. This list usually comes from email service providers and agencies that conduct surveys.

Although sending out magazines and newsletters to millions of addresses through bulk emailing is free, companies cannot afford to risk the equity of their brands by offending people. Your email address lists should only contain those that signify they want to receive email from you. Otherwise, your unsolicited advertising will be classified as spam mail.

Another benefit of email marketing is that it doesn’t cost anything. Large-scale mailings can really add up cost wise, but not so with permission based email marketing. Because email is instant, so is customer response. Usually, if a customer is reading an email, likes what he or she is reading, they are more likely to click a link and make an online purchase. He or she is not likely to close out his or her email and come down to your store, especially if your store isn’t located anywhere near where he or she is. Email marketing is also effective because it widens your customer base. With email marketing, we are no longer held down by our locations.

One way to make sure that email marketing doesn’t turn into a flop for you is to use permission based email marketing. This is gaining permission from the people you are going to be sending to. The reason for this is because of spammers. Because of these people who send off emails that are not permission based email marketing, there are many times when even your emails might be considered to be spam and deleted. Since your lively hood depends on people coming to or shopping in your store, this can be very harsh and cost you money by having to use other forms of marketing. However, if you are using permission based email marketing, there is no need to worry because this form of email marketing requires getting the email address of your customers with their permission to send them email.

So, how do you effectively use permission based email marketing? Create the messages and set them to go out to your customers though an email list automatically. Get the name and email of people by maybe offering something for free. Tracking codes are useful as they give you numbers to show you whether your marketing strategy is working. Keep emails in a friendly tone, this insures that customers are more than willing to read your email than if it was in a mono tone or unfriendly one.

Certainly there are sources where you can develop an online group at little or no cost. By following this approach you may be well served at the startup of your online business, but as it grows you may want to invest in software that aids in the effective delivery of your email marketing messages while providing a greater degree of flexibility in the final presentation.

Arial Software

The software application from Arial provides a laundry list of services that include templates for highly developed email messages with photos, logos and headers. The software can be toggled to account for the expertise of the user. Essentially this means that if you are not very skilled at using the software you can select a beginning setting and more assistance is provided to allow you to successfully access the functions you are seeking to use. The cost for the software can range from just under $1,000 to over $5,000 depending on your needs and subscriber base.

PoliteMail

This service was developed to work exclusively with Outlook Express, and works on a ëper email’ fee. The basic package is free to use and has a maximum distribution capability of 10,000. The caveat is that even the free edition requires a fee for the emails distributed through the system. According to PoliteMail, “”For less than a penny per message, you can send to thousands to customers and prospects.”

The professional version of PoliteMail is $495 and it is also subject to fees for each delivered email. It has a larger capacity for subscription and offered additional premium features.

EmailLabs

EmailLabs represents itself as a high-end email marketing solution and unlike other services takes a different approach to service availability, “EmailLabs does not offer a 30- or 60-day free trial account as do manyÖ providers in the industry.” They do provide a demo for clients to tour and their list of clients is impressive. No pricing structure was available for review.

While these three email marketing software solutions are varied in their approach they are also only a small number of potential providers. This article is not an endorsement of any particular product simply a means of alerting you to a variety of possibilities as you consider email marketing as a means of furthering the objectives of your online company.

You have to understand that not even your most loyal customers are going to fully review every email-marketing item you send.

Those that do read the email from your business may not be at a place where they need your product or service at the tie you send it.

So what is the point in continuing to send email marketing items if there is only a relatively small chance of response?

The primary reason for email marketing is what I like to call ‘Impression Marketing’. The email you send may hit a few people at the right time and a purchase is taken care of. However, in most cases the end user is left with another impression of your business (even if they don’t actually open the email). Since this is true you should always make sure the subject line includes the name of your business first followed by a compelling title for the email message.

Because we all receive a variety of spam messages the use of your business name gives the email added weight in the eyes of the recipient. They may not read it, but they are likely to be less hostile to email from someone they have done business with before. Besides it gets your name before the customers again.

Impression Marketing is a bit like Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In both cases you do a lot of hard work with very little in the way of immediate results. In both cases these two marketing functions take a long-range view knowing there will come a time when the hard work will pay off.

Impression Marketing takes your efforts and brings results much later than you expect. While that may sound bad, it also brings results that are often far greater than your effort.

This can be seen in the planting of a corn seed. The single seed grows into a stalk that can produce more than one ear of corn. The net result is a yield of hundreds of kernels of corn in exchange for the one kernel planted. Again, the corn doesn’t produce a stock and fully developed ears overnight, but it does provide a great return – given time.

The same is true for Impression Marketing. When you give it time and consistently maintain that long-range view the use of SEO and email marketing begin to make sense. You may not see the traffic you hope for immediately, but you may be able to view your stats in the future and see that looking long range is a great way to prepare for your future.

So, now the question comes up, is it possible to make money though email marketing? Is there enough of a chance that someone is going to click on the links in the email, that they are going to even open the email to make it worth while to do email marketing? The answer is yes. Email marketing, just like everything else, can be successful if it is done correctly.

So whether you believe it or not, you’re willing to give email marketing a try. Good, that’s the first step to becoming a successful email marketer. Next, you might now be asking yourself what to market. If you don’t have your own products, there are affiliate programs that can help you get started with email marketing. If you still have questions, take a look at forums, or blogs, or even websites that discuss email marketing. Be sure to check to make sure that the site you are getting information on internet marketing is a decent site.

There are a lot of different scams out there that promise quick success through email marketing. For some people, it can be very profitable, but that isn’t always the case, especially if you come across someone who is offering you a large salary right away using email marketing.

Email marketing, as with any marketing, requires time to build a true customer base and to be accepted. Now that you know a little about email marketing, you’ve decided to give it a try. You did research on email marketing, and looked into programs that might help you get started and keep going strong. Head out and enjoy. The sky is the limit with this inexpensive and effective way to market.

Email marketing is truly the way of the future. So don’t hesitate and get out there and use what you have learned about email marketing to start bringing in the money and give yourself a little peace of mind.