Email Marketing Is Easy, basically, a targeted mass-mailing via email. Email marketing may be used to market to new clients or introduce new products to existing client bases. It can also be used to inform clients via newsletters. All the above-mentioned activities are legitimate business efforts provided that you comply with certain rules.
If you choose to use the above list instead (you know “25 million guaranteed AOL emails addresses for only 19.95 + shipping”) or you don’t notify the people on your mailing list or use other shady techniques, then you could be considered a spammer. You are sending spam, bulk mail, and unsolicited email and are the main enemy of virtue and all things life. It is not difficult to be called a spammer.
After your message has been rejected, you will be placed on zillions more black lists.
Read Also: Successful HTML Email Marketing Campaigns
Sounds A Little Risky
Opt-in email advertising is obviously more cost-effective than direct marketing via mail, door-to-door sales, or telephone marketing. You can easily spend a lot of money on postage, printing, envelopes, paper, and printing. Door-to-door sales require the payment of commissions. Because people are more inclined to make cold calls, telemarketing often results in high long-distance costs.
So why not use just my personal email or my business’s mail server along with some mailing software?
People did exactly this in the early days and years of email marketing. They would combine all their emails into a basic spreadsheet, fire up a mail merging software, and voila! There were thousands of emails flying away.
The scenario today is definitely possible. But let me tell you, in a simple set, what could actually happen.
One of the many organizations that monitor the internet can intercept emails sent by servers close to you. They will list you as a threat to humanity to keep the civilized globe safe from spammers, viruses, or other vermin. They will also add you to a list of threats to humanity. Mel, their IT man, creates an antispam system that links to that, not for profit’s database. Did I mention that you’re now a known spammer? You can also block your emails. Your company might have problems communicating via email. IT personnel will become agitated and even fired.
It’s not so good. Other things that could happen include setting up an opt-in/opt-out system; some laws make it difficult for subscribers to unsubscribe in some states. Your emails will also need to be formatted in a professional, pleasing manner.
Last but not least, it is time-consuming and annoying to send thousands of emails, manage lists, subscribe, and unsubscribe people, and all this while also managing email subscriptions. Either you automate it as much as possible or you can outsource the task to someone who does it professionally.
Folks, while I promote the “do everything in-house” approach, I do not support outsourcing. When it comes to mass mail, I advise you to stay away from it. Let the professionals do what they do.
If you’re concerned about cost, the email marketing service fee will still be cheaper than traditional options.
What to look out for in an email marketing company?
Automating Your Subscribe or Unsubscribe Requests
Many email marketing companies provide exact HTML codes that you can copy to your site to enable you to place a subscription request form on your site. The best services include a link at bottom of every email which allows subscribers to update their information, unsubscribe or unsubscribe.
Personalization in Emails
Many email marketing services offer the option to merge mail capabilities, which allows you to personalize every message. More advanced services allow you to use custom fields in addition to the standard first and last names.
Bounce back Email Handling
Bouncebacks can be emails sent to accounts that don’t exist, have too many users, are blocked, full, or are unavailable. You’ll receive an email response saying that your message has not been received. All email list management software programs can send and manage subscribers and unsubscribes. However, you will not be able to handle Bouncebacks emails. This can cause a lot of problems if your email list is large. You should make sure that your email software can manage Bouncebacks. When a Bounceback arrives, the software takes note of the address. If there are other Bouncebacks, an email address will be sent.
This removal capacity is crucial because spammers may blacklist you if they receive too many Bouncebacks. This is something to avoid.
HTML Email
HTML emails have been available for some time. Many email marketing companies support the sending of HTML emails that include graphics and formatted texts. This is something that you’ll definitely want to be looking for.
Some users may not be able to view HTML emails. This is typically between 10-20%. Instead of looking at your attractive email, they might view a string of code. This 10%-20% of email list managers will open an email from you, and they might be more inclined to call your spammer.
Multi-part MIME can be used to avoid this. Multi-part MIME is used to send HTML emails. Users who don’t have the ability to view HTML messages can still read the email.