Email marketing vs The Traditional Mail Shot: Where Should I Spend My Money?
In the past one of the most common strategies of reaching consumers with information concerning new products and up-dates regarding your industry and business in question was by post. Whether it be a customised letter, a pamphlet, a brochure or a news letter you could mail out information to existing clients or completely new potential customers by randomly selecting addresses to post your material to. This way of advertising and marketing still exists today, possibly most notably with banks mailing credit card advertisements and local firms doing localised mail shots. One of the reasons for the decline of the mail shot has been the advent of the world wide web, which introduced a brand new channel to reach consumers.
Together with building internet websites and ‘optimizing’ your website by making certain it reaches the top of search engine results for a certain key word search, email marketing is one of the most often used and commercially effective forms of internet marketing. Email marketing works in a similar way to postal mail shots: companies distribute information regarding their company, new products and special offers by email. This has in turn created a whole new industry of online marketing specialists who having had experience of the system and all its subtleties, are able to supply firms with effective online marketing advice.
Having said that, despite the increase of online marketing and more particularly email marketing, the mail shot as a method of advertising remains. This article compares the pros and cons for email marketing as opposed to the classic postal mail shot as a form of advertising in the Twenty-first century.
The advantages of email marketing
From an environmentalists point of view the first and most apparent benefit is that it is eco-friendly! It involves no papers and consequently doesn’t injure the environment. Whilst this might appeal to our ethical sensitivities however, it’s got, at the risk of being callous, a more commercially sensitive advantage in that a ‘green company’ is always perceived well by would-be customers. Aside from this there are far more economic advantages behind email marketing, such as the fact you don’t have to pay postage costs that are becoming ever increasingly pricey, you don’t have to shell out for paper and also you don’t have to pay for printing fees. When you don’t have to consider issues such as these you can consider reaching a worldwide target audience of hundreds or thousands of people, which due to practical and economic limitations would simply not be feasible via the medium of post. Furthermore, as opposed to the almost random manner in which mail shots are frequently delivered, you can be more picky in whom you target.
Additionally, one of perhaps the most essential advantages is that it is possible to analyse with far greater accuracy just how effective your campaigns are by keeping track of the number of people follow the link through to your web site from the e mail and go on to buy something. Lastly, one big advantage is that you can send out larger files and more information via email than by post. Sending out big or numerous catalogues would be severely cost prohibitive using post, but this doesn’t matter if you are making use of email you can therefore get more information to possible or existing clients with the hope they will buy from you.
The writer operates closely with on line marketing specialists KPI, who can help you with and help to make you competent in email marketing. They further supply a broad range of online marketing and advertising services including search engine optimization and social media services.
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