Email marketing has long been a preferred online marketing technique for many companies and businesses. The direct manner in which companies can communicate with their customer base make it a very effective method for driving sales and leads. That\’s not to say email marketing doesn\’t come with it\’s disadvantages. Read on to decide whether your business would benefit from an email campaign.

There are certainly a wide range of advantages to running an email marketing campaign – not just online, but offline as well. Undoubtedly one of the greatest advantages is that you have the potential to reach a large number of customers worldwide who will be interested in your product whilst using minimal effort. Of course it is possible to reach a worldwide audience through other advertising platforms such as print media, television and radio however it should go without saying that the costs involved would be prohibitive for most companies. Even if you had the budget to advertise using these methods you are still left with the problem of not being able to target your audience. Email marketing is far more successful at targeting potential customers all at the same time.

The other main advantage is that it is also an extremely affordable means of marketing your company\’s products and services. The outgoing expenses associated with managing an email campaign are minimal, even if you make use of a specialst email marketing company you will find that your outgoings aren\’t that high. Expense can be reduced further if you already have a pre-approved list of customer email addresses. If this is not the case then you will have to go about acquiring some. One way of doing this would be to approach a mailing list broker who would be able to provide you with email addresses from a particular demographic in return for a fee. The costs of this could vary depending on your particular business sector. The other alternative would be to provide a means by which current customers can sign up to your mailing list via your website. It is crucial that you have the permission of those who you are sending email to otherwise this unsolicited mail will just be treated as spam.

The only significant costs involved in running an email campaign are those associated with the actual design of the email itself. The more elaborate the design, the more it is likely to cost. Try to strike a balance between having an attractive design and one which does not drown out the message of the products and services you are looking to promote.

The main problem with email marketing is the risk that it might be perceived as spam. If you are diligent in the way you build up your mailing list and combine this with a well written and well designed email then this will help to minimise the chance of your mail getting disregarded. Make sure that your emails always contain the option for someone to unsubscribe. This may sound counterintuitive, but there\’s no use wasting bandwidth sending emails to unreceptive customers. There is always the chance that they will sign back up at a later date.

Author Bio: Trevor Richards writes on behalf of Extravision, a UK Email marketing company.

Category: Advice
Keywords: email marketing, email campaign, ecommerce, internet marketing, e-commerce, email, sales