Email Marketing Explained – How and Why it Works

Email Marketing seems to be the latest trend in business communication – and it’s certainly a tried and tested way to help boost sales for your business.  But what does it mean exactly, how does it work, and should you consider doing it yourself?  This short article will answer these questions.

The basic premise behind email marketing is simple:  by sending your customers or prospects a regular newsletter by email, you’re keeping your business fresh in their minds.  So next time they need your particular product or service, they’ll think of you first – before your competitors. 

Let’s take a couple of examples.  Let’s say you run a business offering general building maintenance.  Every month you could send your customers a short newsletter with a few top tips around the general topic of building maintenance.  If it’s autumn, you could remind them that now is a good time to get their gutters cleaned out before winter sets in.  If it’s spring you could remind them that now is a good time to tidy up the garden.  As well as providing a short, interesting newsletter full of handy information, you might just prompt them to contact you to take care of this work for them.

What if you were selling children’s clothes from your website?  As autumn sets in, you could mention the jumpers and fleeces you’re selling.  In summer, you can talk about the swimsuits and beach robes.  A colourful, info-packed newsletter arriving in your customer’s emailbox at the right time can prompt them to visit your site straightaway and buy something almost on impulse. 

It really does work.  And the beauty of the Immediasite system is that it only takes a few minutes to put your email newsletter together and send it out.  Best of all, you can check the results to find out who clicked through to your website from the newsletter.  Even if they don’t buy from you straightaway, it shows they may be interested.  You can then follow up with them by phone or email.  You can also target specific groups with email newsletters geared to their particular interests.

One last point:  before you send any kind of email communication, you should always have the permission of the recipient otherwise your message could be classed as ‘Spam’.  With the Immediasite system, your site visitors can ‘opt in’ (or ‘subscribe’) to your newsletter.  This gives you permission to add their details to your database and start sending them information – they can easily unsubscribe if they want to.