Email Marketing is the use of email in marketing communications. People who are unfamiliar with email marketing often wonder what all the fuss is about.  They thought that spam have killed email as a marketing vehicle.  And another reason why they think it is outdated is because of the many clever ways that we can communicate online using blogs, Twitter, Facebook and all other social media sites.

Although there are a lot of strategies now for marketing, email marketing still works because it allows targeting, it is data driven, it drives direct sales, it builds relationships, loyalty and trust and most of all it supports sales through other channels.

Modern email marketing services and solutions support database integration, segmentation and various other tricks and techniques for improving the targeting of outgoing messages. Advanced methods generate on-the-fly emails customized down to an individual recipient basis.

And every email campaign you send out generates a heap of actionable data you can use to refine your approach and messages.

Email promotions and offers generate immediate action: sales, downloads, inquiries, registrations, etc. Informative email newsletters and other emails send people to offline stores and events, prepare the way for catalogs, build awareness, contribute to branding, strengthen relationships, encourage trust and cement loyalty.

Convinced? But don’t get carried away…

Just like trees only bears fruit if managed properly, so is with email marketing. We know it works but you have to get the basics right. The basics of building a list of people who want to hear from you, crafting a message and ensuring the emails get through to those on that list. And when you have the basics right, there’s a whole spectrum of more sophisticated tactics you can employ to drive further success.

Now, several marketers used a lot of forms of advertising and they believe that it is not worth it to use email marketing anymore because of spam. There have been numerous challengers to email marketing’s throne, not the least of which is social media. However, email is still a vibrant, growing medium that has a future for a number of reasons.

Many people are getting very frustrated by how hard it is for them to make decent sales online via email marketing. Are they doing something wrong or has things really become that hard? In reality it is a combination of several things.

First of all the way to make email marketing work has changed for the simple fact that many consumers are getting used to the way many online marketers email. Another thing is that too many marketers are putting their eggs in one basket, thinking that a big list is the key to online profits. Some are even blasting email after email promoting a certain product, while their email list is getting tired of them.

You have to avoid the things that everyone else is doing online in order to make email marketing work for you. Responsible email marketing is based on the idea of permission. This is a complex issue and the subject of intense debate in the marketing community.

Essentially, you need an email address owner’s permission before you can send them a commercial email. If you don’t have this permission, then the recipients of your mail may well regard your message as spam.

Email has been around almost since the advent of the Internet. It’s a staple of the marketing world and one of the most commonly used forms. It’s still effective, both from a cost and conversion standpoint. Marketers should bear in mind that email marketing can co-exist with any marketing channel and it can help leverage social media and vice versa. Consumers are not choosing one medium over the other; they are just utilizing more mediums.

So for me, email marketing is not dying….it’s simply going up and working with any other medium so it doesn’t have its own spotlight anymore though it is still working effectively.

Technorati Tags: email marketing, email marketing software, opt in email marketing