Anyone running an online business needs customers. Plus, they want to keep their customers informed about their products and services. Without customers, a business does not exist… it is set-up for certain failure.
Informing Customers
Marketing techniques are used to tell customers about business. That is marketing, and every business needs to advertise, market and promote itself. Email marketing is one of the most popular and most effective ways of promoting a business. Learn how and why doing it properly is critical.
The Difference Between Spam and Marketing
Lots of businesses rely on email marketing. Spotting the differences between spam and email can sometimes be a bit tricky.
Spam is any email that is unsolicited. Spam, quite simply is email that you haven’t specifically requested. The trick is that spam emails can be useful; but, they are not “permission” based.
Most spam emails are nothing more than advertising emails or “adverts”. Sending out spam emails will cause more damage to your business than good. People are not stupid, and they understand the look and feel of spam. If their email program does not pick it up, they will certainly caste them to their spam folder.
Internet marketing is all about establishing relationships with people. A business is not going to establish a relationship with someone if that business is sending spam.
How to Avoid Spam
Sending emails without explicit consent to customers will signicantly damage any chance of success in Internet or affiliate marketing (two terms, same meaning). This is why a business needs to ask for permission before it sends any messages.
Besides, it’s against the law to send unsolicited or spam emails. The US Federal Trade Commission established the rules, and a business does not want to get on their list of spammers. It won’t just alienate , it will also mean that the business is breaking the law. Email accounts could end up getting black listed which makes it difficult to send any email to people.
It’s important that all businesses use opt- in email for their campaigns… not just Internet marketers. It is easy to learn how to use it and the rewards are staggering. Their are several commerial auto-responders available to ensure you can properly manage an opt-in campaign.
They should come complete with several included funtions:
- They should offer you the choice of text or HTML format
- They should be easy to use
- They should offer pre-built templates
- They should be able to broadcast to your Social Networking sites that you just sent an important message. This is a particularly powerful marketing tool
- They should come with great customer support
- They should be reasonably priced
If you want to stay within the law when promoting your business, then you must use opt-in/permission based email marketing. In the past a single opt-in system was good enough. Many spammers found various ways around single opt in marketing. It is always much, much safer to use a double opt-in system.
Protect yourself, protect your business and find the best tool to do it! If you start with the best, you will be the best! GetResponse offers all the best features for email marketing.
