What is Email Marketing?

E-mail marketing EDM, short for Email Direct Marketing, is a kind of network marketing method that delivers value information to target users by email under the premise of users' prior permission. Email marketing has three basic factors: user permission, email delivery information, and information is valuable to users. Without one of the three factors, none can be called effective email marketing. Email marketing is a direct marketing method that uses email to communicate with audience customers. It is also widely used in the field of network marketing. E-mail marketing is the oldest method of online marketing. It can be said that e-mail marketing is older than most website promotion and online marketing methods.

Email marketing

(Internet marketing means)

Email marketing is a broad definition. Any email sent to potential customers or customers can be considered as email marketing. However, the term email marketing usually involves the following aspects:

1. Sending emails to strengthen the relationship with merchants and target customers, thereby encouraging customers to be loyal to him or repeat transactions

2. Send mail for the purpose of acquiring new customers and making repeat purchases for existing customers immediately

3. Add advertisements of other companies or our company to the emails sent to our customers

4. Send email via the Internet

According to statistics from a well-known US statistical company, the US spent about $ 4 billion in email marketing in 2006. Therefore, email marketing still has great development prospects.

Birth

Inventor of Email

<1> Wide range:

With the rapid development of the Internet, the number of Internet users in China has reached 560 million and the world has exceeded 2.2 billion. Faced with such a huge user base, Email marketing as a modern advertising method is receiving increasing attention from people. As long as you have enough email addresses, you can publish advertising information to tens of millions of target users in a short period of time. The marketing scope can be throughout China or even the world.

<2> Simple operation and high efficiency:

Use our expertise

<1> Email classification according to whether the user has permission:

Email marketing can be divided into Permission E-mail Marketing (PEM) and Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE) according to whether the information to be sent has been approved by the user beforehand. Unauthorized Email Marketing is also known as Spam ^[1]

These three issues constitute the three basic conditions for email marketing:

(1) HowThe technical basis of the mailing list: technically ensure that users join and leave the mailing list, and implement the management of user information, as well as the functions of mail sending and effect tracking.

(2) WhomAcquisition of users' email address resources: Under the premise that users voluntarily join the mailing list, obtaining enough email addresses of users is a necessary condition for email marketing to play a role.

(3) What-the content of the mailing list: marketing information is sent to the user by email. The content of the mail is valuable to the user in order to arouse the user's attention. Effective content design is the basic prerequisite for the functioning of email marketing. ^[1]

(1) Respond in time: When receiving mail, you should develop the habit of replying smoothly. Even if it is "thank you, the letter has been received", it will have a good communication effect. Usually mail should reply within one working day. Customers, if they encounter more complex questions, it will take some time to answer the customers accurately, and they will simply reply and explain the situation. There is really no time to reply, you can use the automatic reply mail method.

(2) Avoid untargeted delivery: Do not send advertisements to a large number of unfamiliar mail addresses in the form of mass sending, which not only has little effect, but also becomes spam and damages the company's image.

(3) Respect customers: Do not send multiple letters with the same content to the same email address. When the other party directly or indirectly refuses to accept mail, you must never send advertising letters to the other party. You must respect the other party.

(4) The content should be simple and concise: The client's time is precious, and most of the time when looking at the mail is to spend a lot of time on the mail, so the letter should be concise and concise, fully attract the customer's interest. Be sure to check the contents of the mail carefully before sending it. The sentences are smooth and there are no typos.

(5) Attach contact information: The letter must have a signature and a phone number to prevent consumers from knowing how to contact them when they need help.

(6) Respect the right to privacy: You must not forward or sell the sender list and customer background until you obtain the customer's approval.

(7) To admit mistakes: If you can't immediately reply to the customer's inquiry or send the wrong letter, you should take the initiative to admit your mistakes and be cautious. Don't make excuses for not receiving mail,

The goals of email marketing are usually:

Increase sales (especially those with online stores)

maintain

Text sign

The most common form of email is a text logo. Text logos are characters with specific meanings, about 5 lines or so. They are usually placed in the middle of news emails or approved emails. These text flags can also set a URL that links to the advertiser's company home page or a specific page that offers products or services.

2. Advertising

Email and newsletters in HTML format can be set up in general

I. Unique Personalized Content

The biggest difference between using EDM for marketing and general marketing methods is: EDM is one-to-one communication, so that your users feel respect, let him feel that this is a communication method established by him and exclusive to him, of course, in Constrained by various conditions, it is often difficult to completely achieve one-to-one communication. But; personalized needs, marketers must use technical means to make users feel that this EDM is specifically sent to him, not mass. This requirement is a challenge for EDM marketing.

Contents that arouse user attention

What the user cares about, this is often one of the most important links in the user's purchase process. The customer collects the information needed to support his decision-making, and it is also the most important for the marketer to disseminate information to achieve actual sales. Link. If you can grasp the information that users pay attention to, it will have a key impact and effect on marketers in turning potential sales opportunities into actual sales results.

For example, if the marketing staff of a communication product sales company can learn that a certain user is reviewing the evaluation and quotation information of several mobile phones almost every day, then the marketing staff can make a basic judgment and this user is most likely to buy The intention of these phones. Based on this judgment, the marketer categorizes the user into the corresponding data category.

E-mail can play multiple roles in online marketing. At different stages of online marketing, e-mail can be used to complete different marketing functions. ^[1]

Email marketing advantages

I. Continuous sales opportunities

Let us first imagine a scenario. A visitor, a potential customer, comes to your site through a search engine, this user is looking for a certain product, and your website is just offering this product. Users browse your homepage and product pages and are very interested, but they are not sure to buy from your website. Shop around, this is normal at all times. Users want to look at other sites again, so they return to search engines. It is a pity that this user will most likely never return to your website. Ordinary users may not remember what keywords they searched, which links they clicked, and which websites they came to. Once a visitor leaves a particular website, the chances of entering it again are very low, unless your website is already a well-known brand in the industry and there are news and links to your website everywhere.

The conversion rate of general e-commerce sites is normal at 1%, which means that in general, 99% of potential customers come to your site, leave without buying, and will never return. This is a waste of the effectiveness of all previous website promotion.

Let's imagine another scenario. A visitor comes to your website, he wants to buy a certain product or has a problem to be solved, your website can just meet his requirements. After all, this is the first time. Although users are interested, 99% of the time is not likely to buy immediately. If "just" your site offers an e-zine, and users who sign up for the e-zine can get a $ 10 coupon, plus

Free eBook. The topic discussed in the e-book is exactly what this potential user wants to solve. Users fill in their names and email addresses to get coupons and e-books.

As a website operator, when you get the email address of a potential customer, you also get follow-up communication to continuously remind potential users of your right to exist. Users trust you and your website more through the e-books you send to him, as well as tips in e-zines, industry news, holiday greetings, and more. And because of these repeated reminders, potential customers remember your website. When he decides to buy this product, your website is at the top of his alternative website.

If the website design and e-zine are properly planned, it is also common for the e-zine conversion rate to reach around 20%. Relative to 1% of sales conversion rate, email marketing will greatly increase the final sales conversion rate.

Almost perfect marketing channels

One of the most important reasons why email marketing is effective and even spam is rampant is its low cost. As long as there is a mail server, contacting 10 users is almost the same as contacting thousands of users. Of course, if you are sending millions of emails, the situation is different, because you need a dedicated server and very large bandwidth.

Compared with other online marketing methods, email marketing is also very fast. Search engine optimization requires months or even years of effort before it can be fully effective. Blog marketing takes time and a lot of articles. Social network marketing takes time to participate in community activities and build a wide network of relationships. As long as email marketing has a mail database in hand, the results will be seen within a few hours after the email is sent, and orders will be generated.

Permitted email marketing is targeted at the most accurate and likely group of people who will convert to paying customers. Most of the users obtained by other online marketing methods enter your website with a casual browsing attitude, which is not very active. Permit-type e-mail is different. Everyone who enters the mail database actively fills out forms and asks you to send relevant information to their group of people. After a few emails, as long as the information you send is helpful to users, they will become a group of loyal subscribers. What could be more valuable than such a group of potential customers?

Email marketing also enables website marketers to stay in touch with subscribers over the long term. It is common for subscribers to read the same e-zine for several years. The information on the Internet is dazzling and endless. Being able to maintain a fixed connection with the same subscriber for several years is a very valuable asset on the Internet today. The strong trust and brand value established in this way is rarely achieved by other online marketing methods. Any new products or discount promotions on the website can be timely transmitted to these long-term subscribers, and the sales conversion rate is much higher than users who come to the website randomly.

If you spend your advertising budget and invest your time and energy into online marketing, users who come to your website cannot be directly converted into users, and the marketers do nt get the opportunity to keep in touch. It s not a waste. Permissive email marketing is about catching potential users,

The best way to get follow-up opportunities.

Email marketing disadvantages

The disadvantages of email marketing from a user perspective:

1. Users generally call it "spam", that is, users are not interested in the content of the provided emails.

2. Force users to receive mail without respecting their rights.

3. Disgusting the sender of the email, thereby reducing your brand reputation. If your product or service has a good impression in the user's mind, you will have an adverse effect through spam marketing.