Tips and Resource List for Effective Email Marketing

Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a way to exchanging messages between people. It can be used to send an ezine (an online magazine in which editorial content is controlled) or newsletter. This is a tool most people are used to using as a means to communicate with one another. But how do we use it to effectively market our business?

Tips:

Here are some suggestions for how to use email as a marketing tool to grow your business.

• Author your own ezine or newsletter
• Submit content to leading ezines.
• Create a joint venture with leaders in field to cross promote your ezines.
• Sell ad space in your ezine.
• Set up auto responders which are messages that are automatically sent to your customer when they perform an action such as signing up for your list.
• Use email to communicate with your customers about upcoming opportunities, activities, news and events.
• Set up a separate email address for sales or services issues.

Resources: Email

Here are some free ways to get an email account.

• Hotmail – owned by Microsoft MSN
• Gmail – owned by Google
• Yahoo Mail – owner by Yahoo

Resources: ezine publishing services (NOT Free!)

For a small number of subscribers you can send out the email from your email provider. As the quantity of subscribers grows, you will need a more sophisticated tool.

• Awebber – Whether you're looking to get your first email campaign off the ground, or you're a seasoned veteran who wants to dig into advanced tools like detailed email web analytics, activity based segmentation, geo-targeting and broadcast split-testing, we've got just what you need to make email marketing work for you.
• iContact - iContact allows businesses, non-profit organizations, and associations to easily create, send, and track email newsletters, surveys, and autoresponders.
• Constant Contact - Email Marketing and Online Surveys from Constant Contact make it easy and affordable for you to connect with your customers or members.