5 Steps To Building An Engaging Email List

Email marketing is one of the most popular forms of online advertising. This is because it holds many distinct advantages. However, it does have some disadvantages as well. In this lesson we are going to look at those in order to gain some insight into how you can plan and execute an effective email marketing campaign.

Perhaps one of the most significant advantages to email marketing is the ability to reach a large audience with minimal effort. While it’s possible to reach an audience with other forms of advertising such as television, radio and the print media these are not nearly as effective as they once were and they can be very costly especially when compared to email. 

Which leads us to the next advantage, affordability. This is significant because there are many other types of marketing, including Internet marketing that are more expensive. The costs associated with email marketing is minimal, especially if you will already have a list of email recipients who are interested in your products and services, because there are no upfront costs associated with building a list. Additionally, the cost to send out email is small and can be easily incorporated into your regular operating costs. All of these factors make email marketing extremely cost effective. 

However, there is some cost involved in email marketing. Primarily this is the costs associated with writing the advertisements and creating any graphics which will accompany the email advertisements. This will require hiring a writer to write the copy for the advertisement and a designer to create and implements the graphics. The cost of these services will vary pretty widely but in general you will pay more for writers and designers with more experience. This is because these writers and designers are expected to be able to produce a higher quality of work than those with less experience could produce. 

The most obvious disadvantage to email marketing is the possibility of having your email marketing viewed as spam. This is a very important problem because it could prove to be quite costly in terms of the profit margin for your business. Each day Internet users are bombarded with unsolicited emails serving as advertisements. This problem has reached epic proportions and the abundance of spam infiltrating the email boxes of innocent Internet users has to be cautious and suspicious about any email they receive which is unsolicited and appears to be promoting a particular product or service. 

Emails which contain subject lines or content which appear to be similar to spam may be automatically transferred to a spam email folder by the email system. Emails which are not automatically deleted may be deleted without being opened simply because the recipient does not recognize the sender of the email. Both of these problems can result in essentially wasted time for the business owner because the recipients are not even viewing the emails advertising the products and services offered by the business. Additionally, they may result in complaints being lodged against the company for being a purveyor of spam. 

Now that you understand the advantages and disadvantages of email marketing, you might wonder how you can maximize the advantages to use email marketing to your advantage. The most important factor to consider is your email distribution list. This should consist of former customers who have expressed a desire to receive emails with information and advertisements as well as potential customers who have also expressed interest in more information. 

The content of the emails should also be carefully considered. They should certainly highlight the products and services you offer but should do so without appearing to be a hard sales pitch. A writer with experience in writing this type of copy should be able to assist you in providing insightful and accurate copy which also entices the reader to find out more about your products and services. Finally, your emails should provide the readers with a call to action. This should be a statement urging the reader to take a specific action such as making a purchase or researching a product.