Email Marketing: Beyond Advertising

Email marketing best practices demand communications that have transcended the old advertising sales pitch. The best email marketing services now emphasize respect for the customer by offering a more personal one-on-one style. This can be accomplished by helping your customers choose the information that they receive from you by offering them clearly defined options and giving them a voice in how your business communicates with them. The most personal is the survey where they provide feedback on what they like or dislike on a variety of your products and services. And when carefully crafted, surveys can help you segment your subscriber lists so that your customers receive your free email marketing newsletters that interest them- ensuring that your messages are not relegated to their spam folders.

You also have to give your customers the option to unsubscribe or change their preferences easily and quickly. Not only is this good business, it is also now the law with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. This was in response to the rampant abuses of spammers. The new permission based systems currently in place is offered by companies that support web-based permission email marketing solutions. These companies are the backbone of the industry with guaranteed white-list delivery. It is always in your best interest to use web-based email marketing software. Why, you ask. Well, simply because email marketing companies police their users- it is in their best interest and yours.