Much has been written in the past about e-mail marketing over the last few years and it has become a popular channel to communicate with customers and market your products and/or services. The concept of e-mail marketing started as people sending text messages through ListServ’s that communicated with a group that gave their permission to get the messages and participate in the responses. Slowly, people started to creep into these group e-mail services and promote their services that quickly got them banned. So they started to send those e-mails to people randomly and the concept of SPAM was born. There are great tips and tricks out there on the nuances of do’s and don’ts so your e-mails are received and read versus being treated as spam and ignored. But where and why should you utilize e-mail marketing in your business?

It Starts with Permission

E-mail marketing is part of a larger concept called Permission Marketing. The definition on Wikipedia is as follows “Permission marketing is a term used in e-marketing. Marketers will ask permission before they send advertisements to prospective customers. It is used by some Internet marketers, email marketers, and telephone marketers. It requires that people first "opt-in", rather than allowing people to "opt-out" only after the advertisements have been sent.” “Opt-In” means that you must gather information (e.g. web forms), publish content (e.g. white papers) or sell products that incorporate the “Opt-In” capability in the purchase process for customers to receive your e-mail communications.

You have something to say, not just something to sell

True, you are here to sell something and your web site might be your sole channel for selling products/services. But when you are prospecting and selling customers you need to communicate the value of why they should buy from you. There are two primary way to accomplish this:

Communicate how you are different

Here you need to utilize e-mail marketing to talk about what your company is up to, new projects you have completed and creative ways to use your product/service.

Become a Thought Leader

This is where you can build your reputation as a leader in your market. You become not only a great resource of information but you are the first person people think of when they need a product/service in your market area.

Ok, I am ready to utilize e-mail marketing, where do I start?

There are many places that provide e-mail marketing services to small businesses. You should make sure that they work with all of the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to be on “White Lists” which make sure your e-mail goes through and not get you classified as “Spam”. One place to start that might fit your needs is Constant Contact (a Network Solutions partner). You can also do a search for “e-mail marketing” and there are plenty to choose from as well. Most have monthly services that are very affordable based on the number of e-mails and subscribers you send it to each month. If you are low on subscribers, you can work with their partners that provide lists where people have already “Opted-In” and you can purchase those lists to build an initial audience.

Have any of you out there tried e-mail marketing?

This is where we want to hear from you. Has your business used e-mail marketing successfully? Not very much? What have been your lessons learned? Please share in the comments below so your fellow entrepreneurs can learn from your experience.