How to Do Email Advertising

Email advertising is one of the most effective ways to market services and products today. It doesn't have the overhead and up-front expenses of direct mail marketing, which can save a lot of money. It can also help you to build a list of potential customers who may buy repeatedly from you.

1. Set up an opt-in form. In order to do email advertising, a marketer first has to comply with the law. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 prohibits unsolicited emails for marketing purposes and classifies them as spam. For that reason, marketers need to get the customer's consent before they can send them any sort of commercial email. In most cases, this is performed by having some sort of opt-in form on a Web page. The user enters his information into the form, which has clear directions explaining he will be signing up to receive emails from you.


2. Set up your autoresponder or mailing list service.  Advertising via email is usually performed using some sort of newsletter or autoresponder service. These services can be set to send emails to prospects at set intervals, to specified groups of customers at once or to your entire mailing list as needed. It is important to make sure not to send these too frequently, as subscribers can find this annoying and unsubscribe, leaving you with no one to receive your message.


3. Offer deals and specials and information to your mailing list. Whether the offer is a new product, a discount on existing product or a cross-promotion with another marketer, offering deals to your mailing list gives your subscribers an incentive to stay subscribed. Giving them information they can't easily find elsewhere will also encourage mailing list loyalty. A willing subscriber is more likely to buy from you eventually.

One of the greatest benefits of email marketing is that it increases sales opportunities and conversion rates. It is commonly known in sales that a person who has bought already and is satisfied is an easier sell than a brand new prospect. It is also established that many buyers must see, hear about or otherwise experience a product several times before they make a buying decision. By getting customers onto your mailing list, you are exposing them to the product you have multiple times, increasing their likelihood of buying. You can also run promotions direct to your email list, which can generate instant cashflow and typically has a higher conversion rate than random traffic. It's a win on multiple fronts.