The Time-Tested Internet Marketing Tool: E-Mail

Many online companies are wary of using email as a marketing tool, because they believe that it’s too hard to avoid being labeled as spam. In fact, there has been a recent backlash against email marketing. Detractors point to stronger filters, safe lists, and other ISP-created tools as their evidence for denouncing email marketing campaigns.

For this reason, many companies shy away from email marketing, opting instead to solely focus on SEO and PPC methods. While these methods are very effective, newer technologies, it is a mistake to ignore email marketing, because it can be a very powerful tool.

In fact, there are a few very successful companies that use email marketing as the bulwark of their Internet marketing campaigns. By earning customers’ trust and marketing in voluntary email lists, these companies have a powerful advantage over their competitors, because they can directly communicate with their customers.

The Email/RSS Controversy

While RSS technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, the technology suffers from a few limitations that prevent it from completely replacing email as a marketing tool. First of all, email is nearly ubiquitous in today’s world, whereas RSS feeds are limited to a narrow group of people who are searching for specific, pigeonholed information. Next, email has a simpler and more personally customizable format, while RSS requires that the user spend time customizing his or her feed requests. In this way, email is more user-friendly, simply because people have been using it for longer.

If you really think about it, email will always be a recognizable part of the Internet, whereas RSS occupies a fringe market. This is especially true on the global scale. Therefore, email trumps RSS when it comes to Internet marketing.

Blogs are More Fashionable, but Email is more Reliable

In the mid 1990s, the Internet world suffered its own Influenza epidemic. This is known as the Spam War. During the spam war, sleazy, get-rich-quick scammers overloaded people’s inboxes with spam, or junk email. In response, many ISP’s designed strong filters to resist spam. Additionally, many people took protective measures to defend themselves against spam. Many businesses abandoned email marketing altogether, instead opting to use blogs as a marketing tool.

However, the facts tell the same story. Email marketing is an effective , proven way to increase your Internet marketing campaign.

An Online Marketing Dream: The Opt-In Email List

Opt-In email lists are composed of a group of people who want to be included in a certain company’s email list. While many companies mistakenly believe that no one wants to receive their email, the businesses who choose to employ opt-in email lists receive great benefits from this well known method of Internet marketing. However, instead of trying to sell something through their opt-in email listservs, these marketers choose to send highly relevant information or developments about the company so that they may boost web traffic to their site. It’s very simple and very effective.

Safe Lists: A Safe Way to Ensure Web Visibility

Email safe lists are comprised of subscribers who visit a web site and then voluntarily choose to receive email from a corporation or company. It’s similar to an opt-in list, but slightly different because the user initiates the action of joining. Many reputable companies have earned huge amounts of money by utilizing email safe lists, simply because when these lists grow to a certain size, it becomes inevitable that a huge amount of people visit the site. It’s good to practice and hone your skills when writing emails to a safe list, because you want to provide useful information to the recipients of your safe list.

Therefore…

Email marketing can drive a huge amount of web traffic to your website. Do not neglect this extremely strong marketing tool when you are drafting your Internet marketing campaign. It’s always good to communicate directly with consumers, especially if they are choosing to receive email from your company. As long as you follow the basic rules of SEO and you use common sense, email marketing will increase your web visibility and provide you with a wealth of new customers.

The Time-Tested Internet Marketing Tool: E-Mail

Many online companies are wary of using email as a marketing tool, because they believe that it’s too hard to avoid being labeled as spam. In fact, there has been a recent backlash against email marketing. Detractors point to stronger filters, safe lists, and other ISP-created tools as their evidence for denouncing email marketing campaigns.

For this reason, many companies shy away from email marketing, opting instead to solely focus on SEO and PPC methods. While these methods are very effective, newer technologies, it is a mistake to ignore email marketing, because it can be a very powerful tool.

In fact, there are a few very successful companies that use email marketing as the bulwark of their Internet marketing campaigns. By earning customers’ trust and marketing in voluntary email lists, these companies have a powerful advantage over their competitors, because they can directly communicate with their customers.

The Email/RSS Controversy

While RSS technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, the technology suffers from a few limitations that prevent it from completely replacing email as a marketing tool. First of all, email is nearly ubiquitous in today’s world, whereas RSS feeds are limited to a narrow group of people who are searching for specific, pigeonholed information. Next, email has a simpler and more personally customizable format, while RSS requires that the user spend time customizing his or her feed requests. In this way, email is more user-friendly, simply because people have been using it for longer.

If you really think about it, email will always be a recognizable part of the Internet, whereas RSS occupies a fringe market. This is especially true on the global scale. Therefore, email trumps RSS when it comes to Internet marketing.

Blogs are More Fashionable, but Email is more Reliable

In the mid 1990s, the Internet world suffered its own Influenza epidemic. This is known as the Spam War. During the spam war, sleazy, get-rich-quick scammers overloaded people’s inboxes with spam, or junk email. In response, many ISP’s designed strong filters to resist spam. Additionally, many people took protective measures to defend themselves against spam. Many businesses abandoned email marketing altogether, instead opting to use blogs as a marketing tool.

However, the facts tell the same story. Email marketing is an effective , proven way to increase your Internet marketing campaign.

An Online Marketing Dream: The Opt-In Email List

Opt-In email lists are composed of a group of people who want to be included in a certain company’s email list. While many companies mistakenly believe that no one wants to receive their email, the businesses who choose to employ opt-in email lists receive great benefits from this well known method of Internet marketing. However, instead of trying to sell something through their opt-in email listservs, these marketers choose to send highly relevant information or developments about the company so that they may boost web traffic to their site. It’s very simple and very effective.

Safe Lists: A Safe Way to Ensure Web Visibility

Email safe lists are comprised of subscribers who visit a web site and then voluntarily choose to receive email from a corporation or company. It’s similar to an opt-in list, but slightly different because the user initiates the action of joining. Many reputable companies have earned huge amounts of money by utilizing email safe lists, simply because when these lists grow to a certain size, it becomes inevitable that a huge amount of people visit the site. It’s good to practice and hone your skills when writing emails to a safe list, because you want to provide useful information to the recipients of your safe list.

Therefore…

Email marketing can drive a huge amount of web traffic to your website. Do not neglect this extremely strong marketing tool when you are drafting your Internet marketing campaign. It’s always good to communicate directly with consumers, especially if they are choosing to receive email from your company. As long as you follow the basic rules of SEO and you use common sense, email marketing will increase your web visibility and provide you with a wealth of new customers.

Corporate Internet Branding Fundamentals

The Internet is a ubiquitous Corporate communications and sales channel, however many companies are still not utilizing much of its power. That could be because of loyalties to comfortable old channels or that there aren’t enough Internet marketing experts to take their brands into the digital realm.

Regardless of the hold-ups in leveraging internal or external Internet communications options, consumer and B2B channels are growing their share of the market. Resistance is futile and with this change in how consumers and B2B buyers are reached, is a change in the symbolism, voice, and style of promoting brands. That doesn’t necessarily mean the Internet can’t play a supporting role for your offline or TV advertising. For many campaigns, the Internet is just another conduit for sales videos and corporate brochures. Some are satisfied with this, however the Internet’s own power to communicate and generate business shouldn’t be underestimated.

The Internet, whether through public Web sites, search engines, Internet radio broadcasts, and e-mail are very targeted. It is shown to reach the right target at the right time with the right message. It doesn’t matter whether you use a Web friendly, or search engine friendly approach to your online advertising and promotion. You need to be there anyway you can. It’s too important to let it slide.

Internet branding is a term in increasing usage because branding can be adapted to be effective on the Internet. That’s different from broadcasting your TV video ad or showing your marketing brochure on your Web site. With Internet branding, you’re taking into consideration that viewers have searched around and seen many other products similar to yours. They may have reviewed many more product or service features than they would think about while watching television or casually reading a magazine.

Your customer’s context then is different. The splashy video display generally isn’t there and surprisingly, few people are interested in seeing it. They’re pressured for time and want to find what they’re looking for. If you understand their quest for knowledge, you can better shape your value proposition and even your sales pitch.

Active Internet Positioning

The Internet appears to be a passive marketing environment, but it’s actually very active. To stay one step ahead of the elusive customer, you have to continually position your products and Web site to meet their needs ahead of time. An Internet marketing expert helps to tell you where people are going ahead of time. You may even position your brand better with this knowledge. You have returning customers whose loyalty you want to build and you have new prospects coming in searching and enquiring about different things. It’s not easy to position a brand to meet all those needs. There are experts in the field who can help you understand Web visitors and help you build powerful Corporate Internet branding strategies.

It’s easy to say you’ll advertise to reach all the same prospects you did with your TV campaigns, but Internet audiences are different. And, advertising, such as search engine advertising can be expensive. You may not be able to afford to reach those same people. That means you may have to plan a way to reach particular segments of that audience with more specific features and benefits. Only after you bring them to your Web site and established credibility with respect to the product they’re inquiring about, will you be able to present your corporate brand. Corporate branding is powerful today and corporate Internet branding even more so. You can introduce products more quickly and even reposition them more effectively. People see corporate brands all the time though and are not necessarily impressed that your corporate brand will make this particular product relevant to them. For instance, just because Nike makes golf equipment doesn’t mean their “big mammoth driver” is the right one. The corporate logo won’t be enough and forcing the brand on them isn’t going to make them buy it.

Search Marketing

Instead, Internet branding strategies, particularly those that deliver targeted visitors to your Web site, ensure your establish credibility and relevance. Remember that Web visitors are in an intense state of consciousness. They’re very often looking for something specific. If you want to get anywhere on the Web as a user, you have to have an idea of what you want, or you’ll sit frustrated in front of your computer. Television and magazines are very different. The channels and pages in these mediums are limited and the prospect is captured. Not on the Internet. There are billions of web pages and hundreds of millions of Web sites.

With search engines, consumers can get help finding what they’re looking for. High ranking sites get first crack at these motivated/directed consumers. Your corporate Internet marketing strategy should be heavily involved in search engine visibility. It is an opportunity to present your site many different ways to many different types of consumers. The potential reach is further enhanced because you have International reach and the cost of entry is so minimal.

Searchers are looking for quick solutions too. They’re not looking for fancy graphics and complicated menus that fly out all over the place. They’re looking for specific things about your products and services. Here, you have a low cost of adapting your brand imagery and communications to suit each group of visitors. Generally, it just takes another Web page designed and written for that group of consumers. You can fashion your homepage to let current customers get to what they’re looking for as well.

After these searchers have found your products and services relevant to their search, your corporate brand will then have the power to make the sale and establish brand loyalty.

Intelligent corporate Internet branding adapts to the consumer. It de-massifies to serve each person as they arrive; yet it still delivers the corporate brand communication at the right time after the visitor is satisfied. Rather than a boastful in your face confrontation with the consumer, your corporate image becomes a helpful one and is relevant and timely. You get credit for being there when they needed you.