E-mail marketing is a form of
direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating
commercial or fund-raising messages to an audience. In its broadest
sense, every e-mail sent to a potential or current customer could be
considered e-mail marketing. However, the term is usually used to refer
to:
- sending e-mails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or previous customers, to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business,
- sending e-mails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately,
- adding advertisements to e-mails sent by other companies to their customers, and
- sending e-mails over the Internet, as e-mail did and does exist outside the Internet (e.g., network e-mail and FIDO).
Comparison to traditional mail
Advantages
E-mail marketing (on the Internet) is popular with companies for several reasons:
- An exact return on investment can be tracked ("track to basket") and has proven to be high when done properly. E-mail marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic.
- Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of e-mail subscribers who have opted in (i.e., consented) to receive e-mail communications on subjects of interest to them.
- Over half of Internet users check or send e-mail on a typical day.
- E-mail is popular with digital marketers, rising an estimated 15% in 2009 to £292m in the UK
Disadvantages
A report issued by the e-mail
services company Return Path, as of mid-2008 e-mail deliverability is
still an issue for legitimate marketers. According to the report,
legitimate e-mail servers averaged a delivery rate of 56%; twenty
percent of the messages were rejected, and eight percent were filtered.
Companies considering the use
of an e-mail marketing program must make sure that their program does
not violate spam laws such as the United States' Controlling the Assault
of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM),[6] the
European Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, or
their Internet service provider's acceptable use policy.
Legal requirements
In 2002 the European Union
introduced the Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications.
Article 13 of the Directive prohibits the use of email addresses for
marketing purposes. The Directive establishes the opt-in regime, where
unsolicited emails may be sent only with prior agreement of the
recipient.
The directive has since been
incorporated into the laws of member states. In the UK it is covered
under the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive)
Regulations 2003 and applies to all organisations that send out
marketing by some form of electronic communication.
In addition to satisfying
legal requirements, e-mail service providers (ESPs) began to help
customers establish and manage their own e-mail marketing campaigns. The
service providers supply e-mail templates and general best practices,
as well as methods for handling subscriptions and cancellations
automatically. Some ESPs will provide insight/assistance with
deliverability issues for major email providers. They also provide
statistics pertaining to the number of messages received and opened, and
whether the recipients clicked on any links within the messages.
