It’s an emerging debate that looks set to become more widespread in the future – which direct marketing method is most effective: traditional direct mail campaigns, or new generation email marketing?

Direct mail is sent to businesses and consumers every day and is used by a very wide range of organisations and industries. A mailing in the post, often accompanied by a letter, has become a proven and accepted way of targeting your audience, with consistent conversion rates of about 1-5%. However in recent years direct mail has attracted criticism over the environmental impact it can have, and the annoyance caused by misdirected mailings.

Email marketing using opt in data is less widely used at the moment, but is growing more rapidly in popularity than almost any other direct marketing tool. A growing range of good quality opt in, and in some cases double opt in lists are becoming available, as are a wide range of email broadcast services. But this new marketing medium has already been tainted by abuse and association with the practice of spamming or junk mailing.

So what are the relative merits of each of these contrasting direct marketing methods? (more…)

A study by Sharpe Partners, an interactive marketing agency, revealed that 89% of adult Internet users in America share content with others via e-mail. This is excellent news for those companies who use self-propelling word-of-mouse” e-mail techniques to sell their products.

The study generated some interesting results regarding the type of content that is most often forwarded, as well. The most popular content is humorous material.

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Hands down, the most important and best way to build your online business is through creating a list of subscribers with email. It sounds very elementary, but this is one of the easiest ways internet marketers can gain their share of the market. I am assuming that you have an auto responder or are planning on using one with your marketing campaign.

Why is building a list so important? A targeted mailing list is the center of your business because it allows you to follow up with potential and existing customers. It doesn’t matter how much money you put into advertising and promotion, if you let your prospects leave your site without getting their contact information, then you are throwing advertising dollars away. You might have heard this before also – it usually takes seven to twelve exposures to a message or product before a prospect will decide to make a purchase. You just cannot allow prospects to get away from your sales message if you want to make an income.

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When you are sending out your next email campaign you should take a moment to review how you are using links in your email message. Remember when we are talking about links we mean the text links and not images or buttons within your email content.

Here are some useful tips to use in your next newsletter or announcement:

Links should be obvious and clearly marked meaning they should follow standard colors so they stand out from the actual content. This way you make sure if readers are just scanning they will see them.

Try to avoid the “click here” variety so links can be more relative. Example: Do you need help marketing? links to: http://www.needhelpmarketing.com
Using this technique will definitely lead to more clickthroughs, because you are asking the question and then linking directly to the answer this way.

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From newsletters to order confirmations, email is an increasingly important aspect of commerce. However, the e-business industry is still so inexperienced about email that even following these basic tips will put anyone ahead of most of the industry. Here are the rules and standards in writing effective emails.

Don’t recycle traditional direct mail copy. Even if it was successful.

Understand that the Internet is a completely new medium. The copy that pulled high response rates in the world of direct postal marketing doesn’t get read on the Net. Especially not as email.

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