What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is an advanced type of marketing, which is to send commercial messages normally to groups of people using emails. This is called email marketing. It is used to send advertisements, business requests, solicit sales and donations etc. Aims of email marketing is to achieve objectives to build trust, loyalty and brand awareness. This also helps to achieve strengthening relationships with customers.
Email Marketing | History | Types of Email Marketing | Comparison to Traditional Mail
What is the history of Email Marketing?
Email marketing evolved technological growth in the 21st century. First mass email was sent by Gary Thuerk of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1978 to approximately 400 clients through Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. (ARPANET).
In 1990 email marketing made an effective means of communication. Email users, called “spams” and many started blocking contents from emails by using blocking programs. Marketers had to develop different ways to convey the contents, without blocking by automatic filters and spamming applications.
Email marketing has the benefit to identify returns on investment and improve efficiency. It allows marketers to know feedback in real time and monitor campaigns in the market.
Types of Email marketing
There are many different types of email marketing but the two are important here:
Transactional emails
Transactional emails are often based on customer action with a company. Basic purpose of these relationship messages is to facilitate or confirm transactions between the parties. It contains messages including dropped basket messages, password reset emails, order confirmation emails, order status emails and email receipts etc. Because of the high open rates, these emails are an opportunity to introduce or extend the email relationship with the parties (customers or subscriber).
With the help of transactional emails many companies achieve the ability to include promotional messages. There are also software vendors that offer specialized transactional email marketing services, which include providing targeted and personalized transactional email messages and running specific marketing campaigns.
Email Marketing | History | Types of Email Marketing | Comparison to Traditional Mail
Direct emails
Direct email involves sending an email solely to communicate a promotional message (for example, a special offer or a product catalog). Companies usually collect a list of customer or prospect email addresses to send direct promotional messages to, or they rent a list of email addresses from service companies.
Comparison to traditional mail
There are both advantages and disadvantages to using email marketing in comparison to traditional advertising mails.
Advantages
Email marketing is popular with companies for several reasons:
Email marketing is significantly cheaper and faster than traditional mail, mainly because with email, most of the cost falls on the recipient.
Businesses and organizations who send a high volume of emails can use an ESP (email service provider) to gather information about the behavior of the recipients. The insights provided by consumer response to email marketing help businesses and organizations understand and make use of consumer behavior.
Almost half of American Internet users check or send email on a typical day, with emails delivered between 1 am and 5 am local time outperforming those sent at other times in open and click rates.
Disadvantages
As in mid 2016 email deliverability is still an issue for legitimate marketers. According to the report, legitimate email servers averaged a delivery rate of 73% in the U.S, six percent were filtered as spam, and 22% were missing. This lags behind other countries: Australia delivers at 90%, Canada at 89%, Britain at 88%, France at 84%, Germany at 80% and Brazil at 79%.
Additionally, consumers receive on average about 90 emails per day.
Companies considering the use of an email 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) the European Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, or their internet service provider’s acceptable use policy.
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