I get asked sometimes “…why pay for an email marketing system when I can send mail using Outlook, or Yahoo Groups?” The answers vary according to needs, but generally there are some significant benefits. Here is a baseline primer on email marketing systems.

The term Email Marketing System refers to computer software that sends bulk email to target audiences. Effective uses of email marketing software include sending sales and promotions, customer service, and customer support email communications to opt-in lists of subscribers.

The software uses a database to store contact information, campaign statistics, and message history. The software interface has features necessary to manage email campaigns such as email setup and sending, adding or importing contacts to receive emails, reporting and tracking functions such as how many people opened an email, how many emails bounced back, and how many people actually clicked links in an email.

Email marketing software is sold as licensed software – to be owned and run on a server computer by the owner, or as a service – (Software-As-A-Service – SAAS) which is run on server computers and accessed via the Internet. Prices to buy and own email marketing software range from around three hundred fifty dollars ($350), to fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500). Service providers typically charge monthly fees based on the total number of emails and/or the number of emails sent. There are also enterprise level services that cost thousands of dollars a month to manage marketing email campaigns for large enterprises. These systems have sophisticated features to connect and integrate with other systems, personalize emails, and for detailed reporting and performance analysis.

Features and Benefits

• Email Marketing software speeds up the direct marketing process by sending personalized email messages to a customer or prospect.
• 96% of Internet users access email, and email outranks all other online activities including shopping, downloading music, or reading blogs.
• Most email marketing software can schedule emails to send automatically at pre-defined dates and times. This allows marketers to adhere to a marketing plan.
• Some email marketing software can automatically send email in the future based on available contact data (like birthdates, or 30 days after a purchase, etc.), or recipient activity (joining or being added to a list, clicking a link in an email or opening an email). These automated emails are called autoresponder or trigger emails, and they enable complex and detailed response communications to be setup in advance.
• Using email, businesses or organizations can manage ongoing sales, service and support communications with customers and prospects, and do so frequently at no additional cost. This is attractive to any business seeking to reduce and control costs.
• Email marketing software makes business communications appear more professional. Most email marketing software systems use templates to manage formatting of emails. Templates allow users to adhere to brand standards in their emails.
• Email marketing software also features reporting tools that track delivery, opens, link clicks, and other performance metrics.
• Email marketing software streamlines the process of organizing contact data, creating and managing mailing lists, and creating list segments to target emails.
• Email marketing software automatically confirms subscriptions, removes duplicate contacts, processes unsubscribe requests, and processes bounced emails to keep lists optimized and ensure compliance with SPAM laws.

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