You want to reach your customers. You need to reach your customers. But how? One of the most effective ways, according to Forrester Research, is e-mail marketing. The idea's straight out of traditional direct-mail marketing, a tactic small business has used for decades, but with an e-twist: rather than ship expensive paper-based packages through the U.S. Postal Service, you use your own customer list to send targeted e-mail pitches, newsletters, and highlights of your biz's Web site.
Other businesses recognize the power of e-mail, of course, making it mandatory that you rise to meet the higher bar of electronic marketing. Jupiter Communications, another Internet research firm, estimates that by 2005, the average American consumer will receive over 1,600 commercial e-mail messages. To draw eyes to your e-mail amongst this glut -- and get them to give up their dollars -- you need to make your marketing mail stand out.
I've put together a three-step guide to e-mail marketing, starting out with the most basic (text) then graduating to HTML mail using tools most small businesses have at the ready.
Hi! Do not prompt as me to send e-mail? = (