What Is Email Marketing?

What Is Email Marketing?

At its core, email marketing is a tool for customer relationship management

(CRM). Used effectively, this extension of permission-based marketing can

deliver one of the highest return on investments (ROI) of any digital marketing

activity.

Simply put, email marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic

means to deliver commercial messages to an audience. It is one of the oldest

yet most powerful of all digital marketing tactics. The power comes from the

fact that it is:

• Extremely cost effective due to a low cost per contact

• Highly targeted

• Customisable on a mass scale

• Completely measurable

Further, email marketing’s main strength is that it takes advantage of a

customer’s most prolific touch point with the Internet - their inbox. Many of

the principles covered in this chapter can be applied to any type of permission

marketing – especially SMS communication via mobile phones.

Email marketing is a tool for building relationships with both existing and

potential customers. It should maximise the retention and value of these

customers, which should ultimately lead to greater profitability.