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Using email to market on a budget
During the credit crunch, many organisations have
turned to email marketing to help reduce their
costs. So what are the advantages of this new route
to market and is it strictly legal? |
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In the current economic climate, regular marketing
activity is vital for small businesses. Preserving
one’s existing customer base has become a first
priority but SMEs also need to win new contracts to
compensate for shrinking margins.
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But at the same time, many firms are being
forced to keep a close eye on costs. So as
the credit crunch begins to bite, marketing
managers are looking for new ways to get
their messages across on a reduced budget
and the answer for many has come in the form
of email campaigns.
It's tried and tested and it's not spam |
"Sending electronic flyers to customers and
prospects is at least ten times cheaper than
going the paper route..." |
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Email marketing is not new. It has been used
successfully by larger organisations for a
number of years although many SME businesses
have failed to explore this new route to
market due to a lack of information and
relevant in-house skills.
A further reason that email marketing has
yet to achieve its full potential is that
this tactic is often confused with
“spamming” and many SME businesses are still
unsure of their legal position. In fact,
business to business email marketing is
permitted under European Directives subject
to some simple rules, such as the inclusion
of an unsubscribe link.
Protecting your domain reputation and
avoiding blacklists
Stuart Chaplin, Director of Cyan
Distribution, explained that the benefits of
e-marketing can stretch far beyond the
obvious financial ones but he warned SMEs to
use reputable online providers to preserve
the reputation of their domain names.
Mr Chaplin commented: “Sending electronic
flyers to customers and prospects is at
least ten times cheaper than going the paper
route and, when using an online provider to
broadcast campaigns, tracking reports are
usually available to show who is reading the
message and which links they are clicking.
“These tracking reports can be invaluable to
sales consultants wishing to follow up a
campaign by phone or email because they
enable them to concentrate their efforts on
recipients who have shown the most interest.
The other main reason SMEs use hosted
solutions is to protect their own domain
reputations and prevent IP addresses
becoming blacklisted.”
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Delta Comtech Ltd
Artillery House, Heapy Street
Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK11 7JB |
Tel:
0844 4128102
info@delta-comtech.co.uk |
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