According to Wikipedia, researchers estimated that about US$1.51 billion was spent on e-mail marketing campaigns by companies in the United States of America in 2011. This amount is also expected to grow to about $2.468 billion by 2016. This shows just how much e-mail marketing is gaining relevance in the business world today.
E-mail marketing involves sending out promotional messages to clients/prospective clients through e-mails. Such messages could be advertisements, updates, brand awareness campaigns or requests.
E-mail marketing seeks to build a relationship between a seller and his clients or to preserve an existing relationship and further build trust and loyalty between a seller and his clients.
What are the types of e-mail marketing services?
Direct emails
Direct e-mails are sent to promote a particular product or sales offer. Companies who offer e-mail marketing services gather the e-mail addresses of people they wish to send such messages to by buying prospective leads from companies who offer lead generation services. Sometimes, an e-mail marketing company may offer both services.
Transactional e-mails
Transactional e-mails are sent to complete or confirm a transaction initiated by a client with the sending company. For instance, if a prospective client visits your sales website and fills a registration form asking for further details about a particular product, transactional e-mails would then be sent to such a client to further engage the customer and trigger his interest in the products.
E-mail marketing service companies have become relevant over the years as many companies have discovered their effectiveness and how they can help to increase sales compared to other methods of advertisement.
Most companies would rather outsource their e-mail marketing services to professionals who possess the necessary skills and expertise to achieve an effective e-mail marketing campaign. It would also allow the company focus on other aspects of the business.
You can begin a career in e-mail marketing by starting your own e-mail marketing company. Below is a guide to help you get started.
Starting an Email Marketing Company – Sample Business Plan Template
1. Write your business plan
The first step in setting your own e-mail marketing company is to draft your business plan. In your business plan, you should be able to identify your target customers and how you will reach them. You should also identify all the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the business.
2. Decide on the services you want to offer
You should also decide on the category of e-mail marketing services you would be offering. E-mail marketing involves several aspects. There are those who specialize in developing good e-mail marketing content that would help to sell products, there are also others who specialize in building e-mail lists and lead generation for their clients.
Therefore, you have to decide on the services that you are willing and able to provide to your clients.
3. Observe your competitors
Going into a business like this requires that you carry out a thorough research on the business and those who have been in the business before you.
This would help you understand the opportunities and challenges that exist in the e-mail marketing business. You would also be able to devise means of overcoming those challenges when you start your own business.
4. Purchase E-mail Marketing Software
To effectively run your e-mail marketing business, you would need to invest in a very good e-mail marketing software.
E-mail marketing software are used to send bulk e-mails, build e-mail lists for your various clients, develop e-mail marketing content and to track the e-mails sent to see how many were opened and how many were converted to actual sales. E-mail marketing software makes the work faster and easier.
5. Determine your prices
The next thing to do is to figure out how much you should charge for your services. You have to take into consideration your business expenses as well as the time and efforts you will invest in your business before coming up with a competitive price that would justify your efforts and expenses.
6. Devise a sales and marketing strategy
This is a kind of business that needs effective and strategic marketing. You would need to carefully decide on how you want to promote your services and build a customer base.
7. Create a business website
As an e-mail marketer, you can hardly do much without a professionally designed business website. Your website would serve as your landing page where your own clients can check you out. You would also need a good internet service provider and host server that would be able to handle a large volume of data that you would most likely be dealing with.
In conclusion, i want you to know that E-mail marketing is a smart business idea especially now that it is increasingly becoming popular among many companies.
Over the next few years, the usage of e-mail marketing as a means of advertising is expected to rise and you can position your own company to take a large share of the market by starting your own e-mail marketing business now and offering your clients first class services with proven results that would keep them coming back and referring others.</div>
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