E-Mail Marketing : The continuing promise and the darker side

E-Mail is the hot new marketing medium. E-Mail has exploded onto the scene as an important e-marketing tool. A large number of companies nowadays use e-mail marketing to reach consumers. Studies have found that most of the consumers with internet access see ads in e-mails at least once a day.

Marketers design enriched e-mail messages – animated, interactive and personalized messages full of streaming audio and video to compete effectively in this e-mail environment. As a result, in ever-larger numbers, e-mail ads are popping onto our computer screens and filling up our e-mail boxes. And they are no longer just the quiet, plain text messages of old. The new breed of e-mail ad is designed to command our attention and so they are loaded, as said earlier, with glitzy features such as animation, interactive links, colour photos, streaming video and personalized audio messages.

But there is a dark side to the exploding use of e-mail marketing.  The biggest problem is SPAM.  The spam is explained as unsolicited, unwanted commercial e-mail messages that clog up the e-mail boxes. Spam has produced consumer frustration and anger. E-mail marketers walk a fine line between adding value for consumers and being intrusive.  Therefore companies must beware of irritating consumers by sending unwanted e-mail to promote their products. Marketers should ask customers for permission to e-mail marketing and they should tell recipients how to opt in or opt out of e-mail promotions at any time.

Various studies show that spam now accounts for an inbox clogging more than 85% of e-mails sent daily throughout the world. America online blocks more than 2 billion spam messages sent to its subscribers each day.

Despite these dismal statistics, when used properly, e-mail can be the ultimate direct marketing medium. E-mail facilitates blue-chip marketers such as Amazon.com, Dell and others to send highly targeted, tightly personalized, relationship-building messages to consumers who actually want to receive them, at a cost of a few cents per contact. E-mail ads can command attention and get customer to act.

However, while carefully designed e-mails may be effective, and may be welcomed by selected customers, critics argue that most commercial e-mail messages amount to little more than annoying junk mail to the rest of us. They have no customization and no relationship building. Moreover, spam comes from questionable products and investments. Have you seen - most of them are about Viagra and body enhancement products and pornography?  So, the impact of spam on consumers and business is alarming. All internet service providers are being inundated with complaints from subscribers. And spam is ruining the rich potential of e-mail for companies that want to use it as a legitimate marketing tool.

So, what can a marketer do? Permission-based e-mail is one solution. Companies can send e-mails only to customers who opt in or grant permission in advance. They can let consumers specially what type of messages they would like to receive. Every message should give customers an easy way to opt out of future messages.

Permission-based e-mail marketing ensures that e-mails are sent only to customers who want them. Still, marketers must be careful not to abuse the privilege. There is fine line between legitimate e-mal marketing and spam. Companies that crosses the line will quickly learn that opting out is only a click away for disgruntled customers.