Successful online business cannot be conducted without email marketing. Many people know that it is very important to have a website but having a website is only one step in creating successful online presence. You have to keep in contact with your customers and prospects. You must have a two-way communication with your customers and prospects and best way to do this is to an email newsletter. Send emails to your customer you must supply the correct email marketing software.
Choosing your email marketing software is one of the most important steps you should take in e-business. What are those necessary steps in email marketing software to choose?
Free or fee-based
The first thing that you will have to decide when choosing software for your e-mail campaigns will be or would you use free or fee based software. Some people may say: "there is a lot of free software on the Internet. Why would I pay for email marketing software? " This is because some people still not a habit to buy things on the Internet, in particular non-material items are such software and services. Many people still don't realize the power of email marketing so they think that can be met with a free service.
One of the most famous contemporary economists, a Nobel Laureate Mr. Milton Friedman said that there is no such thing as free launch. And there is another statement that says "you get what you pay for". I usually agree with these two statements. These are proven on many examples, especially on the Internet.
You can use free software for e-mail marketing but you will be limited for some more advanced options. Some large portals offer free services for creating groups. This is OK, but in this case, you will send your e-mail messages without many important features such as personalization, e-mail tracking, sending SMS, using CSV files etc. I don't have to forget that many "free" email marketing software providers will include their ads in your email newsletter. I think you do not want to in your business email communications.
Some other free software such as the free version of Group Mail will have restriction on the number of subscribers per one session. In this case, you will be able to send your email newsletter to 100 subscribers simultaneously and in the paid version unlimited number of subscribers and unlimited number of lists.
It is recommended that fees based email marketing software for your business to use e-mail campaigns. However, you should always search for a provider who offers a free trial period, also.
Important features
You should check if your e-mail service provider this several important features.
1) Personalization -personalization is one of the main things that email marketing software has to offer. With good personalization you will have better open rates and click-thru rates. Some more advanced email marketing software such as Group Mail paid version offers if-then personalization for users who want to get the maximum personalization.
2) Monitoring -email marketing is popular and useful because results very effective can be measured. You must ask your e-mail service provider if their product possibility for detailed reports for open rates, click-thru rates, deliverability offers ...As their main product does not provide that it is important that they are extra service which can be easily integrated with their main product offering.
3) scalability -is one of the main characteristics of modern software scalability. At this time you may need software that will be able to send 1,000 e-mails at the same time but in 3 years, your membership base 5,000. Will your software can handle that?
4) create HTML newsletters -HTML newsletters are better response than email newsletters in text format-so this is also another thing you should consider when choosing your email marketing software. Without sending your email-newsletter in HTML you will be able to track e-mail.
5) integration with existing applications and databases -your email marketing software should offer you the possibility to import data from existing applications and databases such as SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, access, FoxPro and Excel. It is also very useful that it can be integrated with popular email clients such as MS Outlook.
6) International character support -Online businesses must have a global focus, so it is useful that email marketing software offers support for international characters.
7) Plug-ins and updates -it is very important that the e-mail service provider constantly works on useful creating plug-ins and updated to give you your work easier and more efficient.
8) Technical support -are you an average internet user without technical knowledge you'll probably want to get support for your software. How good is your e-mail service provider when it comes to technical support?
Desktop email software vs. hosted ASP
Now when you know you want to free or fee-based software and what to look for in your email marketing software that you need to decide if you want to have desktop email marketing software or so-called hosted ASP. Both types have limitations and advantages. You should choose the best option for you.
Desktop email software such as Group Mail Plus, one of the leading desktop email marketing software, has a number of very large benefits. The important thing is that details of your subscribers are kept private and secure on your own computer. Dot com crash is not far behind us. Suppose you have several thousand customers and web-based service of an undertaking which will later go out of business. You can only imagine how could that affect your business and credibility! With the Group Mail Plus, you can manage an unlimited number of groups with unlimited number of recipients in each. Do you have a larger initial investment than with ASP hosted a monthly fee, but you will have a full control of your e-mail campaigns and after some time of the use of your software will repay you.
With ASP hosted you'll usually a lower initial investment. You don't need to buy hardware and software. However, price is usually determined by the number of emails that you send so you pay more how your membership base grows so this option will be much more expensive than a desktop email marketing software option in the long term.
You can see that choosing the right email marketing software is very important. You should not forget that the biggest investment that it is paid is-twice. So, choose your email marketing software wise.
0 comments:
Post a Comment