Target your Customers Directly with Targeted E-Mail Advertising

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by Michael Wong

There are thousands of opt-in email lists and newsletters on the Internet. Targeted email advertising is a good way of reaching your target audience.

What is an opt-in email list?
Basically, these are lists of people who have expressed an interest in receiving email in the topic/category they have selected. I have seen names and email addresses for rent, for anything from a few cent to 20 cent a name. You can't rent only a few names. Usually you would have to rent a minimum of 1,000 or 5,000 names. The good thing about opt-in email lists is that the people have requested to be on the list. They have chosen to receive email in the topic you have selected. As a result, you know they are more likely to read your email and as a result more than likely to be interested in what you have to offer.

Why are newsletters a good place to advertise?
Basically for the same reasons as above. Newsletters usually only provide news for the topic/s it covers. The readers have requested the newsletter, so they will obviously read it. One major advantage over opt-in mailing lists is the cost. Typically, an issue of a newsletter will have a dozen or more advertisements in it. The cost of an advert in a newsletter will depend on the circulation and the size of the advertisement. This can be anything from US$30.00 for a 3 line classified advert to a few hundred dollars for your advert to be placed at the top of the newsletter, as the sponsor of that particular issue.

What is spam!
Spam can be a mass mailing to bulletin boards, newsgroups, or a list of people. It is mass emails sent to recipients who haven't requested email from you and/or with a fake return address. Spam is not just unethical, it is also stupid and will damage your reputation and goodwill with the Internet community as a whole. Professional marketers don't spam, because people don't like it and it doesn't work. Spamming merely labels your company as inexperienced and irresponsible. Who would order from a company like that?

I have used newsletter advertising a number of times, with mixed results. One problem with this form of advertising is that it can be hard to track the actual response of the advert. You should create what is known as alternative entry pages. These are pages of your website where the address is only given out in your adverts and is inaccessible from your main website. This way, you know that everyone who has entered your website by these pages has come as a result of your newsletter or email advert.