Email Marketing How To Guide Part 3 of 3

posted by WEBSITES.COM // March 18, 2009 // Market Your Website

Continued from Introduction to Email Marketing - Part 2

There are many products and services available to help you manage your email campaigns. Additionally, several professional marketing associations offer advice and up-to-date information about email marketing. Here is a short list of resources to consider:

• Autoresponders: Used to instantly send an automated message to customers who opt-in to your email list. Autoresponders can also aid your email campaigns by sending repeated email messages, over a specified time, to your customers.
• The Direct Marketing Association (DMA): A professional trade association with more than 5,000 member companies worldwide. The DMA publishes quality advice and information about email marketing and actively works for policy change in the industry. Their website is www.the-dma.org.
• Email Templates: There are many free, HTML email templates available that can give your campaigns a professional look. Many of these templates require no technical skills at all to use. For several examples, see www.freenewsletterideas.com/free-newsletter-templates.htm.
• Publishing and Tracking Systems: These services offer businesses the ability to easily manage multiple email campaigns and track their results. The features offered and associated costs vary considerably. Look for a system that tracks all the metrics discussed earlier in this article, enables you to send email attachments, and offers free technical support over the phone.

The Future of Email Marketing

Email marketing best practices continue to evolve, and new laws governing commercial email are enacted on a regular basis. If you haven't done so already, read The CAN-SPAM Act and What You Need to Know. This Act forms the basis of commercial email law in the U.S. Since its inception, the Act has been updated several times; for recent additions and proposed changes, see http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/spam/rules.htm. One proposed change all businesses should monitor closely would reduce or eliminate a company's ability to engage in "pass-along" marketing -- the practice of encouraging customers to forward commercial email to friends.

Another important new development in the fight against spam is email authentication. This technology seeks to significantly reduce spam by only delivering email messages that can be verified as originating with a valid business. Several email providers, including Microsoft Hotmail, are adopting authentication technology. This means businesses who want to send email to Hotmail users will also need to adopt authentication technology. For more information, visit www.emailauthentication.org/resources.

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