What Kind of eMail Marketing Should I do?

E-mail marketing has become a popular and efficient method to reach potential clients.  There are different methods to go about doing it, and understanding which is the best way to promote your message or product is essential to your marketing success.  The two primary methods are the e-mail campaign and the e-mail blast.

An e-mail campaign is a stream of e-mails sent to a list of recipients with the purpose of conveying information, promoting a product or service, and/or increasing brand exposure.  A campaign distributes your content to form a kind of  “narrative.”  Successive e-mails serve different purposes.  The first (or first few) messages are meant to develop a kind of familiarity and trust with the reader – getting your foot in the door, so to speak.  The middle e-mails are primarily about benefits and features – the “meat” of what you are trying to promote.  The concluding e-mail should be a “call to action” – encouragement to the reader to follow through (e.g., purchasing your product/service).

An email marketing blast is an “one-off” action as opposed to a chain of e-mails (hence “blast”).   A potential benefit of an email blast over a campaign is getting a more immediate result for your efforts.  Unlike a campaign, a blast provides all the necessary components in a single e-mail.  At the same time, there are certain drawbacks.  For one, it may be much more difficult to come off as sincere and gather interest from your readers, due to the fact that the trust/relationship-building process is not there.  Additionally, fitting all your relevant content in a comprehensible way in a single e-mail could present challenges.

Whichever method you choose, one important concept is necessary to keep in mind.  An e-mail marketer should recognize and adhere to a good sense of boundaries and ethics, and be vigilant not to cross the line.  Whether you are launching an e-mail campaign or an e-mail blast, spamming is irritating and even disrespectful to the reader, and can result in substandard results for your efforts.