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All Customer hate junk mail. Whether it comes through snail mail or electronically, many marketers believe that it is a waste of time because customers will just throw it away or delete it without even reading it. While this may be true for some cold customers who have never used your services, using opt-in email marketing is an effective email strategy as your customers have given their permission to be contacted via email. So why should you use email marketing and why does it work?

1. Email is a primary means of communication for many of your customers.

Email is now the preferred method for people to receive information, and they use it for all aspects of personal communication. From paying bills to sending greeting cards to applying for jobs, email is now the primary method for all of these things because of its speed and ease of use. By implementing an opt-in campaign, your customers are more likely to read the email because they gave you permission to send it.

2. Email allows fast and timely delivery of important information without high overhead. No need to worry about paying for printing or mailing, it is all delivered electronically. Mail house and commercial printing expenses are a thing of the past with email marketing. You best bet is to use a professional service, such as Constant Contact, to ensure that your emails are not filtered out of your customer's inbox as spam.

3. Email is another way to promote your brand. Now that most email is html-based, you are able to send mail that is just as effectively designed as your direct mail
to deliver results. Make sure you have a designer who can design or this new medium. This can help brand recognition.

4. Email campaigns are easy to measure. Unlike direct mail, email is easier to track and analyze data to find out how well your campaigns are doing. You don't have to worry about setting up special measures to know that the response was generated from an email ad. This is another advantage of hiring a service to help with your email marketing.

Now that you are aware of some of the advantages of email marketing, it is equally important to understand what to include in your campaign. Be sure that your email has all of the following:

Offer: Sometimes an internet-only special is a great enticement for the customer, and will keep them signed up to receive future emails

Call to action: Be sure to position this above the fold, or closest to the top left corner as possible.

Use white space: Less is more. Balance text with graphics and open areas to keep the message from looking too close together.

Bold text and highlighting: Be sure to use these to draw the eye to key points.

Corporate identity: don't forget your logo and fonts that are consistent with your brand.