Email Marketing

Here is something to keep in mind if you are marketing your products via email. Some email programs, like G-mail and Yahoo, provide sponsored links along side the emails they deliver to their email recipients. If you are sending an email promoting your particular product, the target of your email will receive a list of sponsored links along with your message. Those sponsored links come from companies who are buying advertising space from the e-mail provider based on the content of your email.

Google is very good at this. If you send an email blast promoting your shoe store, for example, don't be surprised to find that it arrives in your potential customer's email box with a whole list of ads from competing shoe retailers. Your ad may arouse your potential customer's interest in a new pair of shoes only to have them click on one of your competition's ads that appears to be a better offer. Even if there is no sale, you will have succeeded in introducing your customer to a whole range of competitors offering the same or similar products.

Of course, this doesn't mean that you should never use email marketing. Like any marketing tactic, it needs to be applied within an overall marketing strategy to develop your business. An integrated marketing plan will use email along with direct mail and other media to achieve the most effective combination and timing of your messages.