There are a many advantages of Email Marketing over advertising in magazines. I am listing a few of them here for you to review and decide for yourself. Let me know if you agree with them or not.
Longer copy:
An email is much longer in size, and you can place as many photographs and product details as you want. A print advertisement is limited in size and width. Printing in color is even more expensive. An email is ALL color.
Clear Contact Information:
Your company’s logo, location, address, map can all be put on an email with all relevant details, in bold and easy to view/find. Your print ad may take up more space for the product features, leaving miniscule space for the contact information. Often, the address is in such a small font that one has to strain the eyes to see it.
View Full Product Details:
The reader can click on the link and visit your website for more information anytime. For an ad, a reader can’t visit the shop if it is night. Nothing more frustrating than to wait for the next day or Monday to talk to someone to find more information. Often, people forget about the whole thing by the next day. Here goes another lost sale! At least provide the website address in your print ad.
Email has a long life:
The holding power of a magazine is probably 1-2 hours. Once it is read, it is thrown in the trash can, or in a pile, never to be picked up again. An email is more often kept in the Inbox or filed away in a folder. We have seen people contact us for information even after 9 months of sending the email.
Online activity can be tracked:
Once a email is opened, it can be tracked. We can analyze the links clicked by the reader, which pages, products did he/she viewed, and how long did they spend on the website. No such thing with a print ad. You don’t even know if your target audience got to see it, let alone how many saw it.
Get to know the Prospect:
An email can invite the user to leave their contact details for exiting promotion offers, and future discounts, private sales when new shipments arrive etc. This is the first step to start building relationship with the prospect and generate good quality leads.
Build Constant Contact:
Once we get the email address of the visitors, we can contact them periodically, and suggest them to buy additional products, give them away as gifts to their loved ones, or simply refer new customers to us and get discounts/points.
Customer Information is your Biggest Asset:
You really don’t know who is reading your print ad, or how much sales you are getting out of a print ad. An email marketing campaign offers much better tracking in terms of success/failure, open rates, click rates, time spent etc. The biggest asset is the customer information - name, address, emails, what they bought etc. With this information, you can continue to market to them for future sales.
Build Customer Relationships:
Ever wondered why Amazon is so successful - not because they had the biggest inventory, but because of their excellent customer relationship building skills. They did it with Wish Lists, remembering what you browsed, welcoming you with your name the next time you visited, and a simple one touch interface so you don’t have to key in your information ever again.
Use Email to reach your target market and build strong customer relationships. Then laugh all the way to the bank!
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