E-mail marketing is often thought of as an online tool delivering information to online consumers. In fact, one of the most powerful marketing tools for bricks and mortar businesses is e-mail marketing. You don’t even need a web site although it does help.

Bricks and mortar businesses, or offline businesses, are perfectly placed to collect information from customers that can be stored in a database. It is actually one of the oldest forms of marketing using a computer. I was struck over the holiday period by the number of businesses that were offering Christmas hampers as prizes in a raffle draw. How did you enter? You filled in a form that included your email address.

Thinking back, I am also struck by the number of businesses that don’t collect this information. There is an argument that suggests these people are already customers so why spend dollars marketing to them? I have one answer – there is always the potential to sell more.

E-mail marketing is becoming a popular tool again, especially if, as a business, you can value add. This means giving something to your customers, even if it’s only information in the form of helpful articles. Some successful campaigns are now providing customers with discounts vouchers that are only available to newsletter subscribers.

It all comes back to costs. E-mail marketing is one of the least expensive forms of marketing yet. Done well, it converts very highly. Offline businesses have a steady flow of possible subscribers – the tricky part is getting them to subscribe.

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 12:57 pm and is filed under E-mail Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.