Low Cost Email Marketing

Many individuals who have online businesses run them out of homes, and usually they don't have formal business structures. Consequently, there are often almost no funds set aside for marketing purposes, despite the fact that effective marketing is a big component to one's success. There are some low cost email marketing strategies that may assist such individuals.

Tips to achieve low cost email marketing

In order to ensure that you are visible on the internet and to showcase your products or services online, there are some low cost email marketing strategies that may be useful. Avoid using untargeted email marketing. You may know this as unsolicited bulk mail and more often than not, this will be classified as spam and go into their junk mail boxes which are never looked at. There is no need to pay email blasting companies a small fortune to do this as the conversion rates will be abysmal.

Focus on targeted, low cost email marketing. This means getting permission from individuals to send such emails to them, in which case you already know that they are willing to read your content. It is possible, for example, to inexpensively rent email lists of people who are interested in receiving emails about a certain topic. It is estimated that each address will cost you between ten and fifteen cents and if you have the budget for this, it is worthwhile considering using these. If you are uncertain about whether it will be effective, try it once and watch for response. If it works, then use such email lists more regularly.

Ezine advertising

Another low cost email marketing strategy is to use ezine advertising. Look for popular ezines and explore the advertising rates in these. Always remember to use ezines that have reference to your industry or your specific products or services in order to get the best responses. In terms of pricing, ezine advertising is considered to be substantially more cost effective than website banner advertising.

Once you have gotten the hang of ezine advertising, you may want to consider launching your own ezine publication. This too is considered to be a low cost email marketing strategy, and allows you to keep direct and constant contact with your customers and potential customers. The content of the ezine should, of course, not only be directed to the sale of your products and services, but should also include general content, how-to’s and regular updates. Who knows, you may find that other product and service providers may also want to advertise on your ezine, thereby providing you with an alternative revenue stream.

Alternatives

Another undervalued low cost email marketing strategy is using email discussion groups or forums to build your contact list. Joining such groups or forums, preferably of like-minded individuals, allows you to communicate directly with your potential customer, albeit in the presence of a moderator. This basically means that while you cannot sell your products directly on such platforms, you can use these platforms to build a reputation of your organization or yourself and then use this as a launching pad to accumulate email addresses for your email marketing blasts.