With the popularity of e-mails as a way to market goods and services, many people think that mailing list marketing has passed its prime. Using marketing mailing lists, it is often argued, is an expensive, slow and inefficient way to reach your target audience. No matter how elaborate, or how perfectly tailored the product, the ads are often thrown out immediately, costing the company hundreds of dollars that they could be using for a more effective advertising campaign – or so it is said. I understand why people feel this way, but I think it is premature to throw out this classic advertising technique.
Think about how often you go to grocery stores and see someone paying for their purchase using clip out coupons from the latest weekly circular. This is just one of many successful uses of mailing list marketing around us every day. The fact is that, although it is hard to track down exactly how much effect mailing list marketing has on sales, it is still a substantial effect. Although e-mailing may be a cheaper way to market a product, it is almost completely ineffective. People delete e-mails from companies advertising goods and services without even thinking twice about it. If, however, they receive a circular or some other interesting offer from mailing list marketing, they are likely to at least look at it. And that gives you a chance to make the sale!
The most important thing to remember in mailing list marketing is to be creative and fun. The customer already knows, after all, that it is junk mail, and unless they already patronize your store or buy your product regularly, the only way that they will read it is if it looks pretty or interesting.
Of course, this goes double for email list marketing. Don't bother with fake subjects to try to get around their spam filters. The average consumer will see what you are up to and erase your e-mail immediately. Instead, try to appeal to the most people that you can in your marketing mailing list. You already know that this form of mailing list marketing is almost free, so even if you only get one or two successes in a million, it is still a net gain. At the very least, your mailing list marketing campaign should be able to generate some amounts of positive buzz around your product and company. That is always a good thing.
