As an Internet Marketer, I feel it is my duty to inform micro to small business owners about the benefits of email marketing as part of your marketing strategy. But, before I get into some benefits, lets talk about a few things you should be aware of.

First of all, be familiar with CAN-SPAM. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) establishes requirements for those who send commercial email, spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them. For more information visit www.ftc.gov. In a nutshell, this means, do not send emails to individuals/groups advertising or promoting your products and services unless you have permission to do so.

If you attend a tradeshow and collect several business cards from a drawing, make sure you also have a sign up sheet for those who want to receive your newsletter, coupons, ads, etc. Just because they left you their business card does not mean they want SPAM from your company. Get to know the terms opt-in/out. Opt in means that someone has signed up on your website or sign in sheet giving you permission to email them information about your services. Opt-out means they previously opted in, but no longer want to receive information from you.

Secondly, invest in a email newsletter service so that you can have professional looking HTML or Text-based email messages sent to your opt-in list. Most do-it-yourself services are very affordable and starts at $20 per month. If you choose to use your outlook or other email service, be sure to send a blind email when sending to a distribution list. What is a blind email? Here's an example of an email I would send in outlook to 50 people:

To: tmarketinglady@yahoo.com

Cc:

Bcc: 1234@abc.com, 567@abc.com, 211@abc.com

By putting your own email address in the " To " line and the recipients in the " Bcc " line, this will avoid everyone on your list from seeing others email address. Not only is this thoughtful, but people will appreciate you protecting their privacy.

Now, the benefits of using e-mail marketing in your marketing strategy.

Low cost - using email marketing is less expensive then using print, radio, or TV advertising to promote your products. Better metrics - it is sometimes difficult to determine if a customer coming to your store came in because of an ad, but with an email marketing program with built in tracking, you can see how many people opened your special offer, how many clicked on the coupon, and how many clicked through to your website or landing page.

DIY - you can do it yourself. Most all email marketing services come with built in templates you can choose from. All you have to do is type in your text and upload any images. If you do not have any of the templates or want the newsletter to look like your site, hire a web designer to make you a custom template and upload it to your email service.

Targeted information - with email marketing, you target each group with different messages. For example, your list may contain customers who purchased from you in the past and ones who have not. You can segment your list into 2 groups and send customer loyalty discounts to previous customers.

Now that was just a brief overview of e-mail marketing. Using it is not difficult at all, but if you do not have the time to manage your email campaign, hire a consultant to work with you.

Tarsha Polk, a.k.a. The Marketing Lady