Businesses that are just waking up to the power of online marketing are wondering if they should jump on board the social media bandwagon. No longer is it a secret that social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, LinkedIn are all powerful methods that can successfully connect a business or professional with the marketplace. There's an entire army of consultants touting the benefits of social media. However, for many businesses, email marketing presents a more controlled and potentially more consistent medium for connecting with clients.

It's easy to get sucked into believing that social media is where a business needs to sink marketing dollars. Social media consultants exude confidence that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN are the way to connect to people looking for what you have to offer. If you are just now getting involved with online marketing, or wondering where best to allocate limited marketing dollars, there's a tool that provides long term benefit and provides a means to test and review marketing efforts. Email marketing is the ideal method for connecting with new business and for developing a long lasting relationship with new and existing customers.

Email Marketing for Beginners

One of the most frequently forgotten rules of marketing is to use never forget who the audience is and then choose the right tool for that audience. While Facebook may be used by millions, if your market chooses not to use Facebook, putting any money into marketing on Facebook is frivolous. The same argument goes for most other social media tools. The exception might be using a content management system for your website and then keeping it updated with timely and relevant posts to a blog. You definitely need a website in place first, before the other social media venues.

That said, you may eventually want to use Facebook, but having a strong email marketing system in place is the best place to start connecting with the marketplace. Before going into the benefits of using email marketing, here is a brief overview of how an email marketing system works.

Email marketing tools are often referred to as an autoresponder service. Email marketing, like other marketing tools, requires that you establish an overall purpose and then outline what messages help fulfill that purpose. You'll also need to decide how frequently you want to communicate: daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly. That frequency depends on your audience and your overall goal.

Next you create your messages. The good thing is that you don't have to upload all the messages, but be sure to get enough uploaded to give you some time to create and upload more. Once the email marketing system is uploaded with your messages and a distribution schedule, the system takes care of the rest of the work. Hence the name, autoresponder. It automatically sends out your messages according to the schedule you defined.

Benefits of Email Marketing

1. It's quick. Especially compared to other marketing programs that involve artwork, design and postal delivery, email marketing is fast.
2. Measurable. Autoresponder tools provide reports showing how many people opened and read your emails. You can review what messages are popular. If you put links to your website inside, the email marketing system reports who clicked what link.
3. It's cost effective. Compared to the costs of postal services and other forms of print advertising, email marketing is dirt cheap. Most systems are pennies a day.
4. Effective. Email marketing has proven over and over to be a great method to reach out to new and existing clients in order to build or renew your relationship with them.
5. Profitable. It's easy to monetize your email marketing system providing you with a new way to add revenue.

Email marketing requires an overall objective, purpose, and planning, but once it's in place, it's virtually a "set it and forget it" system.