E-mail marketing is the sending of e-mails to a defined group of recipients. This variant of online marketing is comparable to classic direct marketing, in which advertising mailings are sent by post to customers and interested parties.
In direct marketing by e-mail by means of newsletters, there are various objectives. In addition to the superficial function, in which the direct sale of goods and services is intended, newsletters also influence the customer relationship within the framework of CRM. Companies send newsletters for several reasons:
- Animation for sale
- Information about new products and the company
- Advice and entertainment
Email marketing is a particularly sensitive form of online marketing because of its similarity to email spam. It is particularly important for e-mail campaigns to know the legal framework and to have the necessary consents or other legal bases, otherwise there is a risk of costly warnings or fines. In addition to the professional design of newsletters, the structure of recipient lists (including mailing lists) is a main task in e-mail marketing.
While the sending of newsletters and mass e-mails was traditionally done via normal e-mail clients (e.g. Outlook) by taking the recipients in BCC and sending a copy, this procedure only makes limited sense today. Because from a number of recipients over 50 recipients, common mail servers refuse to send an e-mail.
Various providers have therefore established themselves for professional mailings. The advantages of such hosted newsletter services are obvious: There is no limit to the number of recipients, mail merge functions facilitate the personal approach of recipients and automation ensures regular information of the target groups.