When looking at how to use email marketing, then the question always arises about how should I send out the emails that I have created to my verified list of contacts. Some look to Microsoft Outlook as a way, and indeed it does have the facility to mail merge from a Word document to a recipient list that you have created. Should you decide to take this route then you will find this overview to be of use.

However, it is a solution that I would have difficulty in recommending to anyone interested in embarking on anything other than a very basic email marketing campaign.

For a more comprehensive and recommended solution to achieving the right elements for an email marketing program, there are a number of options. Firstly you should evaluate between three primary options that exist for you:

1. Use an external agency and outsource your email marketing
2. Run the campaign in house using a purchased desktop / server software system
3. Run the email marketing in house and use a hosted / online system

The initial selection may not always be the most appropriate so it is worthwhile checking out what would best suit your requirements given the internal resources that you have and taking into account the support and advice that you may need to comply with legal and commercial I need to carry it out properly.

a) Use an external agency

Agencies come in many shapes and sizes and will range from large marketing organisations which have added email marketing to their set of marketing services, through to specialist boutiques focused on email marketing or emarketing in general.

In particular, the small agencies may prove to be very effective if they work with you and take help iron out the legal, copywriting that you face, in addition to perhaps designing the emails, personalising elements of the content (essential!!), sending them out and tracking them. The tracking will allow you to judge the success of your campaign as well as permit a better focus as you carry out segment testing that should be standard in an email marketing campaign to achieve the best results.

The flip side is potentially the cost involved, though the Return on Investment (ROI) will almost certainly be a lot higher if they have specialist expertise in the area, rather than using it as an add-on to their offline marketing / mailing services which is a different issue. However, combining the two as an integrated direct marketing approach is perhaps the most powerful and compelling solution.

2. Run the email campaign in house using a purchased desktop / server software system

If you have the necessary in house resource, then buying a system could be an option but do make sure that the software supplier includes upgrades in the purchase price. The market is still developing and the services offered are getting better as well as prices coming down.

A couple of suppliers that offer a service worth looking at are given below, but it is worth comparing the services they offer as this will change, particularly in the tracking arena:

Broadcast (from a company called MailWorkz)
Gammadyne
Lyris

When considering this option, elements that you will want to bear in mind are your internal capabilities in terms of designing the email and working with the software, and your IT set-up including whether bulk email going out through your ISP is something that they will be open to, together with the online processing of bounced emails, unsubscribes etc.

3. Run the email marketing in house and use a hosted / online system

This is probably the simplest method in terms of IT set-up although there is still a learning process with regard to learning the system you select. The system is hosted externally by a company specialising in email marketing and you pay a monthly charge to use the system - this charge is generally either dictated by service level, size of mailing lists or number of emails sent. It is good to check the exact charge configuration if cost is a major issue.

You would import the contacts from your own database or Excel spreadsheet (usually through a CSV format). create the emails within the system and then send out the campaigns from there. Some will offer tracking as part of the package while others offer this as an upgrade so it is worth checking it out if tracking is a key element to your campaign. Some recommended suppliers offering this set-up are:

Constant Contact
Mailer Mailer
AWeber
Vertical Response

If you are combining two or more lists, then you may also wish to consider cleaning the list of email addresses before using it. The basic action will be to “de-dupe” it, which means to remove duplicated addresses or multiple addresses for the same person. Most of the email marketing systems will have a simple de-dupe facility which is probably all that you need – once the system is automatically adding email addresses, then again all of them should do verify current addresses on an ongoing basis before adding a new one. If you have an old list or are unsure about it, then it would probably be wise to verify the recipients as a double opt-in if you want to do this properly, which is what I would recommend.

Email marketing is very powerful but also very diverse in its uses so choosing the right method of sending the emails is key to success. If you are in any doubt about how to run a campaign then it is probably worthwhile finding a small agency to work with you initially to ensure you get it right to - you will then be in a much better position to ask the right questions when you make the move and research your next solution.

All too often, being a UK marketing consultant means that you are battling against a number of issues from a number of different areas, even within the UK marketing profession. You can come across marketing managers in UK companies who have opposing views on how to best use marketing in a business development context and others who consider UK marketing consultants to be all theory and no action! What a distorted view of UK marketing!

Marketing consultants in the UK also have to deal with the very different opinions from their marketing consultant counterparts in the US who believe UK consultants to be less direct than they should be, both in promoting their own marketing consultancies as well as their ideas. Additionally, as a marketing consultant in the UK, it is important to be able to offer not only consultancy in all aspects of traditional marketing but also be able to offer UK companies a focused vision on online marketing and how best to integrate it with their other offline UK marketing activities.

This area of online marketing, or eMarketing, encompasses much more than just internet marketing and more than just website promotion, although it does include both of those. So while internet marketing will tend to include Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Search Advertising (or Pay Per Click), Link Development, Banner advertising etc., emarketing takes the reach a step further. Emarketing extends to cover all methods of communicating with your customers electronically, not just through the internet but also through email marketing, business blogging, mobile messaging, podcasting and the like. A UK marketing consultant should be au fait with all of these techniques and online marketing methods.

Indeed any UK marketing consultant worth his/her salt should be able to consult on, advise and implement not only traditional UK marketing activities but also have the scope to look at using the full range of emarketing techniques to complement these. A marketing consultant should also be clear from the outset that they are not just there to deal with UK marketing theory but UK marketing practice as well. With this we may be able to enhance the reputation of UK marketing consultants as a whole and demonstrate UK marketing at its best rather than try to drag it kicking and screaming into the 21st Century!

Once a well designed website is in place (together with a plan for its management and updating), attention can then be turned to the online promotion of the business and the creation of an increasing flow of visitors and potential customers to the website.

The range of emarketing methods at your disposal to achieve this share five critical factors. It is these factors which make emarketing particularly attractive and so successful for those companies using it. The principal ones are:

• Highly Targeted: the digital nature of the internet allows you to offer specific and customised content to each individual. As a result, it allows you to attract highly targeted customers to your website who are most likely to be interested in your products and services;
• Easily Measurable: knowing how many people are visiting your website, how they found you and what they looked at are invaluable elements to gaining a better understanding of your customers and being able to supply what they require. Emarketing allows you to obtain full tracking figures and will permits a detailed examination of the Return on Investment (ROI) of any campaign;
• Immediate: time is crucial in business and an emarketing campaign has the advantage of being much quicker to set up and put into play than other marketing methods. Just as importantly, the response mechanisms are equally quick so you can start to see the results (quite literally) immediately;
• Tested and Refined: although the immediacy and speed of a campaign is important, the quality needs to be just as high. To ensure it remains so, you have the opportunity to test and refine any campaign as it is happening to ensure you get the best possible results. By adopting the content and format which is achieving the highest response rates, you can continually improve your results and number of visitors.
• Cost effective: with budgets tight, all of the elements above mean that companies needing clear ROI figures from their marketing activity will be well served by an integrated emarketing campaign. Being able to react quickly and in a very targeted way also means that they can avoid delays and the costs associated with them.

This combination of benefits produces fast acting, flexible yet focused marketing campaigns which can be measured and refined on an ongoing basis. When budgets are small, as is normally the case with small and medium sized businesses, then this is all important to make sure that you squeeze every last drop of value out of what is available!