Email marketing experienced yet another year of explosive growth as more and more businesses around the globe have discovered how easy, affordable and effective email marketing software can be. With so many new businesses putting email marketing software to work as a key component of their marketing mix, there has been increased activity in almost every vertical market imaginable. From small ‘mom and pop' stores to large multinational organizations, email marketing appears to be filling a void that has long restricted effective targeted communication.

While each different business finds its own way to harness email marketing to yield the greatest results, a few trends were clear in 2007. Even though most email marketing software solutions can be adapted to suit a variety of needs, after analyzing millions upon millions of emails in 2007, the following five tactics, approaches or uses led the pack.

1. Newsletters The top use of email marketing by leaps and bounds in 2007 was newsletters. The frequency varied greatly from some organizations opting for a monthly newsletter and others using weekly, bi-weekly, bi-monthly, or even the very ambitious (for content rich organizations) daily. It remains very clear that sending out an email newsletter to your customers is a very effective communication tool. Many businesses use their email newsletter as an important brand building exercise. The more the business can keep its name (or logo) in front of customers, the more that company will be the top choice when the customer needs to make a purchase. Furthermore, by providing good quality content in these newsletters, companies can establish themselves as a leading authority on the topic.

2007 also made it very obvious that the success of an email newsletter is based on the quality of the content. Businesses who tried to send out an email newsletter without really having much to say saw increased unsubscribe requests, while those businesses that provided high quality content experienced rapid viral growth.

Most email marketing software solutions offer a wide variety of newsletter templates. By choosing the right email marketing software for your newsletter, your business can find a template that fits perfectly with your brand's look, feel, and color scheme.

2. Special Promotions / eCoupons

Email marketing acted as a key driver of new sales in 2007, as companies offered special promotions or eCoupons to their mailing list subscribers. By sending out an email marketing campaign to all past customers, businesses found that special deals (whether it was a discount, free shipping, etc.) tended to cause an instant spike in sales.

Since eCoupons have proven time and time again to be highly effective, most email marketing software solutions offer customizable eCoupon templates that can easily be adapted to suit any specific offer.

Offering exclusive coupons to mailing list subscribers has statistically proven to increase the size of any businesses mailing list. Many offline companies have started putting signup forms near their cash registers to prompt people to sign up to receive special eCoupons. Since these consumers are already interacting with your business, and since consumer behavior studies tell us that people love ‘savings' or ‘discounts', this really is the perfect way to help put your mailing list growth on turbo.

Robert Burko is President of EliteEmail.com, the easy to use email marketing software used by businesses around the globe. You can try the complete email marketing solution for your business absolutely free.

Source : www.articlebiz.com