E-mail's place in the marketing mix

With the advent of e-mail marketing, direct marketers now have the ability to reach a large audience at a much lower cost and greater frequency than most media.

With costs a fraction of direct mail, coupled with immediate response and measurement capabilities, it makes sense to incorporate e-mail in the marketing mix.

E-mail is most effective when integrated with other channels. Campaign integration with targeted television, radio, freestanding inserts, print ads and direct mail leverages real world branding with online branding and direct response.

Whether used as an upfront soft lead in to receiving direct mail or as a follow up to direct mail or other media, e-mail has been proven to create significant lift to these strategies.

E-mail content is a key component to a successful campaign. Each e-mail message can be individually personalized and should be consistent with other campaigns and corporate branding efforts.

The use of rich text, HTML and now streaming video in e-mail increases response rate. Even a TV commercial can be sent to a targeted prospect in e-mail.

The growth in e-mail marketing is in acquisition. By incorporating e-mail, a marketer can drive prospects to the Web site and target those prospects that open but do not click with a follow-up e-mail, direct mail or telephone call.

The proper campaign implementation depends upon whether your goal is an online transaction or developing an offline lead.

The use of available technologies or outside service providers for analyzing campaign effectiveness across all platforms is paramount.

This allows for immediate tracking of results of e-mail campaigns in real time producing instant feedback. Campaigns can be adjusted midstream as results are gathered.

Start thinking of your company as multichannel by incorporating e-mail with other forms of marketing.