G7

=Group 7 - Online Marketing=

media type="custom" key="735765"

Specific Objectives:

 * To be able to understand the advantages and drawbacks of e-mail marketing.
 * To be able to analyze and evaluate the social and ethical issues created by email marketing.
 * To be able to master the creation of a good voicethread.

Voicethread Outline/Assignments:

 * Title Page**
 * Introduction** - Pascal D.
 * Brief definition of e-mail marketing
 * Include a brief definition of e-mail
 * A few examples of e-mail marketing
 * Introduce the 3 topics of slideshow: Advantages, disadvantages, and ethical issues.
 * Advantages** - Amanieu D.
 * Ecological advantages (No paper usage)
 * Economical advantages (Very cheap compared to snail mail)
 * Manageability
 * Recipients can be tracked
 * Subscriptions
 * Wider Audience
 * Disadvantages** - Pascal D.
 * Definition of Spam/Spam filters
 * Spam filters might filter legit ads
 * Questionable legality
 * Less tangible/memorable
 * Social/Ethical Impacts** - Paula Ning
 * Legal acts (CAN-SPAM of 2003)
 * Rise of internet business
 * Promotes online branches of existing businesses
 * Rise of e-mail scamming
 * Conclusion** - Amanieu D.
 * Brief summary of previous points
 * Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?

Researchers estimate that US firms alone spent $400 million on email marketing in 2006. 
 * Email marketing** is a form of [|direct marketing] which uses [|electronic mail] as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. However, the term is usually used to refer to:
 * Sending emails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or old customers and to encourage [|customer loyalty] and repeat business.
 * Sending emails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing old customers to buy something immediately.
 * Adding advertisements in emails sent by other companies to their customers.
 * Emails that are being sent on the Internet (Email did and does exist outside the Internet, Network Email, FIDO etc.)

Advantages
Email marketing (on the Internet) is popular with companies because: 
 * The advantage of a mailing list is clearly the ability to distribute information to a wide range of specific, potential customers at a relatively low cost.
 * Compared to other media investments such as direct mail or printed newsletters, it is less expensive.
 * An exact [|Return on investment] can be tracked ("track to basket") and has proven to be high when done properly. Email marketing is often reported as second only to [|search marketing] as the most effective online marketing tactic.
 * It is instant, as opposed to a mailed advertisement, an email arrives in a few seconds or minutes.
 * It lets the advertiser "push" the message to its audience, as opposed to a website that waits for customers to come in.
 * It is easy to track. An advertiser can [|track] users via [|web bugs], [|bounce messages], un-subscribes, read-receipts, [|click-throughs], etc. These can be used to measure [|open rates], positive or negative responses, correlate sales with marketing.
 * Advertisers generate repeat business affordably and automatically
 * Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of email subscribers who have opted in (consented) to receive email communications on subjects of interest to them
 * Over half of [|Internet] users check or send email on a typical day.
 * Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger other messages to be automatically delivered.
 * Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger other events such as updating the profile of the recipient to indicate a specific interest category.
 * Green - email marketing is paper-free

Disadvantages
Many companies use email marketing to communicate with existing customers, but many other companies send unsolicited bulk email, also known as [|spam]. Internet system administrators have always considered themselves responsible for dealing with "abuse of the net", but not "abuse on the net". That is, they will act quite vigorously against spam, but will leave issues like libel or trademark infringement to the courts. Most aministrators passionately hate spam, which they define as **any** unsolicited email. Draconian measures — such as taking down a corporate website with or without warning — are an entirely normal response to spamming. Typicaly, the "Terms of Service" in Internet companies' contracts allow this, so the spammer has no recourse. Illicit email marketing antedates legitimate email marketing, since on the early Internet (see [|Arpanet]) it was not permitted to use the medium for commercial purposes. As a result, marketers attempting to establish themselves as legitimate businesses in email marketing have had an uphill battle, hampered also by criminal spam operations billing themselves as legitimate. It is frequently difficult for observers to distinguish between legitimate and spam email marketing. First off, spammers attempt to represent themselves as legitimate operators, obfuscating the issue. Second, direct-marketing political groups such as the U.S. [|Direct Marketing Association] (DMA) have pressured legislatures to legalize activities which many Internet operators consider to be spamming, such as the sending of "opt-out" unsolicited commercial email. Third, the sheer volume of spam email has led some users to mistake legitimate commercial email (for instance, a mailing list to which the user subscribed) for spam — especially when the two have a similar appearance, as when messages include [|HTML] and flashy graphics. Due to the volume of spam email on the Internet, spam filters are essential to most users. Some marketers report that legitimate commercial emails frequently get caught by filters, and hidden; however, it is somewhat less common for email users to complain that spam filters block legitimate mail. Companies considering an email marketing program must make sure that their program does not violate spam laws such as the [|United States]' [|CAN-SPAM] Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act), the European Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 or their Internet provider's acceptable use policy. Even if a company follows the law, if Internet mail administrators find that it is sending spam it is likely to be listed in blacklists such as [|SPEWS].

** CAN-SPAM compliance **
Because the [|CAN-SPAM Act of 2003] authorizes a USD 11,000 penalty per violation for [|spamming] each individual recipient, many commercial email marketers within the [|United States] utilize a service or special software that helps ensure compliance with the Act. A variety of older systems exist which do not ensure compliance with the Act. To comply with the Act's regulation of commercial email, services typically: require users to authenticate their return address and include a valid physical address, provide a one-click unsubscribe feature, and prohibit importing lists of purchased addresses which may not have given valid permission. In addition to satisfying legal requirements, service providers stepped in to help customers to set up and manage their own email marketing campaigns. The services provide email templates, automatically handle subscriptions and removals, and generate statistics on how many messages were received and opened, and whether the recipients clicked on any links within the messages. 

Opt-in email advertising
[|Opt-in email] advertising or [|permission marketing] is a method of [|advertising] via [|electronic mail] whereby the recipient of the advertisement has [|consented] to receive it. It is one of several ways developed by marketers to eliminate the disadvantages of [|email] marketing. Email has become a very popular mode of communication across the world. It has also become extremely popular to advertise through. Some of the many advantages of advertising through email are the direct contact with the consumer and is “inexpensive, flexible, and simple to implement” (Fairhead, 2003). There are also disadvantages attached to email advertising such as, alienating the consumer because of overload to messages or the advertisement getting deleted without getting read. Permission email marketing may evolve into a technology that uses a handshake protocol between sender and receiver (Fairhaed, 2003). This system is intended to eventually result in a high degree of satisfaction between consumers and marketers. If opt-in email advertising is used, the material that is emailed to consumers will be “anticipated.” It is assumed that the consumer wants to receive it, which makes it unlike unsolicited advertisements sent to the consumer (often referred to as [|spam]). Ideally, opt-in email advertisements will be more personal and relevant to the consumer than untargetted advertisements. A common example of permission marketing is a newsletter sent to a firm’s customers. Newsletters like this are a way to let customers know about upcoming events or promotions, or new products. In this type of advertising, a company that wants to send a newsletter to their customers may ask them at the point of purchase if they would like to receive this newsletter. With a foundation of opted-in contact information stored in a [|database], marketers can automatically send out promotional materials. The marketers can also segment their promotions to specific [|market segment].

thats from Wikipedia, and pretty amazing stuff too. lucky us...

If you are still unsure, then here are the top 10 reasons, why you should invest in email marketing right away. 1. Global reach: No matter where you are or whom you need to reach, targeted emails pave the way. Borders are no obstacles in email marketing. 2. Lower cost: Costs incurred in designing, executing, testing, sending and receiving an email is up to 78% less for a run of 5000 over paper-based direct mail version. When you add e-mail to your marketing mix, you spend less time, money and resources than with traditional marketing vehicles like direct mail or print advertising. 3. Interactive: You can innovatively initiate campaigns using graphics, videos, music, quiz, game or whatever that will be of interest to your prospect, to grab his attention and interest immediately. 4. Highly personalized: Email enables you to personalize and greet every person you target. This helps in creating a special bond with the prospects. 5. Round the clock marketing: With an email the audience can understand your offering even when you are out of office. 6. Measurable results: Special tools are available that accurately measure click-through rate, conversion rate, how a person one arrived at your website, and more, to enable you to assess the success of different email campaigns. 7. Targeted marketing: Since prepackaged and custom-built lists are available, you could reach only those who might require your services, solutions or products without bothering those who do not. You can select each one of your targets based on geography, age, income, spends, and many other parameters. 8. Opt-in or unsubscribe options: Emails contain opt-in and opt-out options which help you to shortlist your prospects and reach only the ones genuinely interested in your offerings. 9. Faster response: Time to receive responses through e-mail is one to three days, where you will get maximum responses on day one itself, while a direct mail campaign would take minimum 7 to 12 days to generate any responses. Further, responding to a direct mail is more cumbersome, while a person can respond to an email immediately. 10. Simplest: Executing an email campaign is simple and you can do it sitting at home without any extensive resources.

from selfseo.com, pretty cool

The advantages of email marketing listed are intended to prompt you to ask to what extent an organisation is taking advantage of these benefits. Reviewing the disadvantages of Email marketing listed will help show some of the challenges of Email marketing which need to be managed for success.

Advantages of Email marketing
In my experience, the main advantages of Email marketing are:
 * 1) **Relatively low cost of fulfilment**. The physical costs of email are substantially less than direct mail.
 * 2) **Direct response medium encourages immediate action**. Email marketing encourages clickthrough to a website where the offer can be redeemed immediately this increases the likelihood of an immediate, impulsive response.
 * 3) **Faster campaign deployment**. Lead times for producing creative and the whole campaign lifecycle tends to be shorter than traditional media.
 * 4) **Ease of personalisation**. It is easier and cheaper to personalise email than for physical media and also than for a website.
 * 5) **Options for testing**. It is relatively easy and cost effective to test different email creative and messaging.
 * 6) **Integration**. Through combining email marketing with other direct media which can be personalised such as direct mail, mobile messaging or web personalisation, campaign response can be increased as the message is reinforced by different media.

Disadvantages of Email Marketing
In my experience, the main disadvantages of Email marketing evident are:
 * 1) **Deliverability**. Difficulty of getting messages delivered through different internet service providers (ISPs), corporate firewalls and webmail systems.
 * 2) **Renderability**. Difficulty of displaying the creative as intended within the in-box of different email reading systems.
 * 3) **Email response decay**. Email recipients are most responsive when they first subscribe to an email. It is difficult to keep them engaged.
 * 4) **Communications preferences**. Recipients will have different preferences for email offers, content and frequency which affect engagement and response. These have to be managed through communications preferences.
 * 5) **Resource intensive**. Although email offers great opportunities for targeting, personalisation and more frequent communications, additional people and technology resources are required to deliver these.

from davechaffey.com