Using email campaign software is a step in the right direction as far as bulk email marketing is concerned. This is because tasks like physically mailing, while the most important part of bulk email marketing, is still laborious and it is not sensible to hire manpower for this task. It instead makes sense for you automate this process and this is where campaign software comes into the picture. Note that there are two forms of this software: online and offline. The online version is literally like looking at a dashboard, importing your email addresses, creating an email, and then pressing send. The offline version is pretty much the same and consists of a database server and a mailing application.

The difference between these two options lies fundamentally in costs and control rather than functionality. In fact, the online version is far superior considering that there are more bundled service offerings that you get when you use it. Some of these offerings include advanced tracking functionality and reporting and templates. Depending on which service provider you use, you might even get more. The offline line version also offers tracking functionality but at a more rudimentary level and with just a spreadsheet. The offline version, however, does offer you the functionality of surveys.

On the subject of costs, this is dictated as a factor of time. Consider this situation: You start out as a small company and you obviously might not want to invest in complex infrastructure and instead decide to use an online version at a cost. This cost of an online service is not a onetime membership cost. As you mail more and more people, your member ship costs will increase and eventually, you will end up with a huge bill to foot.

It is at this time that you will have to consider an offline version. When you have your own infrastructural setup, you can transfer most of your variable costs to fixed ones. Bandwidth is one of the only variable costs that you might have to face but even this can be transferred to a fixed cost eventually. Therefore, what you end up with is the ability to conduct high volume email marketing at a completely fixed cost a dream situation for any cost accountant. However, this situation might be offset if you can strike a good deal with a service provider to maintain a yearly billing.

At the end of the day, the decision on whether to go in for online email campaign software or offline email campaign software is also a decision that is a result of your projections of the future and how big you intend to grow. This is similar to buying machinery and expecting the per unit cost to reduce over a period of time. Ensure that you make the right decision and that you carefully consider your earnings potential before you get into making a massive investment that will only pay off in the long term.

Jamie j Colbs is a best practices activist and advocate for Benchmark Email (http://www.benchmarkemail.com/email-marketing/email-campaigns) a leading Web and permission-based service for sending and tracking a email campaign.