Perhaps one of the most important components of Internet marketing is electronic mail. A form of direct marketing that makes use of email to communicate commercial messages directly to consumers, email marketing is one of the most popular ways by which companies can reach their target audiences directly.

This form of marketing can be interpreted in many different ways. It can mean sending messages to enhance an already established relationship between business and patron in order to encourage loyalty and continued transactions. It can also be used to acquire new customers or persuade consumers to purchase a product immediately.

Aside from this, email marketing can be used to forward advertisements from other companies to a new set of consumers. Regardless of how it is used, marketing via email has plenty to offer online businesses. The fact that over half of Internet users check or send email everyday is enough to boost the popularity of this form of marketing, as advertisers now have the opportunity to reach a significant number of email users who have chosen to subscribe to their offers.

Another noteworthy advantage of email marketing is that its return on investment can be tracked to an exact amount - and when done correctly, the ROI is definitely worth the advertising dollars being thrown at it.

Analyzing the figures

This powerhouse online marketing strategy is so effective researchers estimate that in the US alone, companies spent over US $400 million in email marketing in 2006 - and it is still growing.

The Email Benchmarking Report for the first half of 2010 showed that email volumes grew 50% from the previous year, while in the UK, marketing firms sent out an average 1.7 billion emails a month from January to June of 2010.

The report also noted the importance of that number, saying that 1.7 billion emails can be translated to 1.7 billion opportunities for the audience to engage with their brand, creating 270 million interactions and about 78 million click-through - all in the span of a month.

The figures are staggering - and all offer a view of email as one of the most cost-effective ways of marketing products and services.

This is also one of the main draws of email marketing. To put it simply - it is cheap - one of the cheapest forms of marketing in fact, that can generate the best results for your dollar.

If for example, the cost per thousand emails sent can be pegged at around $15-$30, then the average cost per click generated by the email activity amounts to a mere matter of nickels and cents - definitely the cheapest way to market your company and create brand awareness.

Needless to say companies have been paying attention and is using email marketing to their advantage in order to create a name for themselves and pump life into their business.

Jaxky Lim wants to share his knowledge about internet marketing and Pay Per Click ads. Based on real life experiences, his PPC pay per click site is created to share those resources so people can benefit from it.

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