Email marketing is directly
marketing a commercial message to a
group of people using electronic mail (email). In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It usually involves using email to send ads, request business, or solicit sales or donations, and is meant to build loyalty, trust, or brand awareness. Email marketing can be done to either cold lists or current customer database. Broadly, the term is usually used to refer to:
Sending email messages with the
purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or previous customers, to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business,
Sending email messages with the
purpose of acquiring new customers
or convincing current customers to
purchase something immediately,
Adding advertisements to email
messages sent by other companies to
their customers
Researchers estimate that United
States firms alone spent US $1.51
billion on email marketing in 2011
and will grow to $2.468 billion by
2016