When you own a website, you can do a lot more with it besides being up and running on the Internet. One powerful website “add-on” is the ability to collect the email addresses of visitors to your site, and “stay in touch” with current and prospective customers by means of an email marketing system. Email addresses collected at your site can be combined with email addresses collected by offline means, and through an email marketing system you can communicate in one easy step with everyone on your list. The system is easy to set up, very affordable, and often yields profitable results far in excess of your investment.

Email marketing has come a long way in recent years, and now, through a managed system, you can send messages out to your list in an attractive, graphics-enhanced, email format. An email marketing system is useful for just about every business. Some uses that come to mind include newsletters, new product or services announcements, special offers and promotions, changes in your business, advice columns, and so on. It is a rare business that cannot benefit from improved communication with clients, and professional email marketing is one of the easiest communication methods available.

On your website, you need to set up a short form that collects visitors’ email addresses, and each new email address is automatically added to your email marketing list. Email addresses gathered offline can be added manually to your email marketing list. You then prepare your newsletter, or other communication, input it into your chosen template, and you’re ready to email everyone on your list, with a professional looking html-enhanced email. Each communication that goes out through the system is formatted into whatever graphic “look” has been designed for your system. Typically, it will echo the look of your website. One of the best features of the email maketing system is that it recognizes the settings of the recipient’s computer, and if they are not set up for graphic emails, it will simply arrive at their desktop as a plain text email. No longer does the sender have to worry if the recipient can “see” their email correctly.

Not only does this system let you send as many messages as you want in one step, it lets you do some tracking, also. You can track how many recipients actually opened the email, and how often. This can be of help in measuring the interest level in a particular communication. Finally, it is very easy for a recipient who does not want to be on the list to “unsubscribe.” Email marketing has gotten a bad rap in recent years, as the lines have been blurred between valid marketing and spam. But when properly used, it is a powerful marketing tool, that allows a website owner to “keep in touch” with many clients and prospects with no more effort than it takes to compose a single email.

About the author: Neil Street is co-founder of Small Business Online, based in Wilton, CT., a website design, management, and promotion company dedicated to the Internet needs of the small business. His website is at http://www.smallbusinessonline.net Send email to neil@smallbusinessonline.net He can also be reached at (203)761-7992