Email Marketing: Nothing is Free

One of the best ways to sell a service is to offer something free and then ‘make the money’ back by charging for extra services. Many people who are new to email marketing are caught by these marketing ploys because they do not understand what are now considered standard services in the industry.

Standard Email Campaign Services

There are other tools available that small business owners should consider. These tools include:

• Spam Filter testing before the campaign is initiated
• Subscriber management tools
• Simple Importing and Exporting
• Simple Design tools
• HTML and Text versions of the same email
• Who is using a ‘share with a friend’ tool.
• Applications for using the tool on websites and social networking/bookmarking sites.
• An anti-spam policy to protect all clients from unethical ones.
• A web based version of the email is available
• Full Metrics and Reports
• 100% privacy
• No hosting costs
• Multiple, customizable, templates

Nothing Is Free

Many of the services have a ‘back handed’ offer of free. They offer a free service, but when the list hits a certain level they charge an high fee for extra hosting. A more common trick is to make it almost impossible to export the list, making it almost impossible to switch servers.

Another way the ‘free’ services keep their costs down is to advertise on your emails, or build their own lists from your lists. Everyone has seen this in some emails where the tag line at the bottom for the ‘email marketing’ company is actually more prominent or better looking, than the actual email.

The most devastating trick is to expire the campaign after 30, 90, or 120 days. Some people keep old emails. I do, especially ones I may want to use in the future, or for making purchases at Christmas. The campaign manager should have 100% control over how long the links remain alive.

Do not settle for anything less than the best service. A penny saved today could cost your company money tomorrow in lost clients, lost sales, and diminished credibility within your industry.