September 12th, 2009 | 
Author: Choose Your Email Marketing Software Wisely
Successful online business can’t be led without email marketing.Many people know that it is very important to have a web sitebut having a web site is only one step in creating successfulonline presence. You have to stay in touch with your clients andprospects. You need to have a two way communication with yourclients and prospects and best way to do this is to have anemail newsletter. To send emails to your customer you need theright email marketing software.
Choosing your email marketing software is one of the mostimportant steps you have to take in ebusiness. What are thosenecessary steps in choosing email marketing software?
Free or feebased
The first thing you will have to decide in choosing software foryour email campaigns will be whether you want to use free or feebased software. Some people may say: “There is much freesoftware on the Internet. Why would I pay for email marketingsoftware?” This is because some people still don’t have a habitto buy things on the Internet especially nontangible itemssuch are software and services. Many people still don’t realizethe power of email marketing so they think that can be satisfiedwith a free service.
One of the most famous contemporary economists a Nobel Prizewinner Mr. Milton Friedman said that there is no such thing likefree launch. And there is another statement that says “You getwhat you pay for”. I usually agree with these two statements.These have been proven on many examples especially on theInternet.
You can choose to use free software for email marketing but youwill be limited for some more advanced options. Some big portalsoffer free services for creating groups. This is OK but in thiscase you will send your email messages without many importantfeatures like personalization email tracking sending SMSusing CSV files etc. I don’t have to mention that many “free”email marketing software providers will include their ads inyour email newsletter. I guess that you don’t want that in yourbusiness email communication.
Some other free software like the free version of
It is recommended that you use feebased email marketingsoftware for your business email campaigns. However you alwayshave to look for a provider who offers a free trial as well.
Important features
You have to check if your email service provider offers theseseveral important features.
1Personalization personalization is one of the most importantthings that email marketing software has to provide. With goodpersonalization you will have better open rates and clickthrurates. Some more advanced email marketing software like
2Monitoring email marketing is popular and useful becauseresults can be measured very effectively. You have to ask youremail service provider if their product offers ability fordetailed reports for open rates clickthru ratesdeliverability…If their main product doesn’t offer that it isimportant that they offer additional service that can be easilyintegrated with their main product.
3Scalability one of the main features of modern software isscalability. At this moment you might need software that will beable to send 1000 emails at once but in 3 years your membershipbase can be 5000. Will your software be able to handle that?
4Creating HTML newsletters HTML newsletters have betterresponse rates than email newsletters in plaintext format sothis is also another thing you have to consider in choosing youremail marketing software. Without sending your email newsletterin HTML you won’t be able to do email tracking.
5Integration with existing applications and databases youremail marketing software has to offer you ability to import datafrom existing applications and databases like SQL ServerOracle MySQL Access FoxPro and Excel. Also it is very usefulthat it can be integrated with popular email clients like MSOutlook.
6International Character Support Online businesses have tohave a global focus so it is useful that email marketingsoftware provides support for International Characters.
7Plugins and updates it is very important that the emailservice provider constantly works on creating useful pluginsand updates in order to make your work easier and moreeffective.
8Technical support If you are an average Internet user withouttechnical knowledge you will probably want to get support foryour software. How good is your email service provider when itcomes to technical support?
Desktop email software vs. Hosted ASP
Now when you know do you want free or feebased software andwhat to look in your email marketing software you have to decidedo you want to have desktop email marketing software or socalled Hosted ASP. Both types have limitations and advantages.You have to choose the best option for you.
Desktop email software like Group Mail Plus one of the leading desktopemail marketing software has several very big advantages. Themost important is that details of your subscribers are keptprivate and secure on your own computer. Dot com crash is not sofar behind us. Imagine that you have several thousand clientsand use web based service from a company that will later go outof business. You can only imagine how that could affect yourbusiness and credibility! With Group Mail Plus you can manage anunlimited number of groups with unlimited number of recipientsin each. You will have a larger initial investment than withHosted ASP which charge a monthly fee but you will a fullcontrol of your email campaigns and after some time of usingyour software you will repay it.
With Hosted ASP you will usually have a lower initialinvestment. You don’t have to buy hardware and software.However price is usually determined by the number of emails yousend so you will pay more how your membership base gets biggerso this option will be much more expensive than a desktop emailmarketing software option in the long run.
You can see that choosing the right email marketing software isvery important. You have to bear in mind that the biggestinvestment is one that it is paid twice. So choose your emailmarketing software wisely
About the writer: S. Kumar is the webmaster and owner of Learnhomebusiness.com the site he started from a remote village in India and took it to one of the top ranked sites in the world!. Immediately Subscribe to his Free 1000 Gift Series’ before it wanishes!
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