Let's face it - the # 1 killer ap on the internet today is email. Why is email a goldmine as far as business is concerned? Simple, it gives you the capability to reach zillions of people (read "prospects") at the click of a button at literally zero cost. It's a real no-brainer what it means to generate even one sale with such costs.

PLUS it helps you evaluate to the last penny how your marketing campaigns fare. There is no better way to evaluate your campaign other than an email marketing campaign. Why? Because it helps you track your results down to the last individual - right from how many people actually opened your mail to the number of sales (or results) that you generated. In fact the biggest companies today test their campaigns online to get an accurate measure before launching a full-blown offline marketing campaign.

PLUS PLUS despite the growing misuse of email or SPAM by unscrupulous marketers, the fact is that people are less likely to trash an email as opposed to regular postal mail that they receive in their mailboxes. So email marketing is a real win-win proposition.

Leading online marketers have recognized the power of email marketing as a great tool for back end sales, repeat sales and cross sales. No wonder then that they've built up opt-in lists of over 100s of thousands of subscribers. They use these opt-in subscribers to teach them the power of online marketing and at the same time expose them to their tools and products, creating a mutually beneficial relationship.

Email is a remarkable tool to maintain and evolve customer relations. In this cut-throat world of competition, companies are increasingly realizing that its far easier to retain existing customers by nurturing their relations rather than trying to get new customers. Marketing statistics demonstrate that its 70% cheaper to cross-sell to an existing customer than getting a new one.

Advanced Applications

The best part is that email allows you to develop customer relation like no other way, that is why e-CRM has grown to have tremendous significance. Email correspondences give you the power to collect and analyze customer history most effectively. At the touch of a button, you can have access to customer purchase history, customer preferences, customer satisfaction and much before. All this enables to help you develop more meaningful marketing correspondence and a more satisfying experience for your customer. While all this may seem Greek and Latin to the beginner, the fact is that as your business grows you will find yourself doing all this and much more and email will help you do all this at ZERO cost. Now can you imagine the power of email? The challenge is to grow the initial faceless relationship into a full-fledged intimate one.

So don't waste evaluating the pros and cons of email as your most effective marketing weapon - if you're not in, you're out. The fact is that email is here to stay and you better begin today to harness its true power as you move up your growth path.