Email marketing

Email marketing is the act of delivering a commercial message, usually to a group of individuals, via the use of an email account. Almost every email sent to a prospective or present client might be considered email marketing in the widest sense. It entails sending advertising, soliciting business, or soliciting purchases or contributions via the use of email. Email marketing tactics are often designed to accomplish one or more of three major objectives: to increase customer loyalty, trust, or brand exposure. The term typically refers to sending email messages with the goal of enhancing a merchant's relationship with current or previous customers, encouraging customer loyalty and repeat business, acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to make an immediate purchase, as well as sharing third-party advertisements with existing or prospective customers.

Email marketing has progressed at a quick pace in tandem with the advancement of technology in the twenty-first century. Prior to this expansion, when emails were still considered novelties by the vast majority of consumers, email marketing did not prove to be as successful. Using the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, Gary Thuerk of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) sent out the world's first bulk email to roughly 400 prospective customers in 1978. (ARPANET). He argues that this resulted in $13 million in sales of DEC products, and that it demonstrated the possibilities of marketing via large-scale email distribution.

However, when email marketing became more popular as a direct communication tool in the 1990s, consumers started to refer to it as "spam" and began filtering out content from emails using filters and blocking programmes to protect their inboxes. It was necessary for marketers to devise a method of delivering material to end users that would not be blocked by automated filters or spam-removing software in order to successfully transmit a message through email.

Historically, determining the performance of marketing initiatives has been challenging due to the inability to define target audiences accurately. It is advantageous for marketers to use email marketing since it allows them to track returns on investment as well as assess and improve efficiency. Email marketing enables marketers to get real-time feedback from consumers and to track the effectiveness of their campaign in terms of market penetration, exposing the reach of a communication channel. It also implies that the more personal quality of some advertising strategies, such as television adverts, will not be captured at the same time, which is unfortunate.