Now that we’ve discussed various changes we might expect to see, both technologically and economically (and how those changes are, in the case of the evolution of the internet and internet marketing, inextricably linked), we can begin to look at how specific elements of internet marketing can help the economy and your business.  For this discussion, we’re going to examine email marketing.

In past discussions on email marketing, we’ve looked at how it increases efficiency while decreasing cost, especially when compared to direct mail marketing.  We explored how reports relating to the success of an email marketing campaign are generated in real time; and these reports show many tidbits of useful information that you cannot glean from direct mail marketing.  These elements include click-throughs and unsubscribes, both of which can tell you a lot about how successful a campaign is.

We’ve looked at some important tips to remember when planning or running an email marketing campaign, from how to stay out of spam and junk mail folders to the proper size (in pixels) for your email marketing campaign message so that it can be viewed on multiple browsers, email programs (such as Outlook), and even mobile phones that both have full internet and also those that simply have email features.

In addition to being more cost effective and efficient, email marketing will also help to evolve the internet, and internet marketing strategies, while, at the same time, helping to boost the economy.  How will the economy be helped through increased use of email marketing campaigns?  Email marketing is part of a cycle that connects your business, your internet marketing agency, and your prospects and customers.

This cycle can be viewed in two ways.  First let’s look at a simple circular example.  Imagine three entities.  Your business, the internet marketing agency you elect to run your email marketing campaign, and the prospects and customers who receive your email marketing messages, whether they be newsletters, coupons, announcements, surveys or any other form of email communication.

Your business invests in an email campaign designed and managed (with your needs in mind, of course) by an internet marketing agency.  You’re helping to support that agency, thus helping to provide jobs to coders, designers, marketers, writers, system administrators and additional professionals.  The internet marketing agency prepares and implements an email marketing campaign to fit your business, and distributes it to your prospects and customers, who in turn support your business.

That’s a simplified version of the cycle, but an inherent understanding of that simplification is necessary to move on to the more complicated example.  Imagine now, instead of a circle, a straight line.  On one side you have prospects and customers, on the other side you have an internet marketing agency and in the middle rests your company or business.  Branching off of prospects and customers are friends, family and coworkers.

Your company purchases email marketing services from the internet marketing agency, providing jobs as previously mentioned (thus fueling the economy).  The internet marketing agency distributes your email campaign to prospects and customers, who then buy products from your business or company.  So far, this is similar to the circular example, but there are a few exceptions to this deeper level of understanding.  Your business, through your website and products offered, turns prospects into customers, and customers into satisfied customers, who then pass on the email to friends, family and coworkers.

Friends, family and coworkers become new prospects, with the opportunity to become customers, feeding into your business.  In addition, their companies begin to use the internet marketing agency to run an email marketing campaign while your company begins to sign up for additional online advertising opportunities.  Before you know it, the circle has become a web of interconnectivity, where every entity benefits from the relationships formed through what started out as a simple email marketing campaign.