E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fund-raising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every e-mail sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing. However, the main uses of it are to:
The basic concept of email marketing is simple, mainly a mailing list is used to send direct messages to a large group of potential customers.
It has many advantages such as
Now a days, companies in Pakistan are seeing its importance. There are many firms doing email marketing, while they are doing good – but they forget to add a very important feature of “Self un-subscribe” at the end of email, which is very important or the email will be termed as SPAM.
Following are two advertisements below which I received through email:
The first Ad is about a new clothing store located in Lahore and the second one is about a charity funded school. So in some way both of the Ads are related and meaningful to us. Like this, ads about restaurants, websites, and other businesses are being directed to us (the potential customers).
However, sending an email without the consent of receiver is illegal, and an email without Un-Subscribe Link is another offense, which should be kept in mind while advertising.
Both of above two elements are missing at most of times, making these marketing emails an offense – and can be charged under Cyber Crime Act of Pakistan.
Pricing: In Pakistan email campaigns are charged on per shoot (or per one email) basis. Usually email-marketers charge from Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 5,000 per email shoot. In one email shoot, they say that 300,000 to 500,000 users will get your message.
From where marketers get your Email: There are companies in Pakistan that offer 1 million email ids in a CD, that is easily available for Rs. 7,00 to Rs. 1,000.
