| A decade ago, email was a highly personalized form | | | | opted to receive the messages; this means that the |
| of communication used by only a handful of people. | | | | subscriber has knowingly supplied his or her email |
| Oh, how the times have changed! Now email is not | | | | address to a company or business. Similarly, email |
| only a personal communication channel used by a few | | | | marketing success is no longer measured by how |
| people, it's a communication channel used by virtually | | | | many emails were sent, but by the activity of the |
| everyone for personal communication and for direct | | | | mailing list. Basically, the more subscribers who take |
| marketing. Direct email software, now commonly | | | | action after opening and reading the message, the |
| called email marketing, is cost-effective, efficient, | | | | better. |
| easy to monitor, gives you a good return on | | | | These actions are more important than the number |
| investment and generates revenue. | | | | of people on the list. Another big change that has |
| In the beginning, email marketing was less regulated, | | | | occurred has been the advent of social media. Now, |
| less personal and less effective. The idea was | | | | it's possible to share email newsletters on social sites. |
| basically this: marketers would creative massive | | | | Combining these two powerful types of media is |
| mailing lists of people who hadn't opted to receive | | | | easy and makes for a powerhouse online marketing |
| emails and bombard them. Eventually, the marketing | | | | solution. |
| message should have gotten through, right? Well, no. | | | | Email marketing has clearly changed since its |
| These tactics were obviously unsuccessful. Since | | | | inception, and now it's also a great revenue |
| then, legislation has been put into place that attempts | | | | generating medium. An email newsletter can peak |
| to stop the sending of unsolicited marketing | | | | interest in a new product to encourage sales, or it |
| messages. In the United States, the CAN-SPAM Act | | | | can lead subscribers to go ahead and buy some item |
| of 2003 established the first standards of sending | | | | they've been looking at for awhile. Not only is email a |
| commercial email. | | | | wonderful way to increase brand visibility, but it's a |
| Now, email marketing relies on subscribers who have | | | | great way to generate revenue. |