However, I do notice that many businesses tend to have tunnel vision when it comes to email marketing. The thinking is, 'If I can just find the right email list to get my ad out to, I'm going to rake in the sales.'

Renting email lists is only one way to put email to work as a marketing and communications tool, and for most businesses this should not even be the primary way. Here are some important ways you should consider incorporating email into your marketing communications program.

House Email Lists

Although renting email lists is certainly a way to get your marketing message out, you'll get more long-term value if you work to build your own in-house email lists.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again: A rented email list is always an expense, but your own email list is an asset. Developing your own "permissioned" commercial list or newsletter gives you a medium you can mail to at very low cost. More important, it gives you an audience you can speak to regularly and build a relationship with. If your house list gets large enough, you can eventually go into the email list rental business yourself, as long as your permission-based relationship with your recipients allows for that.

At EmailResults.com, we're developing our own double-opt-in list of businesspeople interested in email and online marketing. Because of our presence in the email marketing business, this list (small now but growing) will be of great value to us and to our marketing partners. Want to sign up? Visit http://www.emailresults.com/deals.html .

Email Publishing

Producing an email newsletter or email-based information service allows you to get your company's name in front of your target audience and positions you as an expert in your field. It's a way you can attract and serve your target audience. However, right now the email space is flooded with publications competing for users' attention. Many of these publications are of poor quality and little value. So to build a good online readership, your publication needs to be unique and professional and needs to offer something your readers can't get anywhere else.

Email Collateral

Electronic mail is a great way to deliver sales material. If you haven't already, you should put together a series of "canned" messages you can send out by email when someone inquires about your services or products. I'm partial to text messages that can easily be pasted into the body of an email message. But many companies create their electronic collateral in Microsoft Word format or in PDF (Adobe Portable Document File) format, which allows for a more polished presentation.

One example from our own business: Because we run a Web site focused on email marketing, I get many requests from businesspeople asking me, 'Can you provide an email list that reaches this or that market?' The fact is, I don't provide email lists at all, and I used to write back a quick note just letting the inquirer know that. Then I realized I was missing an opportunity to develop some Web traffic. So now, I send back a message letting them know about the EmailResults.com Marketers' Market (http://market.emailresults.com) and how they can use it to find opt-in lists and email marketing services, complete with testimonials from satisfied users. Quite often I will find out the next day that that person has registered on the site and submitted a request through our marketplace system.

I have a line of 10 Notepad files right on my desktop handy for quick launching when various situations come up. It's a great marketing tool and a real time-saver.

E-Commerce Messaging

If you run an online store, your e-commerce system probably incorporates email messaging functions that you should pay attention to. For example, your store probably sends out a confirmation email when a customer completes a purchase. How well branded is that email? Does it prominently show your business name, your contact information, and the URL for your Web site? Is it possible that this message could be used to promote other products or services?

Also, many Web store programs allow you to build customer email lists and use them for building repeat business. Be sure to take advantage of features like this.

A highly trafficked Web site can generate a large number of user inquiries and customer service requests. If this is the case for your site, you might need to consider going over to an automated email response management system. Many such systems use artificial intelligence to determine the content of a message, send an immediate reply, and forward the inquiry to the correct human for more individualized attention. In most cases, a machine response is not a reasonable replacement for human action, but it does let the customer or user know that their concern is being handled.

Everyday Email Correspondence

Think of your email correspondence as a branding opportunity. Edit for spelling, punctuation, and grammar. I receive a huge number of email messages from friends and colleagues. In some cases, it's a good thing that I know what superb professionals they are, because just from looking at their email messages I would think they're cave dwellers!

Many of us feel that email is a casual medium and that precision shouldn't be such a worry; for many situations I'm sure that's true. However, it's good to remember that even personal emails have a way of working their way around to outsiders. You might have sent a private email to your buddy, but suppose he forwards it on to two or three other people because of its brilliant content (or for laughs)? Take a few seconds to edit your communications to create a good impression.

Another way to use everyday email communications as a marketing tool: Create an email signature, a block of copy that can be inserted at the end of every email. This is especially valuable for public postings in newsgroups, bulletin boards, and email discussion lists. A signature at the end of your message can function as a tactful ad for your business and Web site. One thing I like about Microsoft Outlook is that it allows me to create multiple signatures. I have twelve signatures I use for different purposes. As an example, here's a signature I often use when I want someone to know about our online marketplace:

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Al Bredenberg, Publisher
EmailResults.com Marketers' Market
Online marketplace for opt-in email marketing
http://market.emailresults.com
ab@emailresults.com

Email Appending

This is a controversial practice, but I bring it up because it is of interest to many businesses with large customer and marketing databases. These businesses would like to communicate with their customers by email, but often the email address is a recently added field and the percentage of records with the email address is very low. Email appending is a process that uses a third-party database services to match up existing customers with their email addresses obtained through another channel.

Many observers are critical of email appending because it can result in consumers' being added to email lists without their permission. Certainly to the extent that you are adding users to an email list without their permission, you are increasing the risk that you will be accused of spamming. Some marketers diminish the risk by incorporating permission procedures into the appending process.

An email advertising buy, whether renting an opt-in list or advertising in an email newsletter, can certainly be a fruitful strategy for reaching new markets online. But don't forget the many other ways that email communications can be integrated into your marketing efforts.

Got ideas for other ways to incorporate email into communications efforts? Why not post a letter and let us know what you've found to be successful. Just use the "Post Letter" link at the top of the right-hand column on this page.

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Al Bredenberg is publisher of EmailResults.com (http://www.emailresults.com) and the EmailResults.com Marketers' Market (http://market.emailresults.com), the online marketplace for email marketing.