In unravelling some of the myths about email promotion one of the most common idea's circling around at the moment is that e-mail marketing is no longer a viable medium for reaching your customers. Whilst it is true that the proliferation of spam has provided a high amount of awareness and bad press and is now undergoing a move to curtail it on a legal basis. The fact is that permission based e-mail marketing is still one of the most effective, measurable and easily track-able forms of advertising. According to a recent DoubleClick report 69% of American e-mail users made an online purchase by a permission based e-mail.

Amongst some of the home based business and small companies there seems to be the notion that by using e-mail advertising it will create a lower opinion of their business. Obviously if a poor campaign is put together that may well be the case. However, if your campaign is well targeted with quality information that is of value to your customers, it will further enhance your company’s credibility. The main points to remember when putting together your campaign and promoting to your opt-in list is the quality of the information. Make sure you are making the offer to the right market; make sure your content has been checked meticulously for errors. Finally before embarking on an all out campaign do a test run perhaps by signing up for a free e-mail address.

One of the funny little quirks of the mind is for some companies to be in fear of sending e-mails to it's customers as they think that they will start to unsubscribe! So the only time they contact them is to inform, instead of to promote. Of course if you don't send any promotional e-mail they will not unsubscribe, but your business is wasting a valuable marketing tool by not using the e-mails that have been collected. If you are still not entirely convinced a recent study by the Direct Marketing Association of Interactive Marketing confirmed that 63% of companies surveyed said that e-mail promotion was their most effective customer-retention tool.

One of the reasons why some companies are reluctant to embark on an e-mail promotion is the misconception that it is difficult to put together. When certainly now a days, there are a number of software tools that make it very simple to operate. There are tools for tracking, auto-responders for delivering an ongoing campaign and provided you follow the rules you can't be accused of sending spam.

To sum up any business that has built up an opt-in list can put together a profitable e-mail campaign and turn it into one of it's greatest assets, not only for producing more sales but also to help retain it's current customer base. So don't procrastinate any longer, use that list and build your business.