Enterprises today engage in a variety of marketing and promotion activities, typically including a mix of direct mailing, print advertising in newspapers or magazines, TV advertising, online advertising, outdoors, point of sales promotions, and more.

For those of you, who havent yet given a thought to email marketing, heres an eye-opener: according to DoubleClick's email consumer study, over 78% of online shoppers have purchased through of permission-based emails and 59% of email recipients have bought in a retail store as a result of a merchant email.

Low campaign execution costs
You can launch an email campaign for a fraction of the cost of any other type of direct marketing campaign. All the other mediums include associated costs of conceptualizing, designing, printing, postage, and handling; and involve a lot of resources and time. While, email campaign could be executed through easily available applications at a click of a button.

Most costs are one time or recur yearly
As basic as asking for the order is to selling, asking for an order is not an end in itself. Once you have acquired a target list, you dont need to spend again for a long time, while in other mediums, each campaign brings along a fresh set of expenses.

Higher ROI
The cost of sending a direct mail piece by postal service runs over a dollar, while each email costs much less than a cent. Even 1% response rate from direct mail is considered terrific. An email marketing campaign can have a response rate ranging from 5 to 10%, as people find it easier to respond back through this medium. You can project the advantages in terms of ROI yourself.

Best for niche audience
If you have a very niche audience, all other means of direct marketing turn out to be extremely expensive, as printing in low quantities is a costly venture. In such a case, email marketing is the best bet.

A well-designed campaign using a properly managed mailing list will give response rates which are much higher than other direct marketing methods. It costs less to retain an existing customer than to acquire a new one; email marketing can help you minimize the customer retention cost. According to a study 42% of small businesses will use various methods of email marketing by 2006. Go ahead, and be a part of the race, coz if you dont, your competition will march way ahead before you know it.