In the past few years, e-mail has burst upon the marketing scene with a great splash. What is it about e-mail that is so compelling?

It could be the speed with which e-mail is sent and received. Or it could be the high response rates that beat banner advertisements hands down. E-mail is 60 percent to 65 percent more cost-effective than direct mail (Yankee Group).

While these are surely factors, perhaps the reason lies more fundamentally in the marketing tenet, “Go where the customers are.” E-mail is the number one activity where online users spend their time. Nothing else compares.

As a marketer of almost any variety, e-mail is one place you must be. If e-mail is so great, why hasn’t it replaced the old-timers, direct mail, telemarketing, and other traditional media used by direct marketers?

E-mail is not as easy to use as one might think. To start, there are relatively few demographic databases for targeting — as a result, e-mail users are commonly anonymous users from the marketers’ perspective.

Also, e-mail requires a higher standard of privacy — an opt-in standard. Plus, e-mail is so easy to send that the average corporate user gets over 100 messages per day, raising the bar for your message to get the attention it deserves.

To rise above this inundation requires a truly unique selling proposition. For the best results — as is true in any promotion — your product or service must be easy to access, purchase or try, and offer high quality customer service. An online response interface will produce the best results.

An e-mail response is only a click away -- but so is the delete key! The easier it is to say “Yes,” the greater the response your campaign will generate. To help you tackle these challenges, this tutorial walks you through the steps to get the most out of your e-mail marketing efforts, including the ‘Golden Rules’ of e-mail marketing that will ensure your ultimate success.