Direct email marketing is a format for email-based campaigns in which either standalone or multiple advertisements are sent to a targeted list of recipients.

Message Types

The messages may be as basic text, highlighted as HTML, or rich media (including AJAX, DHTML or Flash) and will usually clearly look like Web-based ads rather than typical email messages.

We do not do AJAX, DHTML or Flash emails.

A number of elements make direct email marketing different from spam or other less sophisticated email campaigns.

DOUBLE OPT-IN

Firstly and most importantly, all emails in the database are OPT-IN or preferably DOUBLE OPT-IN.

Double opt-in means that the subscriber has requested to be added to the email list and then they have been sent a confirmation email with a link which they click to "double confirm" that they do indeed want to be added to the specific email marketing or newsletter list.

Other examples

The sender may use customer segmentation techniques to ensure that the message is appropriate for the group it's sent to, and use personalization techniques so the recipient is addressed as an individual.

In contrast to the moronic bombardment approach of spam, the concept behind direct email marketing is that it makes more sense to send attractive, professional, and compelling ads to a smaller group of recipients that might actually be interested in receiving such messages.

To avoid legal problems, it is important to note that Direct Email Marketing should be permission-based opt-in email, rather than unsolicited commercial email (UCE).

Tracking / Metrics

Direct email marketing messages often include mechanisms that provide the sender with feedback on the effectiveness of a campaign, by making it possible to track metrics such as the number of messages that were opened, the number of clicks that were generated from a message, the number of recipients that requested removal from the sender's list, and the number of messages that were bounced by the recipient's server.

Many companies now create a specific "Landing Page" for their campaigns and are able to track user interest from these landing pages. This information allows companies to focus on which products or services their consumers are actually looking for, thereby increasing company profits by targeting these specific items.