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Email marketing is seen by the majority of marketers as a classic and direct tool as it is a low cost way to land a direct hit, but recent research suggests that it can also be a valuable brand building solution as well as be used to promote email hosting.

Email marketing is defined as a promotional activity that strategically promotes products and services through electronic messages or e-mails. Usually people see e-mail campaigns as a tool to sell a product or service. However, looking at it on a bigger scale, we don’t see it as a tool to sell but an offering to build your brand and attract potential customers.

While social media is still very important, it is e-mail marketing that is trumps the pack as the most popular way to spread the word about a respective business. E-mail reigns supreme and in over 24 countries, 85 percent of people still use the Internet primarily for checking their e-mail.

Subscribers give you undivided attention when reading your e-mail when compared to what they do on their Facebook (News - Alert) page. This type of marketing is an effective brand-building tool simply because subscribers get your e-mails regularly, meaning that your brand name stays on the top of their minds at all times. Further, you can afford to take a subtle approach with your e-mail content as it has inherent value by itself. There is no need to shout when your readers are focused exclusively on what you have to say. This means you can take your time to grow the relationship. It also opens up options for the styles of content in your e-mails too. That maturity shows itself in more direct campaigns with very specific goals that go to only the right people for the right reasons.

With the help of Facebook and Twitter (News - Alert), e-mail marketing can just be as revolutionary with the help of social media platforms. In fact, this type of promotion is like a door-to-door salesman with results being produced with every knock he has made and every home he has visited. During this process, sellers make a point to build relationships with their clients and that comes alongside a solid reputation as well as credibility earned. This is the basic recipe to brand building. In the long run, they created an impression and a presence, which will eventually be seen as cost-effective benefits.

As Russell Parsons (News - Alert) says in a recent article, “It will not come as a surprise to many that the most popular reason consumers sign-up for company’s e-mails do so primarily to save money. A whopping 61 per cent of people sign up to hear more about offers and sales, 59 percent to get discounts and 56 percent vouchers. Other significant motivations that prompt sign-up include “like the brand” (40 percent), a desire “to stay in touch” with news and views from the brand (33 percent) and the promise of “exclusive content” (21 percent).

The increasing acceptance and desire for e-mail-based communications like email hosting focus on matters other than just price, something that should provide plenty of food for thought for everyone involved in the industry.