When a Web site offers the opportunity for a person to enter an e-mail address on the company site and receive promotions, newsletters or other information, they are using opt-in e-mailing. Opt-in (or permission based) e-mail advertising, is stressed throughout the book.
"Email Marketing" goes into the nuts and bolts of opt-in to show how to do it well. It is filled with first-hand accounts from a diverse group of companies on how they use opt-in e-mail to stimulate business. The book also shows several Web sites and documents used in direct marketing.
Companies considering the use of e-mail sales messages as a marketing tool to build a client base for their businesses should look at this book first to see how to use e-mail effectively without spamming and hype. "Email Marketing" covers the positives and negatives of using e-mail to capture prospects and customers.
"Email Marketing" is no flimsy tome on spamming. It is a serious attempt to help businesses use the positives of e-mail to increase their customer base. Without using technical jargon, "E-Marketing" covers the thorny problems of setting up e-mail format to relate to many different messaging programs. Reading this book is an excellent first step to create a successful e-mail campaign.
A book that is great for the person starting out is Make Your Website work for you. It's a basic book, but it gives a more robust program. There's also one about affiliate marketing and developing associations. I think both will help you better market online.
Prior to reading this book I did not have a lot of experience with Email Marketing (other then a "victim"). I would really advice anyone in this situation to read this book before sending out any email. It really got me started on the subject and I know ordered several other books for a more detailed discussion of several aspects.
There is some discussion about how to answer email send to you. However, most of the book is focussed on sending out (batches of) emails to you clients/prospects to get them to do something (most of the time visit your website or place an order)
This books is a real *must* read for anybody wanting to use email as a marketing tool. It will prevent you from making numerous of costly mistakes and it will give you plenty of tips and hints you probably didn't think off.