E-Mail Campaigns in Order to Manage a

E-Mail Campaigns In order to manage a successful e-mail campaign, a Webmaster's efforts must be organized, directed, and efficient. Accordingly, e-mail service providers such as Constant Contact, MailChimp, and Topica provide various tools that help Webmasters reach out to a large number of current and potential customers in an organized and directed fashion.

For example, Constant Contact offers its customers a number of features for their e-mail campaigns, including, but not limited to, "anti-spam tests" to ensure its customer's e-mail does not get automatically sent to a subscriber's "junk mail" folder, and "Autoresponder" features, which allows the customer to automatically send "Welcome" or "Thank You" e-mails to its subscribers ("Constant Contact," n.d.). Such features allow the Webmaster to focus on other marketing initiatives without having to worry about maintaining the current customer base.

More importantly, however, is the fact that e-mail servers such as Constant Contact and others have programs that allow customers to monitor campaign results, i.e., review the amount of clicks on a particular site, review the number of opened links etc.… ("Constant Contact," n.d.). In addition, e-mail service providers also help Webmasters send e-mail to those who actually want to receive it. As succinctly put by Constant Contact: "What's the best email list for your business or organization? A permission-based one.

That means everyone on it said it's okay for you to contact them. It's better than an email list you buy or rent, because you already know the people on your email list want to hear from you and are interested in you. It doesn't cost you anything to build one. Email Marketing helps you start your email list -- and keep it growing, too [emphasis added]" ("Constant Contact," n.d.).

With regard to e-mail tracking reports that are available, MailChimp's tracking service provides information on the amount of total recipients, successful e-mail deliveries, number of times e-mails have been forwarded, number of times that those forwarded e-mails have been opened, total times a particular e-mail was opened, the last time an e-mail was opened, number of complaints, total un-subscriptions, and total number of recipients in a given time period who "liked" the customer on facebook ("MailChimp," n.d.).

Similar features exist on Constant Contact, including information on what percentage of a customer's e-mail marketing list opened the customer's e-mail, and who the individuals are, running counts of how many people Tweet about a customer's e-mails, and bounced e-mails, to name a few ("Constant Contact," n.d.). Like Constant Contact and MailChimp, Topica provides the same type of reports by tracking "every subscriber for every link on every campaign" ("Topica," n.d.).

A blog is basically an online forum where a writer can openly express his or her viewpoints on anything and everything, e.g., a journal. Accordingly, a personal blog differs substantially from a business or commercial blog because personal blogs, like handwritten journals, are not meant to convince the reader that he or she must buy or subscribe to a particular viewpoint; personal blogs are generally meant to express, not advocate or convince.

Conversely, business blogs examine a particular product or service in an effort to persuade the reader that the reader should either agree or disagree with the writer and subsequently purchase or otherwise support the particular product or service. Blogs are therefore a powerful force in e-commerce marketing because a business blog can take a product and with uncanny candor, review and either praise or disparage the product, thereby increasing or decreasing, sales revenues, to one degree or another.

In other words, blogs serve as a marketing medium much like journals or other print media. I participate in pearlsandpeacocks.com. This blog is basically an expose on the fashion industry; the author writes on the latest fashion item or news, offers her own.