Email marketing is also known as EDM marketing (Email Direct Marketing), which means that companies establish communication channels with target customers through emails, directly convey relevant information to them, and promote sales. However, since spam has become a major cancer in the Internet world, in order to distinguish it from spam, some scholars believe that email marketing should be based on the “permission” of target customers, that is, permission email marketing. Email marketing based on user permission is different from spam. For example, it can reduce the nuisance of advertisements to users, increase the accuracy of potential customer positioning, enhance the relationship with customers, and improve brand loyalty.
In cross-border e-commerce, email marketing is a commonly used marketing method, mainly because it has the following advantages.
First, the cost of email marketing is low. Some email marketers offer email advertising prices of 0.1~0.2 yuan per email address, and the price of sending a large number of emails can even be as low as 0.01~0.03 yuan. As for companies sending emails by themselves, the cost will be lower.
Second, it is efficient and has a short marketing cycle. Depending on the number of emails sent, it takes a few seconds to a few hours to complete the sending. Similarly, undeliverable emails can be returned immediately or within a few days. A marketing cycle can be completed within a few days.
Secondly, the marketing information is rich and comprehensive. In the email, not only simple text can be used, but also pictures, animations, audio, video, and hyperlinks can be reflected. The information delivered to customers is rich and diverse, which can fully attract the attention of customers and deepen their understanding of the company or product.
In addition, email marketing is highly targeted. Emails can be sent to potential customers in a targeted manner, which belongs to “precision marketing”. Compared with other media advertisements that are not targeted, the marketing cost is greatly reduced.
Finally, it is convenient for monitoring marketing effects. Email marketing can monitor a number of data to evaluate marketing effects as needed, such as delivery rate, click-through rate, response rate, etc.
However, there are many problems with email marketing in cross-border e-commerce. In particular, some emails will be blocked due to spam filtering. Spam also affects customers’ trust in email information, causing the response rate of email marketing to decrease year by year. In addition, frequent changes in customer email addresses can also cause information to fail to be effectively delivered, resulting in an increase in the return rate.