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You put a lot of work into developing your email marketing plan. You want it to make an impact.

How interested would you be in email marketing if you knew up front that the work you put into it would not result in positive sales? What if you know up front that your email marketing efforts would not be well received by the recipient? How would this information impact your decision to move forward?

You may be surprised to learn how ineffective many email marketing plans are. It's not that the online business owner didn't have enough names. In fact, many business owners purchase or rent email lists to enhance prospects. It may not even be that the email was poorly developed.

So what is the problem?

The recipients don't know who you are. This type of email marketing effort is a lot like a salesman making a cold call or a telemarketer calling at suppertime. It is not well received because there is no prior knowledge the recipient can draw from.

Let's face it, none of us are especially thrilled with door-to-door salesmen and we often view cyber attempts at cold-call marketing as spam.

So, when it comes time to develop an email marketing plan it may be important to think of a better way to reach customers who may be more receptive to your message.

The truth is people don't mind doing business with a company they are familiar with. The Internet allows visitors to migrate easily from one ecommerce store to another. You may make an impression on the visitor and they may leave their email address behind, but chances are pretty good they will not easily remember who you are and where to find your site. When you capture an email address through your online presence this is an indication that the individual has an interest in what you have to offer. The email could be captured through a direct sale or a free membership registration, but this type of email acquisition is pure gold for email marketing.

Because Internet users have a short attention span you can use email marketing to remind them of why they came to your site in the first place. There are far too many web addresses for them to keep track of so make it easy on your potential customers by seeking to reestablish communication.

If the customer voluntarily passed along contact information you have every right to send email marketing information as long as you provide a way for them to unsubscribe if they no longer wish to receive information about your products or services.

In a perfect world email marketing simply works to take the seeds of trust and grow it into a partnership that respects those who extend original trust.