Marketing love it or hate it, it's a vital part of running a business, and a must if your business is to survive and grow. Whatever form your marketing takes, deciding on an effective strategy combined with affordable costs will possibly involve many long hours of thought and discussion before any campaign is even put in place.

As a business owner your place is running your business - and that includes marketing; so how do you achieve both of these time-consuming duties without inventing a 30-hour day? For the marketing side of things at least, there is a solution.

Easy, Fast and Low-Cost
One of the most efficient delivery methods is email marketing; currently the fastest and most cost-effective way of getting your company's message to hundreds or even thousands of businesses at a fraction of the cost of paper-based campaigns.

There are now many good email marketing programmes available, most of which will manage every aspect of your campaign from start to finish including those vital follow-up emails, which are often forgotten or ignored but much more important than you'd imagine.

Personalised Communication
Think about the paper-based advertising that arrives through your letterbox nearly every day. Leaflets and flyers advertising all sorts of services and products; promising you this and that; discounts here, free gifts there, and where does the majority of it end up? In a rubbish bin unread, ripped up and forgotten.

The same thing happens to many marketing emails; why? Because for the most part they are impersonal messages that have been sent to countless numbers of businesses without having been addressed to anyone in particular in the hope that somebody will read them and act on the information; consequently, they meet the same fate as their paper counterparts, albeit electronically.

Effective Targeting
Playing the numbers game is fine if you're happy to get one or two responses out of thousands of emails sent, but effective targeting could significantly increase the amount of replies and ultimately your sales. So how do you boost the chances of getting your emails read? Quite simply by personalising them and making the readers feel as though you know them.

Studies have shown that people respond better to emails that address them by their first name - this is the first step in gaining the target's attention and getting him or her to read on. Many email marketing programmes have a facility allowing you to build a comprehensive subscribers' list from which the information gathered can be used to address each and every email to a different person and the content tailored to suit that person; this means there is much higher possibility of a favourable response.

Trust and Credibility
Good customer relations thrive on efficient communication. Your clients want to know what is going on; they want to be kept informed about new products, promotions and discounts. They want to be notified about special deals, loyalty schemes or preferential rates on bulk purchases. In other words, they want to know everything; regular email newsletters enable them to do just that.

Email is an excellent way of building credibility and gaining customer trust. Your customers want to be assured that you know your product or service inside out, and by sending them regular information-filled emails you can prove it to them. Credibility and trust, once established can lead to a significant increase in business and a respected company reputation, which in itself is priceless.

Making Use of Feedback
Customer feedback is extremely valuable for assessing the effectiveness of a marketing campaign or inviting opinions on your services or products, but many businesses shy away from asking too many questions in the mistaken belief that their customers will see it as a waste of time.

Surprisingly, most people will happily take the time to complete a short email questionnaire, and because they are not face-to-face' with you they are likely to be much more honest in their replies, which in turn enables you to target your marketing far more accurately.

First Port of Call
Marketing shouldn't stop when the orders come flooding in; it should be an on-going process regardless of good or poor sales. Regular emails and newsletters play two important roles in marketing. Firstly, they keep your customers informed and up to date with your products and services and any promotions you may be running.

Secondly, they let your customers know you're there and thinking about them this is a simple but often overlooked strategy that surprisingly is appreciated by customers who like to know you haven't forgotten them once you've received their cheque! Constant communication will go a long way in ensuring that when those customers are ready to do business again it's you they will come to first.