What is the first thing you do when you turn on your computer every day? You quickly scan the contents of your e-mail inbox looking for familiar 'From' and relevant 'Subject' lines. You read those that are important and delete or block those considered to be junk.

Chances are you belong to a few online newsletters and have opted to receive monthly offers from your favorite restaurants or retailer. You open these messages because they have value, and you have given your consent to receive messages from the particular sender.

Almost every business has some way of collecting customer data, but few have a clue on how to communicate with these customers on a regular basis. One way is to integrate permission-based e-mail as part of your online marketing initiatives.

According to the Magazine of Online Media, Marketing & Advertising there are more than 100,000 businesses and organizations using commercially marketed e-newsletters today. E-mail is popular with companies looking to push an offer out rather than using a Web site to pull in a customer. Also, compared to traditional offline methods of advertising, e-mail is less expensive, easier to track and instantaneous.

A well-planned, properly-implemented e-mail campaign can have an enormous effect on enhancing customer loyalty. In fact e-mail is one of the best ways to build relationships with prospects, acquire repeat business, brand, generate trust and drive traffic. There is an unequivocal correlation between e-mail traffic and Web site traffic.

If you've taken the time to build an online initiative and capture e-mail addresses, you should capitalize on the profit potential of this list. The concept of marketing to your internal list is all about getting the most out of each of your customers. What would happen to your bottom line if a customer who orders once every two months from your site, now orders once a month as a result of your monthly mailings? Your internal database is a gold mine. Use it.

Advantages of an e-mail campaign:
Generates traffic to your Web site
Encourages customer loyalty and repeat business
Affordable
Trackablemonitor results in real time
Highest ROI than any other media (Direct Marketing Association)

Silver Oaks has recently developed a custom in-house e-mailing system for our clients to help increase their sales, branding or introduction of new products and services. Everything from newsletters, customer promotions, event invitations, e-coupons and more can be supported by our new engine. Combine this service with our full-service production capabilities and we're able to create, design, assemble, deliver and track your entire online marketing campaign.

Here's how it works:
Provide Silver Oaks with your mailing list. Once we have your database set up we will need the creative content you will mail. Your team can design the mailing and provide artwork, or our creative team can develop it for you.

We then will provide the HTML assembly and programming needed to finalize each ad. Once you have approved the ad, it will then be distributed to all the active recipients on your list.

A statistical report then will be available online, so you can monitor the results of your campaign in real time. We provide statistical data for 'opens' and Web site hits as a result of the e-mail ad. All of this information can help you send highly, targeted campaigns to those who have responded in the past, thus improving your results as you move forward with more mailings.

When it comes to your online marketing initiative, our team has the expertise to maximize results. We are fully staffed to develop a campaign from idea to delivery. Along with our e-mail capabilities, we also provide expert search engine and e-marketing campaigns as well as combined online and offline cross-promotional advertising initiatives.