Email marketing makes it easy being green

Written by: Ryan Allis June 24th, 2008

In the past few years, we have seen a dramatic shift in the way we talk about our environment. From heated debates in Congress about amending our energy policies, to the fervor generated by Al Gore’s award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, to millions of businesses changing their company cultures, “greening” has entered into the discourse of our daily lives.

In the entrepreneurial and corporate worlds, it is becoming increasingly vital to be a green company and limit your business’s environmental impact. According to eMarketer, a study by Opinion Research showed that 60% of adults think it’s either very important or extremely important that companies be environmentally conscious. In light of this information, how can your company contribute to the worldwide effort to curb global warming while still reaching your customers in an efficient way? The answer is simple: turn to online and email marketing.

Email marketing is inherently greener – and has a much lower carbon footprint – than direct market mailings. This is especially true when you consider email’s low impact on our natural resources, paper consumption, and the fossil fuels it takes to deliver regular mail. For example, in trying to do our part to lessen our company’s carbon impact on the environment, iContact consistently sends over 650 million emails on a monthly basis, saving literally hundreds of tons of paper. Delivery of email takes seconds and saves paper and gas, while direct mailing can take days or weeks to reach a destination as a significant amount of natural resources are used to complete the mailing.

In addition to the environmental benefits of email marketing, more people are switching to email marketing due to the rising costs of direct marketing caused by the recent economic slowdown. On the whole, email marketing is cheaper, has a much stronger ROI, can be automated and personalized easily, and is a more earth-friendly activity in comparison to direct mail.

This article can be found in it's original format at: http://www.startupnation.com/blogs/index.php/2008/06/24/email-marketing-makes-it-easy-being-green/