What is Email Marketing and which type should I use?

March 16th, 2022

"Email marketing" is the use of email to promote or sell products or services. An email containing a description of available products and/or sales promotions can be considered an advertisement itself, but it is usually used as a means to keep in touch with customers.

There are several types of emails:

   * A "newsletter" contains content related to topics such as business, politics, economic development, etc. These emails might not always contain advertisements and they may be sent by companies that do not want their subscribers to receive advertisements irrelevant to them. For that reason, these emails usually come unencrypted and unredacted by government agencies. Newsletters may also contain commercial offers for goods and services from advertisers unaffiliated with the newsletter company.

   * An "ad" contains "advertisements" or promotions for a product or service from a third-party affiliate that is related to the host company. In some cases, the host company may have nothing to do with the advertised product/service outside of an affiliation agreement. The type of affiliate relationship depends on whether it's a straight affiliate program (also called single-tiered) or if it's a network - usually multi-level marketing  (also called multilevel marketing). For more information on this, see our article about direct vs. indirect affiliate programs.

   * A "transactional" email is sent in response to a specific action taken by the recipient. For example, an email welcoming someone who just signed up for your newsletter or an email containing the details of their latest purchase from your store. These emails usually contain content that has been automatically generated and could also include advertisements. Unlike other types of emails, these don't have a sender field because they are not initiated from a user sending out promotional material - they are initiated from a computer system responding to a predetermined set of conditions (such as signing up for a product/service). Because these emails cannot be sent without some sort of software triggering them, they are always sent unencrypted and unredacted by government agencies.

These three types of emails can have a common element: advertisements.   

Ads may come from unaffiliated third-party advertisers or they may be hosted on a website's own ad server. If a company sends out ads for its own products/services, it is usually called " self-promotion ." However, self-promotion doesn't necessarily mean that the advertiser will not also host ads from unaffiliated parties. In other words, an e-commerce store selling shoes might send out their own promotional email to advertise their latest sale but could also host promotional ads from other companies unrelated to footwear. In this case, those hosting ads would be responsible for obtaining consent from their subscribers.

Note: The distinction between pre-existing customers vs. new customers is used here to determine whether the recipient needs to give consent before receiving messages containing advertisements for products/services unrelated to those they have already purchased. When someone joins a mailing list, it might be called "opt-in" because they are joining with the option of hearing from the host - i.e., giving their consent. Therefore, mailings that contain advertisements can be opted into by either buying something or by explicitly providing consent (i.e., joining an email list). However, when someone purchases something from a store, it might be called " opt-out " because they are purchasing with no specific mention of receiving promotional material in the future - i.e., giving their consent to this purchase but not others. Therefore, purchases can be opted into by buying something or by explicitly providing consent (i.e., joining an email list).

   * A "marketing campaign" is the term used to describe one or more promotional messages sent at about the same time, with identical content and characteristics (such as subject line/sender address), to a large number of recipients. For marketing campaigns, providers usually allow for more flexibility in the customization of emails. This could include allowing advertisers to use third-party tracking pixels/URLs/software that will track conversions back to the advertiser's website. Providers may also offer dynamic content insertion which allows marketers to create templates where they can insert personalized information related to their campaign. For example, if they are promoting a sale on biking products they may want to insert the name of the recipient's city in order to customize their message.

   * In theory, all three types of emails could contain advertisements. For self-promotions, the advertiser is likely to include their own promotions. However, for other forms of email campaigns - such as those sent through mailing lists or marketing campaigns - a third party may have paid to have one or more ads included in a message.

   * The three types of emails do not necessarily contain different content. For example, a company could send out an email to both existing and new customers with the same information about their latest product launch. This is because these businesses might encourage their existing customer base to give consent in order for them not to miss out on any future promotional activity.

On the other hand, marketing campaigns are usually specifically about promoting products/services. This is because companies may want to increase awareness of their latest products in order to promote sales which would not have occurred if the recipients had not received promotional messages.

   * Some companies might use multiple providers for different types of email campaigns. If an existing customer buys something from a store, it will be sent through one provider while new customers receive marketing messages through another provider - i.e., they have "opted-out" of receiving direct promotional messages about any future sales but have given consent to receive informational emails due to being new customers. On top of this, some companies may only host non-promotional ads on their own servers so that they can control the content. These are sent out through a third provider, which is why the company can include its own promotional material without consent from recipients.