The Advantage of Email

Many businesses that have a web presence underestimate the power of email to attract existing and potential clients to their websites (and therefore their products and services).

'Build it and they will come' may work if you have a baseball field but will not work for websites.. You can have the most powerful, interesting and entertaining website with an easy ecommerce facility and great information but what is the point if you can't attract visitors? Even if you do attract them, how are you going to make sure they keep coming back to you?

Time is short and people like to browse the internet until they come across something interesting.. What if a potential client is looking at your website and they have to leave suddenly or don't have the time to browse through everything? What if a potential client is viewing your website just days before a new product launch that they would be interested in? What if your website covers an industry or product that is community based?

How do you keep people coming back?

The answer : Mail Lists!

A recent study in Australia showed that 95 % of Internet users utilize email on a regular basis as opposed to around 65% that have websites.. This is a trend that is echoed around the world in business sectors of all sizes.

No Spam!

Spam (unsolicited email sent to a non-targeted mass audience) is the scourge of internet marketing. More often than not, Spam is ignored by the receiver and the only effect is has is causing major frustration on the receivers part.

Spam was a technique developed in the mid 1990's by early Internet marketers to build huge databases of email addresses worldwide and then sell these databases to companies to post their marketing message to.

The technique is the equivalent of going to a trout farm and throwing in 5,000 lines with bait knowing that the odds would allow you to definately catch a few fish.

The problem with Spam is that the number of people that are annoyed by receiving unsolicited (or Junk) email far outweighs the slim possibility of anyone coming to your site and products. In fact, so many people have complained that in some parts of the world, spam is illegal. Many service providers will not let you send spam from their systems and it can also be a very costly and highly in-efficient marketing method

'Opt-in' mail lists

'Opt-in' or 'subscription based' email lists are a much more efficient and friendly way to build up your on-line customer base. Basically, you have an option on your website for visitors to join your mail list by entering their email address. You also need to have the ability for people to easily unsubscribe from your list if they no longer wish to receive emails from you. This creates a win-win situation as you slowly but surely build a reliable and efficient database of potential and existing clients without annoying anyone and creating a bad image for your product / service

What to do with your database of email addresses

There are a few methods for building and administering a database of email addresses...

You could have your website send you an email with someone's address every time someone opts in to your mail list but this creates an administration headache trying to send messages to all the addresses and keeping track of invalid email accounts, how many members you have, etc.

When sending a message to your listees, you must be careful as to how you post your message. The common way of putting email addresses in the 'to' field of an email may annoy your customers and provide security risks as everyone who receives your email will also get a copy of your email list!

You could use one of the free online mail list programs but the emails your members receive will be cluttered up with banners and advertisements that do not relate to you or your message (and can often compete against your business).

Here at Mantis Technologies, we have developed an on-line application that will handle all of your mail list needs with maximum efficiency, ease of use and high security.

MantisMail includes the following features:

• A secure password protected login area that protects your mail list database from prying eyes .
• A downloadable and printable step-by-step manual, explaining all aspects of MantisMail in great detail with excellent tutorials and examples for beginners .
• The ability to view your list from any computer with an Internet connection .
• You will be able to easily add and delete subscribers.
• Import feature.. lets you import a list of addresses from a text file.
• Sign up box generator.. This lets you generate the code needed to paste onto your website to allow visitors to sign up to your mail list!
• Mail list security - When a message is sent, your mail list addresses are not sent with the message, protecting your database and keeping listees happy.
• Support for multiple mail lists (you can add and remove mail lists via the administration console).
• You are able to create an unlimited number of templates to use with your mail lists.
• Save your newsletter so you can come back later to continue working on it.
• Preloaded customisable templates created by our expert template designers.
• And much more...

Why Wait ?

MantisMail was designed as a powerful marketing tool for the Internet community to develop ties with existing and potential clients. If you have something to say, MantisMail is your voice box for the 'net. It delivers dynamic, attractive newsletters and announcements to email users in the speed of light while giving you - the mail list administrator - a powerful engine to manage your valuable contact list in a secure and easy to use web-based interface. MantisMail takes email to the next level..