Email marketing lists can make all the difference - when done right

For modern businesses looking for ways to drum up support with the consuming public, there are plenty of high-tech options that can be effective. Between mobile communications, social media networks and good old-fashioned phone calls, there's no shortage of strategies that work today.

Despite all of this growth in other areas, though, email marketing lists are still very effective for businesses that want to drive engagement with customers. Email has been around for a couple of decades now, so it might not have the panache of a newer channel, but it still works in a lot of ways. Sending messages online is cheap, easy and can really grab people's attention if it's used to promote good, interesting content.

Dominating with email marketing content
The Huffington Post explained that emails can be a godsend for companies' marketing initiatives - if those emails contain content that consumers will find engaging. Jonathan Long, president and CEO of Market Domination Media, believes this is a key factor.

"Before you can even think about building an email list, you need to focus on creating useful content that your website visitors will enjoy and interact with," Long argued. "Using content and engagement can help you convert your visitors into opt-ins to your email marketing list. There are three main pieces, including website content, social media content and giveaways."

Website content should be evergreen and provide continual value to customers, while social media content can be more of a "here and now" look at the day's trending topics. Giveaways, meanwhile, provide a way of providing real financial value to customers to win their loyalty. All three of the above can be successful.

Where data quality comes in
Here's the catch. While email marketing can be a tremendously useful tool for companies everywhere, data quality is an essential component of making it work. If businesses collect contact information for consumers that's not good - their email addresses are either out of date, misspelled or just plain wrong - then emails become a waste of time.

Email marketing, when done right, is an efficient way to go about marketing. Sending an email is cheap, and it's fast, too. You can automate the process and send millions of messages in a heartbeat. But accuracy is key. Getting through to customers doesn't just require lots of email addresses - you need the right ones.