Email marketing: It isn't always about a "sale" – but it is always about relationships and communication. Companies often underestimate the communication effectiveness of email, as well as the personal relationship people have with email. It can be an important tool for a business in the variety of their communication channels.

Surveys show that most people check their email constantly, and check work email from home. People now have a reliance on email for all communications - personal, professional and commerce - and are comfortable with it. In addition, because of the measurable nature of email a company's critical information communicated within an organisation and externally to stakeholders is ensured.

How a business communicates with staff and stakeholders is an important part of its core strategy. In companies both large and small effective communications can motivate and involve employees and stakeholders - and poor communication can alienate them.

Corporate print publications and newsletters have long been recognised as crucial tools for many organisations. Today email can provide this content - and more - in an interactive, timely and trackable method, helping organisations to communicate corporate information whether it be:

• Internal communications;
  
• Informing external stakeholders about the organisation;
  
• Encouraging internal team building;
  
• Enhancing community relations;
  
• Devising and maintaining organisational profiles;and
  
• Mitigating and correcting misunderstandings.

With the sophistication of email marketing software available today, any size corporate communications project, any scope – local to global, or communication channel can become a slick process with measurable benefits. By using email a business can:

• Maintain consistent branding and ensure all communications are “on message”.
  
• Target specific groups with specific messages. An organisation may want to communicate different messages to different target groups as part of the same communications programme.
  
• Simplify the process – everything is done from one location.
  
• Cut costs of communication, such as printing, phone calls and faxes.
  
• Set up co-ordinated timed rollouts of the communication, which is particularly important with time-sensitive material.
  
• For global corporate communications email enables organisations to easily empower regional offices at a local level. For example companies with offices in more then one country can provide head office communications, which can include space for regional messaging.
  
• Evaluate the impact of the communications at a central or local level.

Grab a pen and a piece of paper. Draw the following: Two large circles side by side, connected with a straight line. Now, draw another circle around the entire thing.

These four elements – two circles, a straight line, and an all-encompassing circle – should be top of mind whenever you sit down to write your newsletter. Here’s what I mean:

The right hand circle represents your target audience. These are the people with whom you wish to communicate. Presumably, since the purpose of publishing your newsletter is to attract more clients and more business, the target audience is people who "look like" your ideal client.

Notice that I said ideal client – not vague demographic group or mishmashed compilation of anyone who could theoretically hire you. This is the person who, if the phone were to ring at this very moment and you could decide, would be on the other end of the line. Write for his/her benefit.

The left hand circle represents the things you know that are valuable to your target audience. Your knowledge from their perspective. Nobody wants more e-mail, and the only way your target audience is going to read your newsletter month after month, is if they view what you’ve got to say as essential; something that helps them do their jobs better or live their lives easier.

If you’re a recruiter, it might be insights into finding and hiring great people. If you’re a plumber, it might be tips and perspective on maintaining the plumbing in a home. You get the idea: Information in your area of expertise that your target audience needs.

The line between the two circles represents the content of your E-Newsletter. Each time you publish, a little piece of what you know travels from your circle, down the line, to the target audience. Not too much at a time… just enough to help them today and keep them coming back for more.

The all-encompassing circle represents your voice and personal perspective. This is the piece that is usually missing. And while it’s certainly essential to provide valuable information to the right audience, if that’s all you do, you’ll have trouble ever positioning yourself as an expert with a discernable style.

Certainly, as a professional in your field you need to know the basics. But that’s not what gets you hired, and it’s definitely not what makes people go out of their way to track you down. It’s your authentic voice and "let the chips fall where they may, this is what I think" point of view, wrapped around the useful, on target information, that will have them lining up outside your door.