Email marketing is a massive industry that has received a variety of bad press despite it's success for marketers. Legitimate email marketing is often confused with spam, but experienced online marketers know that email marketing is often one of the most cost-effective means of reaching new and existing customers.

There are a variety of flavors of email marketing that are commonly used. The three most popular are:

-Managing an email list of existing customers. Using sophisticated software and marketing messenging, companies are able to reach out to their customer base to increase sales, announce new products or enhancements, and keep their brand at top of mind.

- Email newsletter advertising. Purchasing small ads in targed email newsletters is a very effective form of email marketing, and for many companies has significant ROI.

- Email drops/blasts. Purchasing a targeted list of email recipients, marketers are able to broadcast their message to thousands to millions of potential customers. Generally best for direct response type of campaigns.

No matter the email marketing your company is interested in, you will want to look for software or service companies that are able to automate the marketing process. Without it, email marketing can be a tedious time consumer. With automation, email marketing is often a prime marketing technique for a wide variety of companies.