Chapter at a Glance

Introduction

In this chapter we lay the foundations for detailed guidelines in later chapters which describe approaches for developing and implementing e-mail strategies. The well-established concepts underpinning e-mail marketing described in this chapter are permission marketing and customer relationship management (CRM).

Permission marketing, or gaining consent for marketing communications to be received, is fundamental to successful e-mail marketing. We will explore the development of the permission marketing concept and ask what it means in practice. For example, how do opt-in and opt-out relate to permission marketing and what are the legal constraints on e-mail marketing? Meanwhile, the concept of CRM has proved popular as an approach to improving customer focus and customer loyalty. Companies have found that the customer lifecycle of customer acquisition, retention and extension provides a useful framework for...