Has the recent global recession affected your everyday life? Unfortunately, being one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression, millions of people around the world have certainly felt the impact. However, even though you may be one of these people there is some hope for your business.

Despite the economic climate, many companies both large and small have managed to maintain their sales levels or even increase them by utilizing email marketing. That's how powerful these strategies can be. While this is not the sole reason why companies have been able to survive, it certainly is not one to be ignored. It has it has been proven to produce results and an incredible return on investment. This not only applies to online businesses, but offline ones as well.

In order to attract large amounts of targeted traffic, companies with direct online sales operations have long relied on email marketing; especially opt-in services. Utilizing this method, many companies have reported that consumer response is much faster as they have a direct, non-intrusive way of reaching these prospects. It also provides them with wider flexibility when it comes to implementing creative ideas. The result is that these businesses have reported that they have not been affected seriously by the recession partly because of the benefits derived from email marketing.

It is an extremely inexpensive and effective way to reach your customers and prospects and can help ANY business survive tough economic times. In business, it is always harder to find new customers than it is to keep the existing ones you already have. Email marketing allows you to not only follow up with potential buyers, but also to keep in touch with your previous customers. The result of using these targeted lists is the increased possibility of conversions and sales both to prospects and to those that have purchased from you before.

Businesses have reported that they were even able to cut costs using this method. For example, businesses have found that they can save on a variety of costs including paper, other stationary and physical promotional materials such as posters and fliers.

Businesses are able to contact prospects they may have never reached otherwise since there are no geographical boundaries with email marketing. They are also able to utilize audio and video promotions that are often more effective than just text advertisements. Most of these programs also offer the option of conducting polls, requesting feedback, and other forms of interactive methods. These allow them to find out exactly what their customers are looking in order to improve their future marketing campaigns.

The benefits listed here are just scratching the surface of what it can be accomplished using this method of marketing. If you can become creative in how you implement your email marketing strategy, you may uncover some benefits that you've never even considered before. So get out there start developing some unique ways of using email marketing and give your business enough of a boost to carry it through ANY economic times.