Email marketing is popular with companies because:

• The advantage of a mailing list is clearly the ability to distribute information to a wide range of specific, potential customers at a relatively low cost.
  
  
• Compared to other media investments such as direct mail or printed newsletters, it is less expensive.
  
  
• An exact Return on investment can be tracked ("track to basket") and has proven to be high when done properly. Email marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic.
  
  
• It is instant, as opposed to a mailed advertisement, an email arrives in a few seconds or minutes.
  
  
• It lets the advertiser "push" the message to its audience, as opposed to a website that waits for customers to come in.
  
  
• It is easy to track. An advertiser can track users via web bugs, bounce messages, un-subscribes, read-receipts, click-throughs, etc. These can be used to measure open rates, positive or negative responses, correlate sales with marketing.
  
  
• Advertisers can generate repeat business affordably and automatically
  
  
• Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of email subscribers who have opted in (consented) to receive email communications on subjects of interest to them
  
  
• Over half of Internet users check or send email on a typical day.
  
  
• Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger other messages to be automatically delivered.
  
  
• Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger other events such as updating the profile of the recipient to indicate a specific interest category.