Email Marketing.

Unlike social media or search engines, an email list belongs to the business itself. No algorithm decides whether a message arrives. Typical forms are the regular newsletter, offer emails, automated series after a sign-up, reminders about abandoned baskets and reactivation emails to customers who have not bought anything for a long time. Many of these emails can be set up once with marketing automation and then run on their own.

Legally, Switzerland applies the Federal Act against Unfair Competition (UWG): anyone sending bulk advertising by email generally needs the recipients' consent, must be clearly identifiable as the sender and must offer a simple way to unsubscribe. There is an exception for existing customers where the offer concerns similar products or services of your own and the option to unsubscribe was pointed out when the address was collected. Double opt-in is the usual way of being able to prove that consent.

An example: a bicycle shop collects the email address, with consent, at every service. A year after the last service, the customer automatically receives a reminder with a link to book an appointment. In spring a short newsletter follows with tips for getting ready for the season. Once set up, neither takes much time, and both bring back customers who would otherwise have gone somewhere else.

The most important metrics are delivery rate, click rate, unsubscribe rate and, above all, enquiries or purchases generated by the emails. The open rate has been of limited reliability since Apple Mail's privacy update in 2021, because opens there are counted automatically.