There is speculation that direct email marketing solutions will not continue to be as worthwhile as they were 4 or 5 years ago. The economics of email marketing for customer retention and acquisition will likely be different in the future. However, one thing will continue to be the de facto standard in email marketing – permission. For positive email campaigns however, more will be required. As one email marketing solutions founder said, "permission has become so mainstream now that while in the past there was a real difference between acquisition email lists harvested from newsgroups and permission-based lists, being permission-based is no longer the differentiator it used to be for either the marketer or the user."

In the present online marketing field, only permission-based email campaigns that have a high ‘inbox visibility’ degree provide worthwhile and positive Return on Investment to marketers both on the acquisition and the retention fronts. Today’s email marketing solutions are aimed at improving inbox visibility through implementation of practices that are related to crafting email subject lines and strategies of the sort. However to attain sustained inbox visibility, email marketing solutions strategies will need to go deeper. Implementing strategies that insulate one from the shifting market dynamics in email marketing will give any company the real competitive advantage.

What email marketing solutions strategies will prove successful? Directly anticipated email communications. By and large, directly anticipated emails will prove immune to growing inbox invisibility since their arrival is anticipated by the recipients. These campaigns can be run through email newsletter campaigns. Other strategies include gathering emails of individuals interested in particular products and delivering such information immediately to the individuals. It is becoming increasingly difficult to overcome the problem of inbox invisibility but email newsletters seem to have a better chance of overcoming this problem as well as other email marketing solutions that move away from direct email strategies.

And one of the best strategies to employ in all of your email campaigns is the first name basis tactic. Whenever you write somebody about your product, you should not treat that somebody as just an email address. Keep in mind that you are actually talking to people. And these people have names. You always try to get your prospect names and use it in the greeting of the email and more preferably, in the body of your letter as well.

It is not a hidden fact that email campaigns are sent massively. This means that one single email message is sent to several thousand internet users at the same time. These letters are not unique. And your recipient knows that. But if and when they see their names especially integrated into the whole email, they’ll feel that the email is actually for them and them alone. That’s also when they start reading.

Don’t worry about the task ahead because you don’t really have to individually type the names of your recipient in each and every one of your emails before sending them. It’s a good thing that there are email managers and software that can do all of these for you. All you have to do is to construct an effective sales letter and specifically leave spaces for the names of your prospect for the program to fill. Your only job is to make a database of email addresses and the names of the people that own them.

If you use the first name of your clients in your letter, the power of your email ads are doubled. You will capture the interest of your reader right off. And your letter would seem unique and not created for the whole world to read.

But more importantly, using the first name of your prospects creates a certain level of connection between the two of you. And that’s the start of trust. You need to exude trust in order to gain sales. And the first name basis strategy is a good start.