Email advertising has become very widespread with the increasing use of the Internet as a marketing tool. Companies are realizing that the attention of potential customers can be grabbed by filling their inboxes with informative messages that have attractive subject lines. Spam mails have been outlawed, paving the way for opt-in email advertising that is more cost-effective and has better response rates.

Email advertising is no doubt the cheapest form of advertising, since the ads can be sent to millions of people in a single day. The cost of email is also negligible compared to postal or any other kind of traditional advertising. With advancements in software and better Internet services, email ads have become very easy to send. There are many software tools for email advertising available today.

These software packages are very easy to install and use. They can be downloaded in simple steps and used by almost anyone. Most of them also have advanced features, such as the customization of email messages, contact list management, validation of the email addresses, processing of incoming messages, multithread verification, embedding of HTML messages, bounce-back tracking, import of contacts from different formats such as ADO/ODBC, Microsoft Access databases, Microsoft Excel and CSV and creation of logs for every operation.

These can be used from anywhere in the world. Most of these software programs can handle bulk email advertising with no bandwidth or ISP problems. Some programs may also include location and collection of email addresses, generation of automatic replies to email inquiries, automatic removal of un-subscribers from the email list, verification of email address lists, organization of email address lists, and others. Some tools can send over 50,000 mails per hour. Prices of these software tools start from $40 and may go up to $400 or more depending upon the options available.

Another recent advancement in email advertising is the talking email. Voice or music can be added to the email file, by which the advertiser can talk to the recipient. This not only makes the email more attractive but also more distinguished, thus attracting the recipient.