Marketing is like water on concrete. It will find every crack and crevice. And any respectable drop of water will tell you, the trick to breaking through is to find the right opening.

Marketers look for these opportunities every day, tweaking this, adjusting that, sometimes veering off in entirely new directions just to see what might happen. To that end, web based email marketing tools have revolutionized the direct mail world, allowing advertisers not only to reach a larger audience at literally the speed of light, but also to test ideas and tactics much more efficiently than traditional direct snail mail campaigns.

But often the most innovative solutions are the ones that are staring us right in the face. Companies are now experimenting with a new twist on web based email marketing, whereby any email sent by any employee of the company can serve as a marketing tool. Every aspect of the email, from letterheads to signatures to sidebars, are fitted with ads targeted to the recipient based on any data collected.

So that followup email you sent to your latest client will do more than just say thank you. It will also automatically provide links to your website along with targeted ads for that client. And all you had to do was click “send”. The web based email marketing software will populate all of your outgoing email with relevant ads, turning any online conversation into a potential sales conversion.

As with any marketing method, moderation is key. Including so many ads and links that the content itself is hard to find can easily backfire. But striking a comfortable balance between appearance and function has always been the challenge of marketers and advertisers. Web based email marketing such as this is only the latest in a long line of innovations, and regardless of its success, it will certainly not be the last.