15 Tips to Help You Succeed in Email Marketing - Part 2

7. Your email will look more interesting and professional if you use HTML. However, A lot of email clients either don’t accept HTML email, or the email subscribers have set their client to refuse HTML. So for best result, it is best to stick with plain text.

8. Make thing simple to avoid confusing your audience. In each email, there should only be one of two actions to take. First, they can take the action that you desire, and second, they can close the email and take no action at all. Those should be the only two options.

9. Links will be included in your email body, so make sure the link you added in your email message is clickable. In most cases, the receivers will see a clickable link if you typed in a URL in your plain text email message.

10. Many people use web based email. You should too, for testing purposes. Test your email in different browsers, including Internet Explorer, FireFox, Netscape, and Opera. All of these browsers are free, and you can test them with any free email account.

11. You email message shouldn't be a direct sales offer as people don't like to be sold to. Make sure that the verbiage you are using is not a hard sales pitch.

12. You will want your propects to like and trust you. So make sure not all of your emails are designed to generate a sale. Try to send them valueable info that help them out solving their problems and refer them to free and useful resources, as opposed to always referring them to products that they must buy.

13. You want your readers to feel like they are your friends. In some of your emails, you should refer to real personal details about your life. This can be anything from referring to something cute your kid did to an interesting, somehow related, conversation you had with your wife. Mention your family members by name.

14. Avoid abbreviations, including ‘cyber terminology.’ While such things are fine in personal email to your friends, it really isn’t appropriate if you hope to build a personal relationship with prospects. Some people have no idea what those abbreviations mean.

15. Pay attention to how other people’s sales emails affect you. Open your email client, download your mail, and record your thoughts regarding what you were thinking or feeling as you read each sales email. This is a really enlightening exercise.

Email marketing is a world of its own, and the concepts that work and do not work are changing continuously as users become more knowledgeable. Be sure that you keep up with the latest email marketing techniques and strategies, and be willing to test new things. But, when you do test new things, only send the ‘test’ email to part of your list – not the whole list – to see how it works out.