Email marketing can be a great way to reach your consumers, but how do you stand above the rest and not just become part of someone’s spam box? Consider these simple tips before you begin you next email marketing project. Take note of the dos and don’ts of successful email campaigns.

Do

⦁ Brand your email with your logo, colors and fonts. Choose design elements that relate to your business and the tone that you wish to convey.

⦁ Know your audience and use appropriate language to engage and not offend.

⦁ Personalize your message with first name placeholders to engage customers and build relationships.

⦁ Take your time to design your message and compile your list to ensure that you target your message effectively.

⦁ Categorize your mailing list into segments so that you can target your messages to the right customers.

⦁ Get permission from the members on your list to send them emails. Avoid getting flagged as a spammer.

⦁ Understand how spam filters work and avoid using spam triggers. (Click here to review the CAN-SPAM Act.)

⦁ Use campaign reports after sending messages to understand the habits of your consumers and to continue to improve messages for better results from your email campaigns.

Don’t

⦁ Assume people remember you or want to hear from you. Ask for permission.

⦁ Send too many emails. Test frequency and review your analytics to learn how much is too much.

⦁ Send messages with a personal reply-to address. Use your business email address for professional transactions.

⦁ Confuse transactional email with email marketing permission. Customers may request shipping tracking or receipts (transactional emails), but this is not the same as an email marketing request.

⦁ Start an email marketing campaign that you cannot sustain. Marketing campaigns require time and effort for success, so make sure that you have a plan and that appropriate individuals continuing to support it.

⦁ Bury contact information where the customer cannot find it.

⦁ Forget to double check your list of contacts

⦁ Forget to test design on multiple platforms to make sure that design elements are optimized for all viewing styles and different access from customers.

⦁ Send out useless content. Instead, inform customers and use a call to action.

If you follow these tips, you’ll maximize the number of readers who open and read your emails, and increase the odds that the recipient will take action.

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Photo credit: CC0 Public Domain