1.

Our experience shows that personalised content produces the best results, with better open-and-read rates compared with the one size fits all approach.

Timing is key, try to avoid sending your e-mail out first or last thing, on Mondays and Fridays and during holiday periods, as there is more chance of it being deleted.  You should also be consistent when you send it out. It can be once a day, once a week, or once a month but make sure you stick to it. The more consistent you are, the more your clients will become familiar at receiving your e-mails and this will help build your brand.

Use a third-party company to send your e-mail out for you.  Not only can they help to manage the data list and provide you with full analysis on opens, they will also help to prevent your actual e-mail address from becoming blacklisted.

Manage your e-mail list, there is no point sending out 1000 e-mails if 999 of them are out of date, sent to a general e-mail address or just farmed off the Internet.  If you need to grow your list, why not try going through your business cards, adding a subscribe field to your website or even asking prospects / customers if they would like to be added to your mailing list.

You must provide the reader with the ability to request that you do not send any future emails to that address. Bombarding readers with unwanted e-mail, will not only annoy them and damage your reputation, but it is breaking the Data Protection Act.

The first question I always ask when producing literature is: will this add value to my reader?  Make sure that you provide your readers with the information they want. This will improve the click-through rates and encourage people to read your next newsletter rather than select the ‘unsubscribe’ link.

Make sure you have a strong call to action (you tell the reader what you want them to do) and they can easily find out how to contact you.

Create a compelling Subject Line or your email will end up in the Deleted Items box. More and more companies are using e-mail marketing, therefore less customers are responding to these communications. The first point of contact with potential clients is the Subject Line of your e-mails. It has to reach an audience that is literally bombarded with e-mail advertising. So try out different Subject Lines and compare the open-read rates for each one. Whatever you do, do not use deceptive lines as this will only annoy the reader and can get your email automatically deleted.

Make sure that people can quickly and easily find the information they want,  bullet points and short paragraphs of text that link to your website are easier to take in and drive traffic to your website.