Think about this – 10 years ago there was really no such thing as a smart phone… in fact the palm pilot was cutting edge technology. I’m not sure iTunes even existed – well maybe it did, but I know for a fact that it wasn’t as mainstream as it is today. Gone are the days when newsletters and direct mail were the only ways sales people could communicate with prospective clients. ![mail-phone.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSmUdqW5XkcfY5h6LJvGRSQsxzSpQ57gETwhNMGJ8USQu/mail-phone.png) Nowadays, marketing has been made much easier. With a strong email list and some ideas – you’re set to give your business all the prospects you’ll ever need. (1) Getting permission for sending emails randomly to people who didn’t subscribe for them, will actually do your business more harm than good. As a matter of fact, 70% of all internet users – usually ignore spam boxes. Also, those who actually read them – don’t even consider them as serious emails. Far worse – they may opt out, before they even read them. To stay safe – we recommend that you create an option for people to subscribe for your emails first, before you start sending them your messages. This can be as simple as asking if it’s OK to stay in touch by email and if it ever makes sense to connect – they can let you know. (2) Set expectations for how often you will send them something. No one wants to see an inbox that’s full of emails from only you. Contrary to what poor marketers think – sending more emails than you’re required will only make more people unsubscribe from your mail list, instead of luring them into buying your products. Dripping a message every 5 to 7 days is more than enough and depending on what you sell 2 or 3 times a month is plenty. (3) Get rid of all those fancy email templates. Pictures are nice and real fancy templates are eye catching, but they are also impersonal. Nothing screams “you’re one of the the many, I’m sending this to” faster than a beautiful template with fancy pictures. I always recommend sending marketing emails using the plain text version. Think about the difference between the two – which one feels more personal? (4) Make your emails and landing pages readable on mobile devices. If you’re asking someone to go to a website, then make sure it has the ability to adjust from a full screen to a tablet and to a smart phone. ![iphone-388387_1920.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmS8gbm9icgYpG16tHbtesz9m8SJeLKHsFxkhDvdj1LeTN/iphone-388387_1920.jpg) (5) Personalize your emails. To personalize the emails you send to your subscribers – you have to do more than just include names. By that I mean – the emails you send, must be relevant to what your subscribers signed up for. For example, if the subscribers signed up for tips on how to do something – give them exactly that. (6) Write what people can understand – not what robots can understand. Apparently, as I’m forced to believe – we still have people who believe that professionalism in emails can only be achieved using stuffy overly formal language. Well, perhaps that actually works in some strange kind of business, but when it comes to a great majority of the businesses we have today – prospects have to understand the language you use, which translates into simple English. The best advice I ever heard about writing a personal effective message – was to write the way you speak, then go back and take out all of the curse words. (7) Make the link to unsubscribe visible to readers. Don’t force your subscribers to read your emails – otherwise, all the emails you send them will only end up in the junk box. To reduce the number of spam complaints – make the link to unsubscribe visible to all your readers. By doing this, you’ll find yourself having an email list of real customers and not time eaters. ![macbookfront_880x550.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmb4YwxtiPScwTXmXKQWeRD84M9QQRF4C4Esgvt49VgTZ8/macbookfront_880x550.png) (8) Make a good use of pre-headers. A pre-header is the first line of your email text. Usually, a pre-header comes directly after the subject of your email. Believe it or not, pre-headers can make anyone read your emails. That is, if they’re cleverly constructed. For example; if you’re offering some trade discount on a particular product, then ensure that everything about the discount is encapsulated in the first line of your text. (9) Ask for feedback from subscribers. In email marketing – feedback can actually be divided into two types: passive and active. Passive feedback is the feedback you get indirectly, when you use web beacons or any other means – to know which links or emails actually capture the attention of your readers the most. On the flip side – active feedback is the feedback you get directly, when you ask for a response or when any of your subscribers contact you with complaints or suggestions. Either way – use the feedback you get to improve your email campaigns. (10) Use plenty of white space. Emails are not the same as letters, when it comes to how the words show up on the pages. The normal rules of structured paragraphs – just don’t apply to emails. 2 or 3 sentences make up a paragraph in an email and even multiple single sentence lines are completely acceptable. One last thought; if your email includes a web address, then double space before and after it – so you leave plenty of room and plenty of white space.