Email Marketing Tips For Your Small Business

Email marketing is probably one of your best methods of advertising. You'll want to use a program that has a double opt-in process (customers must verify their email address by clicking a link they are sent) to help ensure your customers feel that their privacy is secure with you. I like to use Constant Contact, it is an inexpensive service that has a lot of really useful features. I really like it. Here are a few tips to make sure your emails are actually read:

• Catchy subject lines - You don't want to seem boring, or sound like spam, so make sure that your subject lines catch your readers attention!
• Don't send your emails when all the other spammers are sending theirs! So many people get bombarded with spam mail on top of other emails on Monday mornings... It's probably the busiest day out there for email providers. Choose a mid week day, Wednesday or Thursday to send your emails, Mid-morning or afternoon is a good time of day, after people have had a chance to clear out their overnight emails and have settled into their day.
• Keep the boring stuff towards the bottom! Most email clients (outlook, windows mail, etc) have a preview pane, so when you're clicking through your list of emails, hitting delete, delete, delete, you see just the top of each email in the preview. If your emails are boring at the top, your readers are simply going to keep hitting delete... however, if you have something recognizable and eye catching, they will click past your email so they can go back to read it!
• Put YOUR name in the "from" line in your emails - Customers and clients want to receive emails from people they know, not from big corporations or some random faceless person. Keep that personal approach!

What are some ways that YOU keep your email marketing fresh? Would love to hear some ideas!