No one wants their email box to be cluttered up with advertising, so it’s your job as an email marketer to send your reader something they actually want. Informative, interesting and even entertaining emails should be your goal, but how do you achieve that? Continue reading to find some excellent tips from experts in the field.

Be sure of all the colors you use in your email are neutral. If colors are too bland, the customer may not want to read the article. On the other hand, if the colors are too bright, it could frustrate the reader. Try to stick with neutral colors, like black, gray, and white.

To get people to opt-in and give permission for you to send email marketing messages to them, offer an incentive. Offer a discount or a coupon on one of your products or services. Include a whitepaper or newsletter about your niche or market. Give your prospect something in return for access to their inbox.

Treat each reader like a relationship. Ask in the first email for permission to send more. In the second email, tell them what discounts, products and services they can expect in future emails. In the third email and after, follow through with the content you promised to provide them with.

Test sending your email marketing on different days of the week and at various times during the day. You’ll find that different times and dates will increase or decrease your open rates to your emails. Note the best time/day of the week mixtures and plan your most important email marketing campaigns to be released during those windows.

Use colors and fonts that reflect your business and are easy to view. Even if the content is interesting, difficult to read fonts and harsh colors can cause some customers to reject the email, and possibly future ones as well. Use the same color scheme and fonts for all of your emails.

Change the format of your emails from time to time. So, if you usually send out HTML formatted emails, then mix it up and send out an email in something like plain text format. This can help your customers relate to you and your products.

Keep all of your branding in your email consistent with your business. Don’t make your email appear as though it belongs to another business. Try to stick with your usual colors, voice, and fonts so that the readers can recognize that the email is from you and so they will read it.

There are zombie email addresses, and people do sell them. This not only wastes your time, but it keeps your messages from getting to the right targeted customers. Make sure you know what you are getting into, and make sure you are sending messages to people that could actually do business with you.

Reflect current festivities with your email marketing messages. Have a theme focusing or referring to love at Valentine’s Day. Be thankful to your subscribers around Thanksgiving. Sending out content in tune with current holidays lets your readers know that your messages are up to date and not just old content being regurgitated by some server.

When utilizing e-mail marketing, make sure that you never spam your customer’s inbox. One of the quickest ways to lose the trust of your customer is to send spam to his or her email address. To make sure your marketing practices fall within mandated regulations, thoroughly read the CAN-SPAM act.

You might want to consider following up to your clients by sending a follow-up email that includes a bad link correction. Attach a request on your email that says to read this. The ending postscript could inform them that they can get a sneak peak by clicking on the provided link.

When following up with prospects, consider sending a follow-up email with a criticism report. Include an order on your email that tells them to check this report out for themselves. The ending postscript could tell them that they can view this criticism report by simply filling in their order information.

Try using holidays and important events to your advantage in your email marketing campaigns. For instance, if it’s Valentine’s Day, try incorporating things like candy, flowers, hearts and other related imagery or designs. Your readers should enjoy the creativity and festiveness of your messages around special times of the year.

Make sure your messages come from a corporate point of view. Do not say your messages are friendly reminders from a specific individual, unless of course, your readers automatically know that person, and that they are associated with your company. Readers are anticipating messages from your company, so fulfill that expectation for trust.

Someday you too may be an expert in your field, but for now you need to learn as much as you can to hone your skills and provide you with new ideas. This article is a great stepping stone, but don’t stop here – practice what you’ve learned and continue reading and success will be within your reach!

Looking For Tips On Email Marketing? Try These Wonderful Ideas! was originally published on Spring