Email has been described as 'the most personal advertising medium in history' and, based on personal experience alone, I'm not one to disagree. I spend many hours either reading, writing or reorganising my ever-expanding inbox - fighting a constant battle to eradicate spam and keep track of items of interest. If you have the same experience, think about how you would want your marketing material to land in their inbox (sometimes it won't even make it that far).

To help your email efforts I've compiled a few generally accepted tips and ideas that, if used wisely and consistently, will result in a better response from your subscribers -- whether it be for more feedback, more interest, or even more business.

1. Avoiding Spam Filters
The majority of large Internet service providers now use rigorous spam protection mechanisms to trap unsolicited email before it gets into their customers inboxes. Spam filters generally "rank" each email by a number of different criteria, and, if that email rates above a certain level (such as 10 spam points), then it is flagged as spam and deleted. To make sure your emails don't get flagged as spam - and deleted before they even get to your subscribers - avoid using words such as '£££', 'Save', 'Discount', etc in both the subject line and the content of your email. When sending your campaigns from SDAconnect you can run a full spam test to see how your email rates (see image below). By doing this prior to sending you can amend the template and keep running the spam test until your rating improves.

2. Maximising Click Through Rates
Both web pages and emails can contain a lot of text and graphics, and this sometimes makes it harder to get your subscribers to perform a certain task, such as clicking on a link to see your special offers. Numerous research papers tell us that the majority of Internet users respond better to a plain, bold, blue text link - such as this - as opposed to a banner or button. So, if you're going to include links in your emails, make sure they are bold, blue and underlined. This will mean that more subscribers click through, meaning more conversions/sales for you.

3. The Power of Personalisation
The power of personalisation can and should be used in your emails. In fact, by simply starting your email with "Hi [subscriber_name]" instead of the boring "Dear Member", you can increase both your reading and click-through rates by up to 650%. Why? Put simply, it's because your subscribers feel like they already have a relationship with you as you've addressed them by their name.

4. Signup Confirmation
Don't get accused of spamming - always aim to use a double opt-in confirmation process. Double opt-in means that after your visitor initially enters their email address to subscribe to your list, you should then send them a "confirmation" email. This email should contain a special link back to your email-marketing system, which will then verify that this visitor did indeed sign up to your mailing list. SDAconnect has options for single or double opt-in, but choosing double opt-in will increase your open rate and provide reassurance to the subscriber that they are dealing with a professional operator.

5. One-Click Unsubscription
If you want to grow your mailing list, then there are 2 things that you absolutely should have: an opt-in process, and a quick way to unsubscribe. In fact, in some countries, it's actually mandatory that every email has an unsubscribe link in it. The unsubscribe link should take the recipient directly to a page where they are then removed - courteously - from your mailing list.

6. Sending Tuesday / Wednesday = Increased Response
Studies conducted by online research analysts have shown that the best days to perform a mail-out to your list are Tuesday and Wednesday, as this is when people are more receptive to communication. This means that they are more likely to read your content and click on links, meaning more sales. Try sending out your campaigns on different days and times and measure the response for next time.

7. Consistency is the Key
If you're running a newsletter or frequent email publication, make sure you keep the look and feel consistent from issue to issue. This will help to maintain and strengthen your brand and your image to your subscribers, which again will make it easier to close sales when you need to. SDAconnect contains a range of standard templates for consistent communications every time. We can also make a unique standard template if you want a personalised design.

That's all for now. Part two coming soon...