Email format is on of the most important email marketing basics. Will you offer your email newsletter in text format? HTML? Or both.

Text
Everyone can receive text emails. They aren´t pretty and don´t include photos, unless attached, but this is one of the formats that will get through to any email server. Accessibility is a super important email marketing basic. If your subscribers can´t read your email, they won´t be able to buy what you´re selling.

Text also has the advantage of appearing more personal, but it can be fairly limited in the presentation. It takes up less space, as well. Many newsletter writers prefer HTML as text doesn´t allow for tracking open rates.

HTML
HTML allows you to design a more magazine-like newsletter, with graphics and photos incorporated into the body of the email. Links can also be made into clickable text, which looks far neater than full URLs, which have to be used in a text email.

HTML newletter formats also allow you to track open rates, so you can test various subject lines and the like. Email marketing is all about testing and tracking to find what works, and HTML is the best format for this.

However, HTML email marketing newsletters also have their downside. Some email servers can´t display the newsletter correctly and since these tend to be larger, anyone with only a small amount of free space won´t receive them. HTML emails can also take longer to download than text, making them less likely to be read.

Another option is to offer both text and HTML, allowing the reader to choose.

Text email newsletters offer a unique challenge. Creating a decent text email design can be rather difficult, but not impossible. Today, I´ll cover a few tips to help you with your email design, make it easier to read and more pleasing to the eye.

• URLS are a very important part of email design. In HTML format, you can hide them as links, but with text, your full URL is out there for everyone to see. To make things just a bit neater and encourage people to click, try to format your URLS properly. For example, instead of http://www. thislink.com/?19083479879867, which is very user unfriendly and gives a reader little reason to click, try something like http://www. thislink.com/freesample/.

• Use lots of white space. There is no reason to crunch your email up, leave a space between paragraphs, a couple between two different articles.

• Simple dividers like the asterisk sign are often used, but these can tend to look messy. Instead of having a line like this:
  *****************************************************
  Why not try a more simple, classy division such as this:

  * * *
  It does the trick, but looks far more professional and is rarely used in email design.

Your text emails will be more difficult to design, but you can certainly create a pleasing look, simply by following the above tips.

There are several opt-in techniques that will help you grow your list quickly, but if you don´t have many visitors to your website yet, it can be difficult to use most opt-in techniques. There is one great way to get more subscribers, though, even if you don´t have a huge amount of traffic.

Teaming up with two or three other newsletter providers gives you access not only to your own visitors, but to any visitors collected by your opt-in partners. The method is quite simple, when someone signs up for your email newsletter, you offer them the option of signing up for the others´ newsletters as well. Each of the partners does this and then you can sit back and watch your opt-in list grow.

Opt-in techniques like co-registration are a great way to grow a list from a group of small websites. Though none of you receives a large amount of traffic, it is still possible to gain a good-sized following by using the opt-in technique of co-registration. Of course, this technique also works for larger sites, it will simply expand your influence. Every email newsletter could use more subscribers, so why not start looking for someone to team up with today.

Writing email content on a daily basis can get wearing and it´s easy to find yourself stuck for ideas. With the following tips in your arsenal, however, your bad days won´t slow you down.

• Write when you´re inspired. Inspiration usually comes in bouts, so take advantage of it and write three or four (or more) email content pieces while the creative juices are flowing. Keep them in a special folder for those days when your mind just draws a blank.

• Keep an ideas file. This can be on your computer or in a notebook. The idea is to simply write down ideas whenever they occur to you. If you find yourself coming up with great email content ideas during your daily commute, make sure you have a way to get them down before you lose them.

• Revisit old material. If you are really stuck for ideas and have nothing in reserve, going back over previous articles can help. Pick fairly old material, at least four or five months old, so your readers won´t have just read it. Rewrite the article, add a few insights gained since the original publish date and update the information.

• Do a review. When in doubt . . . review a website or product that would be of interest to your readers. This allows you to provide useful email content without having to come up with a unique idea.

• Answer some questions. Take a handful of reader emails and use them as your email content. Publish the emails (with permission, of course) and answer the questions asked. Again, valuable content for your subscribers . . . little work for you.

All of these tips can be used when you are just not in much of a writing mood or when you find yourself in an unexpected situation. People get sick, deadlines get missed, you may be called in to work overtime at your day job, but that doesn´t mean your email content has to suffer.

Have you ever noticed that the emails you open most are from friends and family? Often, the subject line is what reminds us that someone we haven´t heard from in a while is worth reading. The subject lines you´ll find from long lost friends don´t read like a used car salesman talking, they are friendly and personal. And they get you to open them. So, how do you write personal subject lines? Here are a few ideas.

Use the person´s name in the subject line. Saying something like, “Hey, Mark,” will get the person´s attention and most autoresponders have this option built in, you just have to select it and the name will automatically be entered into the subject line.

Ask a question. Everyone likes to answer questions, so using a line like “Do you ever worry about your parenting skills?” will draw the reader into your email and she will want to open it to find out if you have the answer.

Use your real name. Most email programs display the sender´s name and something like “Email Marketing Co.” will be left until later. A name, on the other hand, can often get a reader to open the email and is a good thing to include in the subject line. You could also use it in the subject line as part of the title, i.e. “Jeff here, how´s it going?”

Subject lines are the portal to your email. If they don´t work, you won´t sell. It´s that simple. So try a more personal touch today.

Email content can pose a real problem if you aren´t a natural born writer. Sure, sales copy might be easy enough to do, but if you want some real information in you email newsletters, you may have to look elsewhere. Let´s take a look at your email content options.

Free content. While this is the cheapest method, apart from writing your own, you get what you pay for. Also, you will be required to include a resource box for the author, giving your readers another reason to click out of the email, not in a good way.

Learn to write. Writing email content is far from impossible, even if you aren´t a great writer. It does take some concentration, but many people find that it is easier to get started writing on their own, at least until they have enough money to pay someone else.

Buy existing articles. There are some websites that will sell you their existing articles. Often these are submitted by authors who will be paid once the article sells. You will be able to view part of or all the article online before purchasing. This method of getting email content can be difficult because it requires reading through huge amounts of content in order to find what you want.

Hire a freelancer. This is probably your best option. Websites like Get A Freelancer can provide you with a wealth of freelance writers to bid on a project.

Opt-in lists need to grow if you want your business to grow. While everyone has their own opt-in techniques to improve their list, there are a few basics that you don´t want to miss out on.

Keep the opt-in form simple. This is the first opt-in technique you should implement. If people have to jump through hoops, do math questions and decipher wobbly letters on a swirly, multicolor background . . . they might decide it just isn´t worth signing up for your newsletter. Stick to a fast, easy opt-in form and you´ll have a lot more subscribers.

Ask for references. This opt-in technique is a great way to build your list if you have happy subscribers. Ask them to tell a friend. You could even offer an incentive, like a free ebook or a discount on your membership for anyone who refers a friend.

Send follow-up emails. Every opt-in list has inactive subscribers, or people who signed up, but never confirmed their email. Send these folks a special message with a bonus offer to help encourage them to confirm. Make sure you let them know they are receiving it because they took the first step towards signing up for your email. You can also give them a hint as to what they are missing by not confirming. This opt-in technique is vital if you have more than a handful of people on your inactive subscriber list.

Convey trust. If people trust you, they will be more than happy to hand over their email address, so provide clear information about who you are. This could include a simple About page where you have a photo of yourself, a real name (as opposed to Super Internet Marketer), and at least one method of contacting you. Adding a phone number or address is an even better way to build credibility.

Offer a freebie. People love free things and if you give them something of perceived value when they sign up for your newsletter, you´ll have more people signing up. This is probably one of the most commonly used opt-in techniques.

Give them the opportunity. Have opt-in forms all over your site, not just on the first page. If you blog, put the opt-in form in your sidebar so it is always present. You never know what will encourage someone to sign up, so making the option available after every article or piece of information on your site is a good way to capture more emails.

In today´s busy world, email newsletters that are nothing more than sales letters won´t get too far. They will be unsubscribed from, labeled as junk mail or simply deleted. Which is why you want to offer some non-sales letter content in your email newsletter.

Providing real information for your subscribers is the best way to get their attention and keep it. Studies have shown that adding some humor (but only if you are good at it) to an email newsletter will keep people opening your emails, as will tips and useful advice. Tutorials can also be very helpful in keeping subscribers interested in the newsletter.

If you can´t find enough to write about, you might consider hiring a ghostwriter who will be able to produce unique, useful content to be used in your email newsletter. You´ll be able to put your name on it and most ghostwriters are able to emulate your style of writing, so your readers won´t notice that someone else is writing.

Email newsletters that offer high quality content, tips that actually help them improve their life or business and interesting articles are more likely to be read and passed on. But how do you earn from these email newsletters that don´t sell? Easy. Simply link back to your own site, or add a cloaked affiliate link to the product you are promoting. When people enjoy reading what you have to say and feel that it is genuinely helpful, they will tend to click on the links and will be more receptive to buying than those who simply received a sales letter in their inbox.

So, you´ve decided to get into list rental, a good way to rapidly expand your marketing base . . . but not always the most secure method. There are a few signs to watch out for, though. Certain list rental companies are quite legit and make sure that they do everything in concordance with the CAN-SPAM act. But some list rental businesses simply scrape email addresses off websites and forums . . . which will cause you problems down the road. Here are a few things to watch out for when you start looking for email lists to rent.

• Too-good-to-be-true list rental pricing. If you see an ad that offers 10,000 addresses for just a few dollars, stay far, far away!

• Non-confirmed opt-ins. You want to make sure that the list rental company is confirming their opt-ins, they should state that they do double opt-ins on their site.

• High rental numbers. Find out how often the people on this list are being contacted . . . if you are the fiftieth person this month, your email probably won´t make it too far.

• No guarantees. A legit list rental company should offer you an SLA (Service Level Agreement) at the very least, with guaranteed name validation and CAN-SPAM compliance. Even better, a money-back guarantee.

• No information. A good list rental service will give you plenty of info on how they collect their names, demographic stats and more. If you see nothing more than a list for sale, move on.

It is important that you select your list rental business with great care, to avoid being labeled as a spammer. While email list rental can help you spread the word about your business, you do need to be careful, too.

Email marketing used to be easy. You could buy a list, spam everyone on it without fearing the consequences and pick up a 1-2% open rate, if you were lucky. There was no need for fancy email marketing strategies and techniques back then.

However, these days, if you want to be involved in email marketing, you really need to know what you are doing in order to be a successful marketer. Email marketing will never be as easy as it once was, but with the right strategies, it certainly doesn’t have to be so difficult.

Know your audience. The face of email marketing has changed. Luckily, so have the tools we use. Now, you can do market research to find the best targeted markets, polls and surveys to help you discover just who you need to be writing to and how best to entice the readers to open your emails and act on your offers.

Hone your writing skills. Strong copywriting skills are a must in this industry. If you can’t write convincingly to save your life, it might be time to look at outsourcing. A professional freelancer can whip up several articles for you to use in your email marketing campaigns, that will be far more convincing than you may be able to write. A good freelance copywriter will be well worth the money you spend.

Give them something unique. Don’t simply regurgitate everything the other email marketing experts are saying. If yours is the tenth email to arrive in the subscriber’s inbox with the same subject line and sales letter, you probably will get deleted. Take the time to rewrite the text of sales letters for products you use in your email marketing. Make it unique and you have a higher chance of people paying attention to you.

Email marketing is not for the faint of heart and it certainly isn’t a way to become rich overnight. But, if you are willing to put in the time it takes to learn valuable, useful email marketing strategies, then you have a very good chance of climbing to the top.

Email marketing is not always a terribly efficient way to make sales. Even if your email marketing campaign is well-written and carefully designed, you will still have people who will not click the links in your emails. It isn’t that they aren’t interested. Rather, they think, “I’ll check that sale out later” or “I’ll buy when my paycheck clears”.

The trick to successful email marketing is to get those indecisive readers to make a decision, right now. Using deadlines in your emails is an excellent way to increase not only click rates, but also your sales.

Deadlines create a sense of urgency and you can use the urgency in email marketing to get people to buy. If you subscribe to any major internet marketing newsletter, you’ll notice that they use this technique quite often. Dime sales and limited edition offers are used to create that urge to buy now, before you miss out.

As with most things in email marketing, it’s a good idea to put the information in front of your readers more than once. Include the deadline in your subject line, then again in your first paragraph. It should also be repeated at the end of your email, with a link to the sales page. You might even consider sending out another email right before the sale ends, letting subscribers know that this is their last chance to buy at this price or this product, to catch any last minute customers.

Email marketing can be effective, if you use it correctly. Deadlines can really improve sales and it is well worth incorporating this technique into your email marketing campaign.

Subject lines are the first things your reader sees in his inbox and if they are not enticing, they stand little chance of being opened. That´s why it is important that your subject lines are designed to grab people´s attention and get them to open your email. Here are a few ideas on creating subject lines that will make everyone want to open your newsletter.

Offer something. You can offer a free report, precious information or anything else that your reader might want. For example, if you write a jewelry newsletter, you could let people know in the subject line that you have included a 50% off coupon for earrings.

Give them half a sentence. Start off with the first sentence of your newsletter as the subject line, but cut it off so they have to open the email to read the whole thing. Obviously, this only works if you have an enticing first sentence, so you may need to work on it.

Keep it simple. By limiting your subject lines to just a few words that briefly explain the contents of the email, you will stand out from all the run on sentences that are so commonly used as subject lines.

Ask a question. This is a good way to actively engage your reader with a subject line. A simple question like “Are you interested in saving more money?” is a lot more interesting than a line that reads “Click here now to find AMAZING savings!”

It takes practice to write enticing subject lines. You will find that you need to constantly try new ways to reach your readers and get them to open your emails. Once you find several subject lines that work . . . keep using them.

Many email clients offer the option to turn off images in emails to allow the email to load faster and often these are automatically turned on. So, what happens if your email newsletter is comprised mostly of images? They simply won´t appear! There are a few different ways to ensure that you don´t lose out.

If you have important information in your images, such as pricing, benefits, or just about anything else you want subscribers to see, you may want to use ALT tags. These are built into the HTML of your newsletter and when an image is not displayed, the ALT tag text appears instead. For example, you might have a sales brochure image, so the ALT text could be “50% off Black T-shirts”. This also helps the visually impaired who use a reader. Readers can´t see images, but they can read the ALT text.

The problem is that not all email clients display ALT text, so if you really want people to click on the “Display Image” button, you will have to devise another method. One way is to simply tell them that you have a photo they need to see and to turn on the display. You can also use a caption, describing the photo in plain text. This should show up in all email clients and will also be scanned by readers.

If you haven’t already started submitting your newsletter to ezine directories, you’re missing out on some extra traffic. While a directory won’t make you rich and famous, it can certainly help bump your readership up a bit and since it requires only a few minutes of your time, why not submit your newsletter?

Most ezine directories are free and it is usually not worth your while to pay for an account upgrade. If you do a quick search on Google for ezine or email newsletter directories, you’ll end up with literally hundreds. There’s no need to submit to all of them at once, but even doing two or three a day is a good way to get your name out there and publicize your newsletter.

Directories, though not the best way to gain subscribers, are an extra way to get free publicity that most newsletter owners forget about or ignore. However, when someone is looking for information on a specific topic, they are likely to end up at one of these directories and if you aren’t on the list . . . they’ll be subscribing to the competition!

While some ezine directories will require you to sign up for an account, others will allow you to submit your newsletter quickly and easily by filling out a few forms. You will need to have a page specifically designed for signups on your site and direct anyone from the directory to this page. Apart from that, some basic information about the subject and frequency of your newsletter will be required and that’s about it.

Taking a minute or two a day to submit your newsletter to ezine directories is a sure way to boost your readership. Go ahead and try it!