Email content that is really useful or funny is often passed on to friends and associates of the people who receive your email newsletter. You can boost your chances of having people pass your email content on by following these tips.

• Make it funny. Humorous posts are far more likely to be passed on than the average email content. If you have a good sense of humor, use it and get your message sent far and wide.

• Make it useful. If you aren´t funny, your best bet is to make your email content something super useful that everyone can use. This can really help it go viral.

• Invite people to share. Many readers may not think to share your email content unless you remind them. Having a little line at the bottom of each email can be the perfect way to let them know that forwarding your email is just fine.

If you are writing excellent, useful email content that your readers are looking for, it´s quite likely that some of it will be passed on. Because of this, it´s a good idea to add a little bit of info on how to subscribe to your email newsletter. That way, anyone who receives the email as a forward can easily sign up if they like what they are reading.This is a great way to expand your opt-in list.

You can find a lot of opt-in techniques online. There are hundreds of ways to capture email addresses and entice your visitors to sign up for your newsletter. But incorporating too many of these opt-in techniques can be dangerous for your business! Very complicated opt-in techniques often have the opposite effect than intended and will actually drive people away, instead of attracting them.

A general rule of thumb is to make sign up a one click affair. If your visitors have to click through various pages to sign up for your opt-in list, chances are they won´t bother. They would have to be pretty interested in order to go through all the hullabaloo necessary to sign up for your email newsletter and most people just don´t care that much.

Another good thing to look at is how much information you are asking for. Are you requiring the visitor to fill out a veritable life survey? They´ll likely get bored before they finish. Instead, stick to a name and an email. You can add other fields that are optional, but keep it to a minimum, since even the look of a large form can be enough to scare some people away and this isn´t a good opt-in technique.

Basically, you want your opt-in techniques to stay nice and simple. The easier it is to sign up, the more subscribers you will get and the more potential clients you will reach. So, keep your opt-in techniques simple and to the point and worry about gathering more information later, once you´ve captured those email addresses for your email marketing campaign.

Email marketing can be complicated and every single part of your email can affect how effective your campaign is. Everyone knows that your subject lines and content are important, but do you use your footer? This is one of the most neglected parts of email content!

Many email marketers tend to just put a link or a tag line in their footer and leave it at that. But there is so much more you can do. After all, if the reader has made it all the way down to the bottom of your email, you want to ensure that they have a reason to act, right? There are several ways to maximize the effectiveness of your email marketing just by using your footer.

Remind them why. Let the person know where they signed up, in case they forgot. A general reminder like “you opted into our email list” is not a very good way to go. Most people won´t remember exactly where they signed up, so let them know specifics in your footer.

Tell them who you are. A quick note as to who you are can also be a good idea, since many people receive so many email marketing newsletters that they simply don´t remember who is who. This easy method of reminding them can make the difference between having your email deleted and being whitelisted.

Let them write you. Stating that emails replying to this address are not read or responded to creates a feeling of an institution. However, inviting readers to reply to the email will make them feel like you are writing specifically to them and can have great effect on your email marketing results.

Email marketing can always be improved, but don´t forget the little things like your footer. The details can make all the difference in whether your email marketing campaign is successful or not.

Creating a great email marketing newsletter is often a mixture of coming up with your own design and style and mixing it with techniques that really work, from other email newsletters. The big business email newsletters that you see didn´t just come about by chance . . . big money was spent researching the best way to design them, the link placement, etc.

Since they have already spent the time and money, why not piggyback off the big boys and use some of their techniques? Outright copying isn´t a good idea, but you can certainly borrow some of their best ideas to help your email marketing newsletters stand out better and make them work for you.

The best place to start is to subscribe to some fairly big email newsletters that relate to your industry. Not all people will respond to the same exact techniques, so you will want to look at email newsletters that pertain to your specific industry. Watch for the following elements to use in your own email newsletters:

• Position of links
• Use of bullet points and subheadings
• Length of signature
• Subject lines
• Length of the email newsletter

Emulating the successful email newsletters in your industry is a great way to ensure success. After all, they use tried and true techniques, so why should you struggle to get to that point yourself?

Having consistent subject lines will help your readers quickly identify your email newsletter in their inbox, even if they have dozens of other emails competing for their attention. Here are a few things that should stay the same in your subject lines.

Order. The order that you place things shouldn´t change. For example, if you always start off with your name, don´t change that. Same goes for putting your business name in the from line. Make sure that these things don´t change because this is often how email filters will find your emails and set them aside to be read.

From. You want the from line to always have either your name or your business name in it. This allows people to identify your emails easily as something they want to read and will also allow them to set up email filters for this.

Non spam. Making sure that your subject lines never sound like spam will help get your emails directly into the inbox, rather than being stopped by spam filters.

Consistent subject lines will help to brand your emails so that people know exactly what to expect. This, in turn, will boost your open rates, so it´s a good idea to stick with similar subject line structure so your subscribers will open your email newsletters more often, always a good thing in email marketing!

You can read day and night about email marketing and end up with dozens of conflicting opinion on hundreds of email marketing strategies. Often what is best for one industry is not a good idea for another. People are all different and you will need to experiment with various email marketing techniques to discover which ones are best for your particular industry. However, there are a few strategies that work no matter who your audience is.

Offer free stuff. Who doesn´t like a freebie? This is the ideal way to get people to sign up for your email list, by offering them something for free. In general, ebooks and informational products that can be instantly downloaded are used, but keep in mind that an actual physical item will hold more perceived value.

Tell a friend script. Getting people to give you emails for their friends is still a hit email marketing technique that allows you to rapidly expand your list. People trust information being sent to them by a friend, so getting that recommendation is a big deal and if you are providing quality information, it´s quite likely people will be willing to tell a friend.

Signature links. People tend to skim everything except the beginning and the bottom of the email. So, it makes sense to include links in your signature so your readers can pop on over to your website or the one you are promoting.

Hold a contest. Contests have always been popular and no doubt will be for a long time to come. This will help get people involved in your email marketing plan and even if they don´t win, the hype has been built up and a buzz created around your product or services.

You´ll find lots of email marketing strategies that simply don´t work, but these ones are time proven. They have worked for a long time adn you can expect people to continue responding to them in the future, no matter what the background industry is.

You know that your email design is very important, but how much work are you willing to put into it? Building a beautiful email design is something that many people assume they can do in a coding program like FrontPage, but this is actually a very bad idea.

You see, FrontPage doesn´t create clean code. For email marketing, it is vital to have clean code or you will end up with strange symbols that no one will understand. The code will be messy and can actually screw up some email clients, meaning that your subscribers may not even be able to read your email content. The only reason you´re writing it is so they can read, it right? So using FrontPage is not a good idea for email design.

Instead, look at coding yourself, by hand, if you know HTML. If you have no experience to try your hand at email design, then you may want to consider hiring someone who does this for a living. They should be able to whip you up a custom template fairly easily that will help you present a professional, working email design to your subscribers.

Email design can be tricky. But the right design can keep readers coming back, whereas an email design that doesn´t work well, will no doubt get your email newsletter deleted by the subscriber!

Subject lines are possibly the most important part of your email marketing newsletters since they are what make people decide if they should bother reading your email or not. If you have a subject line that really creates a bit of a buzz, it is far more likely to be read or even passed on to other people.

So, how do you create subject lines that create a buzz? Here are a few tips to get you started.

• Write series. Give out one part in each email marketing newsletter and be sure to add this to your subject line, “Photoshop Sizzle Tutorial: Lesson 3″ will grab attention more than many other subject lines.

• Use anecdotes. How many times have you opened an email that said something like, “Wanna know how I turned my offline biz into a major online corporation?” These subject lines create interest and the buzz you´re looking for.

• Use tangible words. Instead of saying that someone can “earn lots”, give them an actual number. “How to earn $50 more a day”. This makes it more tangible and you´ll find that more people will open these emails.

Subject lines need to be written so they can grab attention, leaping out in the middle of an inbox full of emails! That isn´t always easy, but by writing subject lines that create a buzz, you´ll definitely boost your open rates.

By now you know that you should be gathering email addresses from as many places as possible. This is one of the biggest opt-in techniques of all, adding your auto responder address to article bios, having sign up forms all over your website, getting brick and mortar customers to sign up in your guest book . . . but are you treating them all fairly?

Think about the process for a minute. What happens when someone signs up for your email marketing newsletter on your website? Since opt-in techniques are pretty standard these days, your auto responder probably sends them a confirmation email with a link to click on in order to say that yes, they do indeed wish to receive your emails.

Next up, your welcome email. And then the content starts to flow in. But what if someone gives you their email address via an offline opt-in technique? Often, these emails get added directly into the auto responder and these people won´t receive a confirmation letter or the welcome email . . . and since they didn´t sign up online, they might not even remember giving you their email, resulting in spam reports which can be damaging to your reputation.

It´s important to treat all subscribers with the same care. Make sure that your offline signups get that confirmation letter and your welcome email to remind them why they signed up.

Email marketing content needs a little extra kick sometimes to help your readers understand what you´re talking about. The best way to do this is to give them an example or an anecdote. Let´s take a look at what this can do to spice up your email content.

Email Marketing Content Without Anecdotes:

This new product can help you clean faster. In fact, in recent studies, the SuperClean Hoover proved to be 50% than regular brand vacumns, making it a very useful appliance to have around the house.

Email Marketing Content With Anecdotes:
Like many new mothers, Amy is often exhausted from lack of sleep and she certainly doesn´t have time to do a lot of housecleaning. So, when I brought home the SuperClean Hoover, she gave me one of those LOOKS. I assured her that I would take care of the vacumning, even though it´s a job that I detest. Imagine her surprise when the whole house was done in less than half the time it normally took her . . . BEFORE the baby! Needless to say, the carpets around here are nice and clean these days, which is good, because our little guy is starting to crawl.

See how dry the first example is? It gives good stats on the product and if you are looking strictly for information, this could be decent email content. However, often we are sending out email newsletters to people who don´t realize that they need the product and giving them a personal story can help them relate. With the second example, any mother would sympathise with the new mom, exasperated that her husband wants her to do more housework. And men will associate with the “hating to help” syndrome. You grab their attention immediately, and still get your point across . . . the SuperClean Hoover is a great product.

Try using anecdotes in some of your emails and check out the response from your subscribers. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Many email marketingnewsletters just aren´t that interesting to read. Perhaps they deliver the information they are meant to, but really, you don´t get much more than that. Many email marketers would do well to take a lesson or two in copywriting, to get their email marketing newsletters to really sizzle! Here are a few to get you started:

Keep it short: Everything. If there is a shorter word you can use, go for it. For example, don´t use persnickety when you could just say picky. Same goes for sentences, making them short will make them easier to read for many people.

Converse: Writing with a conversational style often gets more results than a stiff, professional email newsletter style. The reason for this is simple . . . as much as people like to learn, they also enjoy having a friend give them information, so keep it friendly if you want to make an impact.

Proofread: How often have you sent out an email newsletter without really checking it over? It´s pretty tempting, but even if you use your spellchecker, there may still be errors, so proofreading is always a good idea. A poorly written email newsletter will fall flat on its face.

Email newsletters shouldn´t put people to sleep. Step it up a bit with these tips and add some interest to your emails, get your subscribers reading and interested. You might want to toss in the occasional anecdote, too. Your subscribers will thank you.

Often writing great email marketing content simply isn´t enough to bring your readers in and get them to buy from you. Something more is needed . . . participation. If you can get your readers involved in your emails, creating a community of sorts, then you are well on your way to a higher response rate. It can take some work, particularly if you have a very resistant group of subscribers, but the effort is well worth it once it pays off!

Personalize. By using the reader´s name in your email content, you are helping them feel like you are writing specifically to them. This has a great success rate with getting readers to respond to emails and write back.

Invite. Ask your readers to click on a link or check out something that you´ve prepared just for your subscribers. They´ll feel special and will be more willing to participate.

Ask for help. People love to feel needed and they love giving advice. So why not ask for their help with something? Getting your readers to help you out with a problem might just be method you´ve been looking for to get a response. Use some of the best suggestions or advice in upcoming email content and you´ll be rewarded with more participants next time you have a call for action.

Hold a contest. If you want people to respond to your email content, offer them something in exchange. An entry in a contest is a great way to get them writing you or visiting your blog or website, whichever you prefer.

Poll them. Chances are that your readers would love a chance to give their opinion or weigh in on something. Offer a poll on your website and enable comments to get the community growing.

Getting your readers to respond to your email content can be gratifying (someone is actually paying attention to what you write!), but it is also a good method of getting them to be active in the opt-in list. This could have major results in your profit margins!

The number of email marketing newsletters that actually get read these days is pretty low. Between spam filters and overloaded inboxes, people are missing out on a lot of their emails. You want your email newsletter to get through not just the spam filter, but also the automatic radar that people have for junk emails.

Email marketing presents a bit of a challenge in that you are often trying to sell something. If your newsletter looks too salesy, many people will delete it, so you want to not only use techniques that will help you avoid spam filters, but which will also entice people to unhighlight you when doing mass deletes.

To get your email newsletter read and not marked at spam, you will have to work a bit harder. Offering real content, rather than a sales letter in disguise will help keep your readers interested in your. Make sure that the From line has your name in it, rather than your organization, this is the best way to get people to recognize your emails and keep you out of the spam box.

The majority of people, when they sign up for your email marketing newsletter, will read the first or second emails, especially if you are giving them something for free. Make these first few emails of the highest quality, no sales and lots of content and useful information and you´ll find that these people will consistently open your email newsletters more often.

Email marketers are always on the lookout for new opt-in techniques that will help grow their list and over the years, there have been some great ideas. One of these is to actually get people to sign up for your emails offline! Why not? Here are three offline opt-in techniques that will help you grow your list and bring in brand new subscribers.

1. Hold a draw. Set up a draw box and offer some fabulous prizes. Get people to fill out a short form with name, phone number and email address. Most of them will give you their email happily in return for a chance to win something. You can offer free products or a free dinner out, etc. There are plenty of ideas to choose from. Set your draw for a specific date so people can be sure to get their entry in by then and have multiple prizes. This will help convince more people to sign up, there is a better chance of winning!

2. Offer a free gift. A real one, not an ebook. People really value physical gifts, so why not give out something small and brandable like a pen when they sign up for your email marketing newsletter? If you like, just get visitors to your business to write down their email address and then hand over their free gift.

3. Guest book. If you have a brick and mortar business, get visitors to sign the guest book and make sure they leave their email address. Anyone who has enjoyed their time with you will be more than happy to write it down so they can get updates.

Offline opt-in techniques can really help you grow your list, particularly if you frequent trade shows or have an offline business. Be sure to capture emails both online and off, for a bigger list and more potential clients.

More and more people are using the preview panes in their email programs to read emails. This counts as an open, so you are probably seeing these email newsletters as being opened. But, if your HTML email is poorly designed, it won´t be read, just glanced at. Very few people will actually scroll to read what you have to say unless it is something that really intrigues them.

Email design is often done by those who design websites. The HTML is the same, but the end result is not. Most websites are designed to fit a 1024×768 screen. This might work if your subscribers open the email up, but the majority of them won´t. They´ll check what you´ve written in the preview pane and many will only read the email newsletters that fit there!

To maximize on the preview pane email readers, you will want to make your HTML email marketing newsletter a bit narrower. It shouldn´t be wider than 600 pixels. This will make it readable in the majority of preview panes in most email programs. Also, keeping the exciting or important news at the top of your email newsletter is a good email design technique to keep them reading. Grab the reader´s attention qiuckly and they will be more likely to scroll down.

Your email marketing design matters, especially these days when so many people are just reading email newsletters in their preview panes! So, take a bit more care, check out a few sample email programs to see how your newsletter looks and tweak it a bit if necessary.