Email marketing is one of the hottest ways to generate new customers. By offering something to your visitors in return for their email address, you instantly have the potential for a customer. That something might be an e-book, monthly newsletter, or anything else that has value. However, not all email marketing campaigns are created equal, and so it’s important that you know how to make the most of your email marketing campaign.

#1 Give Them What They Want
The number one rule for email marketing to be successful is to give them what they want. If they sign up for an email newsletter than offer them options about the type of newsletter they’ll get. You can create different groups and have them check a box to join a certain group. If you are having sale you could send the information only to those with zip coded that was close enough to come into the store and not bother the rest of your subscribers that live half a world away. Bottom line - always send relevant content and you can’t go wrong.

#2 Edit Then Edit Again
One of the biggest mistakes made is to create the newsletter or other material and send it out. Once it’s gone there’s no bringing it back. What so many don’t realize is that grammar and your style are as important in your email content as it is on your blog or your website. Before you hit the send button edit and then edit again, to make sure there are no grammar mistakes and that your message flows.

#3 Create a Publishing Calendar
Nothing will have your subscribers’ loose interest faster than irregularity. If you send out a message and then don’t send anything for months, they’ll forget about you. They’ll not bother to read your next message, worse unsubscribe, or mark it as spam. So create a publishing calendar that outlines when you’ll send out your message, what your email message will be, and what your message will look like.

#4 Test
Mobile devices and different email clients receive emails differently. For that reason, you should send out a test email to different devices to make sure that it appears correctly on the screen.

#5 Know and Understand Spam Rules
Many people send out what would be considered spam because they simply don’t know that they’ve broken the rules. Read the Can-Spam act and you will be able to avoid getting yourself into trouble. You are only allowed to send out bulk emails to anyone who asks to receive that email. If you collected email addresses through correspondence but no one asked to have anything sent then you are spamming them.

These five simple steps will make your email marketing campaign become more effective.