1. Don’t spam: Not only will you damage the reputation of your company, but also you may be breaking laws against spamming. Make sure that the list you send to is comprised of stakeholders in your company and make sure they have the option to “opt-out” or “unsubscribe” to your e-mails. Know the laws affecting e-mail marketing and comply.

2. Sanitize your mailing lists: Updating your mailing lists to replace out-of-date, incorrect, duplicate or unsolicited e-mail addresses can lead to better results in reaching the right people. Continue to add quality addresses to your e-mail list to reach more people.

3. Test for delivery and formatting: Different e-mail providers may display e-mails with html, graphics and formatting in different ways. Test for this by sending your e-mail to several test accounts with major providers such as Hotmail, AOL, Gmail, Earthlink, and Yahoo! to test for bad links and formatting and delivery issues.

4. Respect recipients privacy: If someone opts-out or chooses to unsubscribe, do not re-add them to your list. Respect the people you send to and keep your reputation in tact. They can always come back to you later if they choose to do so.

5. Give recipients what they want and nothing they don’t: Don’t waste recipients’ time with fluff. Give them the information that will be of interest to them and leave out the extras.

6. Make it fun: You have a purpose as a marketer and that can sometimes leave you very focused and narrow-minded. This is good on some level, but for e-mail marketing to be effective, you need to entertain as well as inform. Say what you need to say in a way that entices your reader.

7. Personalize for greater relevance: It is possible with top-quality e-mail services to personalize at different levels. E-mails can include specific names, buying history, content and format for individual recipients.

8. Use good design and proper format: Use a design that is both aesthetically appealing and easy to navigate. Difficult design and structure can frustrate users and lead to higher rates of deletion and loss of subscribers. Make it a priority to make your newsletter as interesting and user-friendly as possible. Check your e-mail over meticulously for grammar and spelling errors as well as validity of content before distributing your e-mails.

9. Design e-mails for the inbox: Put your company name in the “from” line for easy recognition. Use the subject line as an opportunity for a concise attention grabber. Design the top of your e-mail to be “preview pane” and “images disabled” friendly. Use teaser text and html colors and layout rather than images so that readers get a preview even if images are disabled. Put your call-to-action, your sales pitch or your main point at the top of the e-mail. You have only a few seconds to make your point. Make the most of them.

10. Deliver what your recipients want continuously: Keep your e-mails consistently fresh and interesting. Create an e-mail that your recipients expect to be interesting, new and relevant to them so that they continue to open your e-mails time after time. Analyze the data that you receive; such as whether certain e-mails were opened and which links were clicked. This lets you know what works and what doesn’t. Also: survey your recipients on occasion to discover their needs and interests. This makes it easy to tailor your e-mails to your audience.

By following these ten e-mail marketing tips, you will certainly see an increase in the success of your efforts. No matter what your e-mail marketing goals are, your e-mails can be tailored and your skills can be honed to reach your target market and succeed at e-mail marketing.