Email is a very effective way to communicate with your customers and build your brand name as well. On the whole, the cost of email marketing is less, compared to the traditional means of advertising. The following are some rules of the thumb you should always remember.

Email should be used as customer retention tool

Emails are a great way to convince your potential clients to make purchases. At the same time, you can also keep your present customers engaged. However, it may not be a good idea to try and convince new customers, with whom you've not had a previous business relationship. You may have to invest a lot of time and resources, and the return on those investments may be nil or negligible.

Use email list management software

A number of companies use regular email clients like Microsoft Outlook to send mails to their clients. This ploy may save money required to invest in email list software. With time, it becomes difficult to manage the campaign because you will not be able to keep track of mails that did not reach your subscribers. You will also find it hard to manage unsubscribe requests. The email servers in your office will get overloaded and the speed of the Internet will suffer.

Divide your list on the basis of clients' interests

The easiest way to maintain your email list is to let them decide the content and frequency of your emails. Companies often club all the subscribers in a single list and send them the same mail. The other mistake they make is they formulate a new list for every new mail. An easier way is to divide your list on the basis of interest. In doing so, you will be able to develop emails that are a lot more specialized and to the liking of your clients.

Your email should reflect your brand

HTML based email is similar to full fledged web pages. They should be similar to or miniatures of your parent website. Restrict the width of your emails to a maximum of 620 pixels. In doing so, your clients will be able to view them in preview panes of email clients or browser window. Avoid loading your email with images. Instead, load them on your servers and provide links in the emails. Do not use JavaScript either, because your subscribers will get warnings that will make your email look like it has a virus attached to it.

Emails will surely emerge as your single most important mode of communication with your clients, if you follow these rules of thumb.