Use these three email marketing tips to improve your email open rate and conversion rate. The higher the open rate, the better you chance of converting readers into buyers, and making more money.

Tip 1: Choose a Short and Intriguing Subject Line for Email Marketing Campaigns

Subject lines are the hardest part of any email marketing campaign to get right. Most companies test various subject lines to see which lines improve open rates and response rates. Customer decide within a few second whether or not the email is of interest to them by the subject line. Email preview programs in such popular software as Outlook, handheld devices, and many other programs often display only the subject line, making the subject line even more critical to success.

To write compelling subject lines, try the following:

• Wait until after you’ve written your entire email message before writing the subject line. Sometimes it’s only after you’ve written the entire message that a great subject line jumps out from the body copy.
• Focus on the customer’s wants, needs and desires – the benefit. “XYZ’s Best Sale of the Season” is succinct and immediately tells the reader that there’s a sale inside this email and it creates a sense of urgency – if I don’t open this email, I may miss the best sale of the season.
• Avoid words such as “Free” which can be marked as spam. Also avoid double entendres and mysterious subject lines – these can feel like a bait and switch to the customer.
• Keep subject lines within 50 characters to make sure they are displayed on the majority of devices.
• Test, test, and test again! If one subject line works for you right now, test new ones against it. Use it as your control. Do not remain complacent. Don’t wait until the numbers start to fall before trying new ideas. Always keep things fresh and interesting but measure, monitor and repeat success.

Tip 2: Focus on One Major Point in Email Marketing

There’s so much to read in today’s world. Books, magazines, newspapers, journals, websites, articles, emails….people are overwhelmed, including your customers. Make it easy for them to read your communications. Stick to one major point in your emails. What will you focus on? That depends. You need to understand what motivates your customer. Is he looking for information? Then focus on the information only you can provide which makes you indispensable to him. Is he a bargain shopper? Focus on special events and sales. But give customers one major point to focus on. Having too many points in an email scatters the message too much and makes it hard for people to respond. When there are too many choices in one communication, people tend to put the email aside and promptly forget about it.

Tip 3: Don’t Send Too Many Email Marketing Campaigns

Over mailing or exhausting an email marketing list is rampant these days. Be very careful when increasing the frequency of emails. If you notice your unsubscribe rate increasing, try tinkering again with the frequency and taper back on how many emails you send out.

Your customer list is your gold mine. Customers who trust you enough to hand over their email address are likely to be better respondents than those who you contact cold through advertisements, paid search and other online marketing methods. Because email marketing is so low cost, the temptation is to keep sending it out until you get a response. Don’t drown your customers under a deluge of emails.

Email marketing is rapidly outpacing direct mail and other forms of advertisement as a great way to retain loyal customers and gain sales. To make money through email marketing, give your customers a reason to care. Focus your message, and send them just enough to keep your company and products fresh in their minds. With judicious use of data and testing of messages and subject lines, you can refine your email marketing campaigns until they are the most profitable marketing method for your company.