Get Customers to Open Your Email

This article was written by Kim T. Gordon of Entrepreneur.com

Ask the majority of small-business owners, and they'll tell you the one tool they can't live without is email. In fact, with its extremely low cost of implementation and quick turnaround time on campaigns, email marketing is becoming the customer-retention tool of choice for entrepreneurs nationwide.

Just as with any other new marketing tactic, email marketing may take a bit of time to master. If you've tried email and had less-than-stellar results, there are a number of important steps you can take to improve your ROI.

And if you're just learning about email marketing, it's critical to understand the elements that can make or break your campaign. For superior results, be sure to follow these four important tips.

1. Build a Qualified List

Right now, email marketing performs best when used for customer retention, not acquisition. With the proliferation of spam, most consumers are filtering out all but the most recognizable email.

In a consumer email study by DoubleClick, the vast majority (93%) said they considered an email to be spam when it came from an unknown sender, but the majority said they open at least 60% of permission-based emails.

To build your own permission-based list, prominently display a registration box on the main page of your Web site and provide an incentive to register. This incentive can be anything from notification of sales and specials or access to special content, to a free newsletter.

If you have an e-commerce site, capture registrations during the checkout process and provide registered customers an incentive, such as speedy checkout on future purchases. Brick-and-mortar retailers can acquire email addresses at the register.

Once you've assembled a sizable opt-in list of customers and prospects, you'll need an affordable (less than $50 per month) email service to send out your campaigns. Choose one that also provides professional-quality templates for inputting your copy.