And one of the best strategies to employ in all of your email campaigns is the first name basis tactic. Whenever you write somebody about your product, you should not treat that somebody as just an email address. Keep in mind that you are actually talking to people. And these people have names. You always try to get your prospect names and use it in the greeting of the email and more preferably, in the body of your letter as well.

It is not a hidden fact that email campaigns are sent massively. This means that one single email message is sent to several thousand internet users at the same time. These letters are not unique. And your recipient knows that. But if and when they see their names especially integrated into the whole email, they’ll feel that the email is actually for them and them alone. That’s also when they start reading.

Don’t worry about the task ahead because you don’t really have to individually type the names of your recipient in each and every one of your emails before sending them. It’s a good thing that there are email managers and software that can do all of these for you. All you have to do is to construct an effective sales letter and specifically leave spaces for the names of your prospect for the program to fill. Your only job is to make a database of email addresses and the names of the people that own them.

If you use the first name of your clients in your letter, the power of your email ads are doubled. You will capture the interest of your reader right off. And your letter would seem unique and not created for the whole world to read.

But more importantly, using the first name of your prospects creates a certain level of connection between the two of you. And that’s the start of trust. You need to exude trust in order to gain sales. And the first name basis strategy is a good start.

8 Suggested Items to Include in Your Email Marketing Checklist

Goal List
List down the specific goals you wish to achieve with your email. Once you’re done creating your email, use the checklist to verify whether all goals have been accomplished or not.

Outline and Format
It never hurts to have a draft and outline to work with. The details in your outline must then be included in your checklist. Reviewing them will allow you to determine if all key points have been properly addressed by your email. Secondly, make sure that your preferred format is included in your email marketing checklist. In most cases, your email marketing format would usually include but isn’t limited to subject header, introductory paragraph, body, conclusions, closing paragraph, call to action, and miscellaneous details.

Email Address Validation
There’s no point sending out an email if there’s no one to read it. Hence, take out your opt-in list and consider sending a confirmation email to verify whether all email addresses in your list are still active.

Testing Procedures
Try to think of the various tests your email must be subjected to for quality control.

Monitoring Results
Include in your checklist a periodic assessment period for your emails. Compute the conversion rate, click-through rate, referral rate, and any other applicable statistics for your email marketing campaign.

Previous Mistakes and Concerns
Include in your checklist a list of things you did wrong or overlooked in the past email. This will prevent history from repeating itself with your current email. Next, if there are any issues or concerns which you had promised your customers to address on your next email, include them in your checklist as well. It will remind you to address them as promised when you are in the process of formulating your latest email.

Email Versions
Some of your customers may prefer a text-only email while others may prefer graphic-heavy emails. If you are creating more than one version of your email, all versions with the appropriate reminders should also be included in your checklist.

Link Checking
Finally, remember to double-check all links pasted in your email to ascertain that they are clickable and that they do redirect your readers to the appropriate and functioning pages.

Make sure you have your email marketing checklist with you all the time. Remember to use this for monitoring and evaluating every email you send.

Make your subject line brief, detailed, and powerful.
Try keeping it to four or five words. Anything less might not completely deliver the message while anything more than that could lessen the impact of your emails subject line. Subject lines can take various forms. You may turn it as a teaser that’s meant to intrigue your readers, an announcement that’s meant to make your readers sit up and take notice, a question to make them ponder, or simply a greeting that’s just meant to make them open your email with a smile.

Don’t be afraid to insert first and second person pronouns.
Pronouns like I, you, we, our, and us makes your email more personalized and less like a plain marketing copy. It also establishes a relationship between you and your readers, and puts them in a more receptive mood with regard to your message.

Use headers.
Use headers to make it easier for readers to get the gist of your email and convince them at the same time that your email is worth reading from start to finish. As for creating headers, just use the same tips and guidelines provided for creating your subject line.

Keep paragraphs short.
As mentioned earlier, email newsletters are generally skimmed so you should keep your paragraphs short and focusing on one topic at a time. If the article you’re basing your email on contains long paragraphs, don’t be afraid to break them down into several short ones.

Have your email proofread and checked for plagiarism.
You and another person, preferably someone qualified, should proofread your email newsletter before sending it to your readers. Double-check spelling and grammar. Be sure you’ve got all your facts straight and the flow of thought is orderly and cohesive. A professional editor or proofreader will also let you know if there are unnecessary paragraphs to be cut out.

Lastly, use plagiarism-checking software to ensure that there are little, if any, similarities between your work and the article you’re basing your email newsletter on, never mind that you’re discussing the same topic. If your work passes then congratulations for a job well done!

Tallies for computing the conversion rate of your email marketing campaign must not, of course, include those which had performed the desired reaction but without the use or help of your email.

How to Compute for the Conversion Rate of Your Email Marketing Campaign
There are various online and offline software to help you compute the conversion rate of your email marketing campaign. Most of them are affordable and easy to use. Of course, you can always opt to hire the services of an Internet marketing firm to compute and monitor the conversion rate of your email marketing campaign as well.

How to Improve the Conversion Rate of Your Email Marketing Campaign
You now know how to compute for your conversion rate and let’s just say that the resulting figures aren’t as impressive as you want them to be. If so, here are a few things you can do to improve your conversion rate.

Validate email addresses included in your list.
Are all of them in working order? How about sending everyone in your list a confirmation mail to ensure that their email addresses are still working? If most appear not to be functioning anymore then that could be one reason why your conversion rate is so low!

Increase or improve payment options.
If sale increase is the desired action then take a good look at your payment options. Have you perhaps failed accommodating your customers needs with regard to payment options? Do you only accept cash payments? Maybe it’s time to accept credit card transactions and money orders?

Expand your market.
It’s possible that you’ve done all you could in your current target market and unless you’ve got a new product to introduce then maybe it’s time to pack your bags and find a new market. You could try a new location or age group. If it’s the former, make sure that you perform the necessary adjustments with your prices, terms and conditions, and lastly, your delivery options and charges.

Review your order process.
Could some of the links used in your order process be malfunctioning? This is another possible reason why your conversion rate hasn’t been improving. Review your order form. Are there any modifications you should perform?

Lastly, consider consulting an Internet marketing expert if your problems with conversion rates continue. Good luck getting your ratings up!

Avoid including attachments.
People nowadays are wary about opening attachments, especially when they come from a company they’re in contact with for the first time. Attachments, after all, are one of the favorite tools of hackers for infecting computers with worms, bugs, viruses, and other kinds of malware. If you have a lot to say, try compressing it to fit the body of your email.

Avoid using images.
Graphics of any kind require more time to download; time that your readers may not have or are unwilling to give. If you need to use images, make sure that they’re small enough for easy downloading. If they have to be large, on the other hand, make sure that they’re spliced to facilitate their display.

In the event that the images still don’t show up in your recipients email server then make sure you’ve got a textual backup ready to fill the gap.

Keep it short but sweet.
If you want to wax poetry about your products and services, you can do that on your own turf like your blog or website. You cannot however do that in your email campaign since you’ll be in your customers territory and not yours. Thus, they have the power to tune out or shut you off any time they want. You can prevent that by keeping your message short but sweet.

Make sure your email won’t be mistaken for SPAM.
Assuming that you’ve done the right thing and were able to obtain your customers email addresses with their consent, make sure you have their approval as well for contacting them before sending out your email advertisements.

Don’t forget to include contact details.
You could get so busy perfecting the content of your email advertisement that you end up forgetting providing your recipients with your contact details. If you make that mistake, all your hard work will be for naught! Make sure that your contact details include your business name, address, landline, mobile and fax number, email and website address. Lastly, make sure to place it in a highly visible area!

Have the end product tested and reviewed before sending.
Try getting a sample audience and see how they react to your email ad. If the feedbacks positive then send away! If the feedbacks are negative then its back to the drawing board. Just work hard on your email ad and you’re sure to come up with something good in no time!