While it may seem like social media marketing has taken precedence over any other medium, it remains that email marketing is successful and effective – if done correctly; that being the key aspect. While email is an effective means of reaching customers, it is also very easy to go from new email to trash in a matter of moments. Because of this, companies have been forced to re-think their tactics for both the visual and the technical side of marketing email newsletters.

And successful brands are doing just that — cross-pollinating email marketing strategies via email clients, social platforms and mobile devices. Ultimately, brands still find email effective because it’s inexpensive and universally accepted by people all over the world. – Mashable.com

Designing Layout

Now more than ever, the layout of your email is crucial to converting it into an effective marketing tool. Customers get dozens of spam emails a day, all of which look the same – a mess of broken links and poor formatting which gets it sent directly to the garbage. Both esthetically and technically, your emails need to be laid our correctly.

• Visual: Make it easy to navigate and understand. For example, get the important information on the left of the page, and the extra stuff on the right. Add value with links to products or more extensive information – similar to how you run your blog.
• Technical: The layout needs to work on both the computer and mobile device. According to Email-marketing-reports.com, that a 2011 study done by Google found that 82% of smart phone users access email on their device.

Including Basic Content

Now is the time to start being choosy about what and how much content you choose to display within the newsletter. Edialog found that 27% of respondents want special offers, 21% want promos and 15% want to know about new products. Once you have decided on the most effective information, such as it’s important to lay it out in a manner that will invite reading and interaction.

• Visual: Keep the phrase, “Glance and go” in mind when creating your email newsletters. Your customers don’t have a lot of time, so keep it short and sweet. Write the information in bulleted format or very short paragraphs.
• Technical: Utilize links out to give readers a snippit, instead of expecting them to read through the entire thing. This drives traffic back to your site and keeps your readers in the know while on the go.

Utilizing Social Media

Finally, your email marketing is an excellent way to get traffic back to your various social platforms. To do this, you’ll need to include various links within the body of the email, in a clear, concise way. It should invite your customers to click through, without making it seem like a hassle.

• Visual:  You can choose to utilize a simple link, “Follow us on Twitter.” However, it may be smart to change it up by leading to a promotion or coupon:  “Friend us on Facebook to sign up for your birthday coupon.”
• Technical: Be sure to place these links in more than one spot on your newsletter. Your two best spots? Top right corner and bottom of the page. This gives you the chance to catch your customers at multiple points during the interaction.

Creating an effective email marketing campaign has become a difficult task for many companies. With so much spam cluttering your customer’s inbox, it’s nearly impossible to be successful. However, with a few technical and visual tweaks, you can be converting customers into website visitors in no time.

About the Author

Bio: Jessica Sanders is an avid small business writer touching on topics from social media to VOIP phone systems. She writes for an online resource that gives advice on topics including background checks for lead generation resource, Resource Nation.