• Email marketing is quick, easy and relatively inexpensive.email image by Hao Wang from Fotolia.com
  
  Email marketing has rapidly taken the place of traditional direct-mail marketing as companies embrace this quick, easy and cost-effective means of connecting with a wide range of audiences. But, while the delivery mechanism is different, the same basic rules of direct marketing apply. By following some simple guidelines, businesses can increase their email marketing success.
  
  

Focus on the Audience

• The big benefit of online marketing is the ability to specifically target very precise market segments based on online purchase and navigation behaviors. This means that email marketers can target their messages to people most likely to be interested in what you have to offer. However, email marketers must follow regulations prohibiting the distribution of spam. That means in most cases that those being targeted must have "opted in" to receive marketing messages online.
  
  

Create a Compelling Subject Line

• Just as in traditional direct marketing, or marketing in general, getting the "big benefit" in front of the audience up front and in a compelling manner boosts sales, says Lin Grensing-Pophal, author of "Direct Marketing in the Digital Age." Marketers should focus on the one big benefit that your product, service or offer represents to the specific market you're targeting and state that benefit briefly and succinctly in the subject line of the email. In addition, she notes, online marketers need to avoid words that might get caught up in spam filters. Words like "free," "buy" and even "love" (which may suggest sexually explicit information) can cause emails to be automatically kept out of intended recipients' inboxes.
  
  

Make It Easy to Order

• There are some atrocious examples of online ordering processes that make it virtually impossible--if not just extremely difficult and frustrating--for potential buyers to place orders online. Marketers need to pay attention to the sales process and how it works from the user's perspective, Grensing-Pophal says. Work through the process to determine how many hoops buyers have to jump through in terms of the number of clicks or links before the buying process as well as the amount of information requested. Making it easy means making more sales.