If you're looking to automate some of your e-mail correspondence, try installing an autoresponder--a program that automatically responds to a given e-mail or other input. If your autoresponder is first-rate, it will offer the option of sending two or more response e-mails, at different times--and these e-mails can be customized with personal information. When choosing your autoresponder company, consider Aweber and Getresponse (two firms at the top of their fields), in addition to the other alternatives.

The aim of Email marketing is to promote products and services via email. Email marketing is one of the most effective means to promote brand awareness and establish a relationship with your customers over time. Research has shown that the average person needs to see your ad over 7 times before they are confident enough to make a purchase. An effective email marketing campaign not only accomplishes this but can also convert your one-time-buyer into a long term customer.

You should know what it is exactly that you want to achieve before you start to launch an email marketing campaign. Do you want to gain new purchasers, keep the clients you already have, build rapport with your client base, or do more repeat business? Do you plan to provide useful data or are you aiming to provoke a specific reaction? Your aims should be clear if you want to accomplish them, because you want to have the desired effect on your readers.

As part of your web-based email marketing strategy, you should remember that email content should be kept as brief and direct as possible. People are less likely to read lengthy or rambling emails. You should also avoid sending email attachments since people will rarely download them due to fear of catching computer viruses.

Try to avoid crafting emails that include complicated HTML, as spam filters are more likely to pick these up and discard them into a junk mail folder that will never be viewed. A successful email marketing campaign will include sending personalized emails. Make sure that the 'to' and 'from' slots of the email use your name and the recipient's name, rather than the names of your respective companies. Doing so will make it more likely that your emails will be opened and read; as a general rule, people open mail that is addressed directly to them or come from someone they know.

Getting the person you send an email to actually read it requires an interesting, captivating subject line that gets the attention of the reader. An unappealing subject line results in your email not looking interesting or getting opened and the email marketing campaign will have failed. One important point is to not exceed 40 words when coming up with a good subject line.

A good autoresponder will give you the ability to place an opt-in box on your web site by cutting and pasting a simple piece of code. They will then be sent an email in which they will be required to confirm that they do in fact want to receive information from you. This is called "opting in" and is not only important, it is often illegal to send information otherwise.