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HTML email marketing campaigns are a great way to engage existing customers, partners or new prospects with your brand. They are also one of the most cost-effective channels to promote an event, share content, or highlight just about anything your audience will find intriguing.

However, there is much more that goes into a great email marketing campaign than just blasting out some copy and photos to a list – it takes strategic thinking, timeliness and creativity.

Here are 10 tips to help you create a successful email campaign:

1. Determine the objective of the email – it is important that before any creative is laid out or content is drafted that everyone truly understand the overall objective of the email campaign. For example: Who is the audience? What do we want them to do? How do we want to position the company? What is the purpose of the email? What results do we expect to get from this?
2. Create a targeted list – once the audience for the campaign is finalized, you must develop a targeted list of recipients to maximize the success of your campaign. An email to people who do not have any interest in the topic of your campaign will immediately hit the trash bin and diminish your brand. Also, never add recipients to your email list who have not “opted in” to receive emails from your company, as this is a violation of anti-spam laws.
3. Develop engaging copy – once a person opens your email, you only have 5-6 seconds to get your message across. The email content should be easy to read, concise and clearly explain how the reader will benefit from whatever it is you’re promoting. Bullets, numbers or any type of outline form are a great way to clearly organize your key points. Your total word count should be approximately 200 words.
4. Have a strong call to action – every email should have a call to action at the top, middle and bottom of the email that can be easily picked out. They can be buttons, text links or both, but all calls to action should link directly to a coordinating website, landing page, Twitter page, Facebook page, etc. Example calls to action – Register Now, Sign Up Here, Learn More, Like Us or Contact Us!
5. Go easy on the images – not all email providers automatically show photos within the body of the email, so it is important to make your email readable without the recipient having “images enabled” (a manual preference). If an email is heavily image-based, especially in the header, the entire message will be lost if the images can’t be viewed. Two or three images in the body of your email are enough to break up the text and add some visual excitement.
6. Add social sharing buttons – if your company is utilizing social media, your email should clearly highlight which channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) you are using. Social sharing buttons, typically in the footer of the email, give readers a convenient way to share your content and resonates beyond the email channel.
7. Compose clever, condensed subject lines – the first thing a person will see in your email will be the subject line – so make it good! Subject lines should be between 40 – 50 characters and should cleverly sum up what your email is about or engage the recipient to want to read more.
8. Avoid spam words – everyone’s spam filter is different, but it is important to avoid certain symbols and words in your subject line to keep your email out of the recipients spam box. Some spam symbols and words include: “free,” “winner,” “click here,” “cost,”, “?,” “$,” and many more.
9. Distribute at the right time – the best days to send out an email is Tuesday – Thursday, any time between 10 am and 3 pm. You do not want your email to be lost in the Monday morning masses or forgotten about on Friday afternoon – so it is best to avoid those days completely. Also, emails should be distributed one to two times a week. If you are promoting a webinar or an event, be sure to start your email campaign 3 to 4 weeks before the actual event to give recipients ample time to RSVP.
10. Analyze campaign data – if you are sending out your email through a distribution system, it’s imperative that you take a look at the data available after each email blast and at the conclusion of the campaign. What was the click through rate? How many opens did it have? What was the delivery rate? A good click through rate ranges from 10 percent to 20 percent. You should also test out multiple subject lines to see which has the best results. This information (good or bad) will help you tweak your emails to have an even more successful campaign the next time around.

Email campaigns don’t necessarily show results overnight; it could take 6 – 12 months of trial and error before you determine what delivers the best results. But with proper analysis and consideration of these 10 tips, you can develop successful campaigns that deliver real results.