Email marketing has been proven time and again to be an effective method for communicating with your customers, including sending updates on your new releases and promotions, and even asking them for their opinions that can help you improve your business.

According to a benchmark report from MarketingSherpa, 72% of people prefer to receive promotional content through email, compared to 17% who prefer social media.

Why use email marketing, you ask? To begin with, an email is a more personal approach when it comes to connecting with your customers. An important thing is that it expresses how much you value your customers. An email delivers your message far more effectively than social media.

While email marketing is certainly an effective marketing campaign, you must consider the Dos and Don’ts. And here are 4 of each:

The DOs of Email Marketing

DO conduct A/B testing. You need to pay attention to the data from your previous campaigns so that you can find ways to get better results. Test the subject lines,image placements, colours, and designs; gather the data; and take note what areas you can improve.

DO strategise your email campaign. Failing to plan is just planning to fail. To save time recovering from errors that could have been avoided in the first place, deliberate, discuss, and construct a plan with your team. Remember that your e-mail represents your business-your brand.

DO use email automation. Sending one email at a time consumes a great amount of time and energy. It’s a good thing technology has solved this problem. An email automation product makes efficient use of your time.

DO segment your lists. The point of email marketing is to personalise your approach, but if you send mass emails to a non-segmented audience, then it defeats the whole purpose. Your customers have a variety of wants, needs and desires. Make sure that you are sending relevant emails to your customers: the key is to send the right message to the right person at the right time.

The DON’Ts of Email Marketing

DON’T be generic and boring! Using a weak subject line with your email marketing loses your brand value-and with it transactions. First impressions are critical when it comes to this. Since customers receive a lot of email every day, they don’t want to waste time opening something that don’t sound interesting or relevant to them. Write simple, concise, yet catchy subject lines.

DON’T break spam laws. (CAN-SPAM Act outlines several restrictions that apply to e-mail marketing. Recipients have the right not to receive unwanted emails from companies.) Sending spam is simply illegal, and hence unprofessional. Needless to say that this will negatively affect your email campaigns.

DON’T forget to be mobile friendly, or else you will miss a huge audience. Stats reveal that a third of all emails received were read on mobile devices 50% of the time.

If your emails aren’t designed to fit into the smaller screens of the mobile phones, then your email simply won’t work. Go with a responsive design (this can increase email clicks by 130%).

DON’T buy lists! Though this may quickly expand the reach of your email campaign, you won’t definitely get what you paid for. Aside from negatively affecting your campaign as well, lists aren’t even reliable for your business.

A wide reach is essential for marketing, but you should never neglect quality. Email marketing works best when you are able to send a relevant message to people who need that certain information.