Each week people get many emails from all kinds of businesses, so how can you get your potential customers to open your email messages? Here are six tips for creating more effective blasts.

Add an expiration date to subject line

Adding an expiration date in the subject line of the email encourages recipients to open it right away. Using calls to action—Save Now! Three Days Only! Limited Supply!—also indicates urgency to increase opens. And of course, sending timely information matters most: No one cares about your St. Paddy’s Day Extravaganza in November.

Most email blast services have the option to ”resend to non-openers” within a specified time frame of two to four days, so use the feature for more opens.

Don’t cram too much information into the email

You don’t need to include every single product or message in a single email blast. It’s better to send a few messages a week than to try and cram everything into one email. Your messages should not look like the classifieds page of the newspaper.

Use white space to make message more visually appealing

The use of white space around art and text makes your messages more digestible and visually appealing. This allows readers to quickly see what’s important to them instead of dismissing the entire message because it's too much to wade through.

Limit your use of fonts

There are many font options to choose from. Getting caught up in “cute” is common, though. Don’t use more than three fonts in your message. Always use a clear, very readable font as your primary text. Save the fun fonts for art and headlines.

Don’t overuse bursts and colors

It’s up to you to avoid the overuse of bursts, extreme outlined text and too many colors. This does not create excitement (unless you’re selling used cars to used car salesmen). Stop!

Include great photos

It can be very challenging to find stock photography and clip art, but it’s an important element in an email message. It will set the mood for things to come. And customizing images using copy overlays and headers is always a nice touch. 

Great sites to find free and royalty-free clip art and photography include: Pixabay.com, Pexals.com, Unsplash.com and Burst.shopify.com

Suzanne Littrell is a sales and marketing specialist at Essentials Spa Supplies.