The beauty of email is that it costs little to produce and even less to distribute. The result is a perfect promotional mechanism for a recession. Let's look a little closer at how to leverage email in a way which will result in a stronger brand, more sales and even a more influential network.

Email Should Be Personal
Go ahead, talk about yourself, your business and your life (it's often more intertwined that we think it is.) While there is always a segment of the population that wants its information straight up, others genuinely want to know about you as a person. People do business with those they know, like and trust, so it is the responsibility of every professional (or novice) email marketer to put a little personality into their emails. This can be achieved by having sections dedicated to the goings' on at your office, photos of other readers, even your local weather.

Believe In The Investment
This post wasn't subtitled "Just Do It" because we think it's a good idea to waffle on starting an email marketing campaign. Successful email marketing campaigns require consistency - one-time shout out's do little for producing sales, users need repetition. Developing a formal schedule (and sticking to it), developing new programs or offers and the content that supports them will benefit not just your email conversion numbers but your sales number as well. Email works - if it didn't you would not read so much about it. Trust that it works, follow the best practices and commit to just doing it.

Interactive Is Not A Buzzword
I am of the belief that people are task oriented. This means that if you give recipients (let's call them people) an opportunity to participate, if it's not too time consuming, they will most certainly give you their time. Make it fun with quizzes, jokes, games, cartoons and give away prizes or offer up incentives to take certain actions - perhaps even an affiliate program. The more fun it is the more your customers will look forward to receiving your emails and reading them. Ask and you shall receive. Don't ask and you get squat.