Email marketing is still one of the easiest and most effective ways to stay in touch, and get your content out to your audience. Those on your list have already given you permission to send them information. They are primed and ready to hear from you – so obviously, we want our Email campaigns to be as effective as possible.

There are many email marketing services available for business owners these days. Infusionsoft, Ontraport, Aweber, Constant Contact, you name it. One of the more popular ones is MailChimp. It’s my favorite, because of its simple-to-use-format and ease of use. The fact that it is super easy on the budget doesn’t hurt either. Even newcomers to the email marketing scene can get up and running with this handy tool very quickly. But like any tool of business, there are “best practices” to keep in mind.

Here are a few:

• Time it Right! Accord to MailChimp’s Send Time Optimization study the optimal time to send to most subscribers is on a weekday. Avoid sending your content too early (3- 4 am for example) in your recipients’ time zones or your information may get missed. Send mid-morning during the work week for best results. MailChimp also has a handy feature that will determine the optimal time to send for you, as well as an option to send based on the contact’s time zone.
• Wondering how to determine the time zone for most of your contacts? According to CoSchedule, 50% of the U.S population lives in the Eastern Time Zone. The same study showed that the Eastern and Central time zones combined represented almost 80% of the U.S population. Using A/B testing is also a great way to find out the best times to send. The results will often yield an improvement in open rates up to 22%.
• Make it easy for readers to share anything they see. Include links (buttons) for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn so they can easily follow you and join .
• Offer other ways for your readers to connect with you by including links to your social media in an easy-to-spot place (top or very bottom).
• Last but not least, having a great subject or headline carries a lot of weight when it comes to someone making the decision to click through and actually read your email. One of my favorite headline analyzers is CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer, which helps you break down the components of your headline so you can tweak it to get the most impact.

While I’ve used MailChimp for many of my examples, most of the email marketing platforms out there have the same, or similar, features built into their systems … of course, with the exception of a headline analyzer like CoSchedule. I really have to say my open rate has increased quite a bit since using it. Continue use has helped me learn more about the effectiveness of headlines, so I’m more aware of the words and nuances needed to get people to click through. It won’t matter if you hit your reader’s inbox at the right time if they don’t click through and actually read your email, so having a headline that will encourage people to click and read will definitely increase the effectiveness of your campaign. There are other headline analyzers out there. I’ve just found CoSchedule’s to be the one I like best.

How effective are your email marketing campaigns? Are you already using any of the above tips? If yes … which ones and how have they increased your open rate?