When it comes to online marketing techniques, one of the most popular methods continues to be email newsletters. People may not answer their phone calls, but they do check their email, and often. The problem is figuring out how to create dynamic, engaging emails that actually get people to open them and read the content inside. Here are five simple ways you can make your email newsletters more appealing to your audience and more effective at getting you the results you want.

Make Them Targeted – If you really want to reach your intended audience, then you first have to understand who those people are and, more importantly, what they want or need. Having a thousand email addresses to send your newsletter to is great, but if only 10 of those email account holders are likely to purchase your product or service, you’re missing the mark and wasting your time. If you really want to get results from your email marketing campaign, then make sure you’re reaching the prospects who really count.

Make Them Engaging – If you’re going to entice people to read your newsletters, they must be interesting. A good rule of thumb is to aim for 90% helpful information, and 10% sales-related material. Include things like helpful tips, links to resources your audience might find useful and general content that’s relevant but lighthearted and fun. Then throw a little product info or coupon into the mix. And don’t just use the same boring template every month, either. Spice it up – give your readers something to look forward to and make them want to open up your emails each month to see what’s in store for them.

Make Them Trackable – Whenever possible, try to include items within your newsletter that will make it easy for you to track results. For instance, if you include a coupon, make it printable for use in-store, or with a coupon code for online purchases. That way you can measure the results of any given campaign to see what worked and what may have fallen a little short. It’s also a good idea to regularly include a request for feedback from your audience. Encourage them to respond and share what they like or don’t like, or what they’d like to see in future emails.

Make Them Consistent – If there’s one thing that will take the wind out of the sails of any email marketing campaign it’s inconsistency. If customers have no idea if or when they can expect to get a communication from you, they’ll lose interest pretty quickly. And if you’re not sending out messages with enough frequency, you may even end up in your audiences’ spam folders. When you start your email marketing campaign, decide on a frequency and stick to it. We recommend no more than once a week, but no less than once a month.

Make Them Professional – You may have your own email for your business, but managing a significant email campaign may be too much for that type of scenario. To really make your email marketing messages powerful and effective, you’re better off using a reliable service that specializes in running these types of campaigns, like Constant Contact or MailChimp. Both offer some services for free with the option to upgrade for a nominal fee.

Email marketing is about more than just slapping a bunch of data into a message and hitting send. To truly be effective in increasing web traffic and boosting sales, your email newsletters have to really stand out. These five simple tips will help you get the most out of your e-newsletters so you can begin seeing real, sustained results.