But if you put these into action, they’ll help your email campaigns and will give you an advantage over email publishers who fumble around without them.

Make It Easy To Subscribe

A small but noticeable sign up form should be placed on every page of your website. A good place to put this form is in the upper right column of your pages.

Of course, if your design features a left side column, then put it there.

Make sure it’s toward the top of the page and not hidden below the fold.

You should also have an entire page set aside just for email sign ups. Through this page, you can do a proper job of offering your email newsletter.

Give Your Reader An Alternative To Unsubscribing

Every email you send out must have a link for unsubscribing. But what if you could keep at least a few of those people who want to leave your list?

Every issue of your newsletter should include instructions for switching to a different version of your list as an alternative to unsubscribing.

This means you’ll need to run a few different newsletters. Here are some possible variations…

• High volume…mailed three or four times a week.
• Digest version…a monthly or weekly version of the high volume edition.
• A completely different newsletter with different subject matter. If you run an ezine about salt water aquariums, you could offer an additional and more narrow ezine specifically on salt water plant life or a particular fish species.

These different versions of your newsletter not only expand the content you’re offering your readers, but it just might save someone from abandoning your list altogether.

Archive Your Past Issues

You should archive all of your past issues under an email newsletter archive category on your web site.

If you’re spending time writing fresh articles every few days, you could be expanding the value of your web site by publishing these email articles there.

Include A Call To Action

Each issue should include some kind of call to action.

Whether it’s asking your reader to go an affiliate product you’re promoting, your own product, a related article you’ve written, or simply your home page…you should work at getting them involved with what you’re doing.

You don’t just want to send out a bunch of static text that doesn’t ask something of them. Here are a few ideas of what you can ask them to visit or do…simply put the link in front of them and ask them to click it for more reader value will be enough.

• Your site’s home page
• Your newsletter’s archive
• A related article you’ve written…can be off site, like Ezine Articles.
• Another related resource you’ve created, whether on your site or on another. Video, audio, ebook, etc.
• A product you’re selling directly or promoting as an affiliate

Create Supplemental Resources

It’s great to send out a plain text email message, but that’s what everybody does. You can add an incredible amount of value for your reader by creating an expanded version of your email in the form of a PDF file, video, podcast, or checklist.

You don’t have to do this with each issue you send out, but you should consider creating an additional resource that you can send them to every few emails.

Keep Your Emails Brief

And because you should be creating supplemental material for your email messages, you should also make the actual emails fairly brief.

In fact, even if you don’t create any additional resources, keep your emails brief and to the point.

Just write up to a page worth of succinct, high value content and then let them know there’s more waiting for them on your web site or YouTube channel or what have you.

Write As Though Your Reader Is A Friend

Don’t be too formal or stiff when you write to your audience. Oh, and don’t write to them as though they were an audience. You’re writing to a single person. And speak to them like they were your friend.

Relax. Loosen up. Be personable.

Don’t go overboard with slang and sloppy writing…you still have to consider your reader’s expectations. But friendly, casual conversation can win over a lot more hearts and minds than clinical, stiff, institutionalized writing.

Sell Them Something

Your goal should be to make money with your list. So you should work hard at selling stuff to your readers.

Be casual about it.

You’ll get plenty of chances to sell them stuff over the lifetime of your newsletter, so don’t get over aggressive.

But definitely make offers.

A good, casual way to do it is to give them some valuable content and finish the email with a “Oh by the way, here’s something you may be able to use,” and drop your affiliate link.

If that product is related in some way to that day’s email message, it will tie together nicely.

And your reader won’t get all twitchy about you trying to sell them something.

Don’t Sell In Every Issue

You should sell stuff to your list, but you shouldn’t do it in each and every issue you mail out. Especially if you’re mailing more than once a week.

Every few issues you send out should be nothing but pure content with no expectation of making money.

Your readers will come to expect value from your emails if they’re not all hardcore sales pitches…and this means more people will actually read what you send them.

And then, when you do send some content out that includes a soft sell, after thought style affiliate offer, more people will read that, too.

Do you think that if more people are reading your emails, you might make more sales from your email campaigns?

Mail Often Enough To Be Remembered

And speaking of mailing frequency, at minimum, I would send them an email once a week. And if you have real, high value content to offer in each message, you can get away with sending three or four times a week.

The key is real content. It doesn’t have to be a huge book of info…a simple three paragraph tip can sometimes be more valuable than some of the big ebooks I’ve read.

Even then, some people may just not be able to deal with that high volume of a list…so what should you do? Offer a weekly digest version.

Enliven Your List With Reader Interaction

Most email lists I’ve been on are pretty static. It’s a plain old text message that just sits there and does nothing. One way to liven up a text email communication is to get your readers involved with the list and even with each other.

You can do this the same way popular YouTubers generate interaction with their viewers. Ask your readers questions…ask for their opinions, complaints, gripes, struggles, etc.

Ask them if they have any questions of their own that other readers can answer…and then ask for answers to these questions.

Then, in upcoming issues, publish a small snippet of all the interaction that comes in.

A few things to keep in mind with this…let them know that whatever they send you could end up being published in future issues of the newsletter. Don’t publish email addresses, but let them know their name may be published. Offer to publish their web site address, too, if they have one.

Also, when you do this, you’re going to get an increased load of incoming email. Don’t feel like you have to read each email. Just a sample is enough. Keep your inbox cleared.

But here’s an idea…as you get incoming questions, answers, comments, and complaints, instead of deleting what you don’t have time to process, you could keep all of it. Use it as a product creation or article inspiration resource down the road.

Add Value By Linking To Third Party Resources

Another way to add value for your reader is linking to third party resources.

Is it link leak? It sure is.

Your reader may click through to that article some other writer published and they may not finish your message or click your affiliate link.

But if that article you’re linking to is related to your email message and it can help your reader, then you should still post that link.

Besides, if your emails really are valuable and your reader knows it, he’s not going to be able to stay away. So don’t be afraid to link to third party resources if it helps your reader.

These email marketing best practices should help you forge a profitable, long lasting relationship with your list.

Of course, there’s more you can do to provide more value to your reader and get the most out of that relationship. But these email tips will take you a long way.