Email campaigns account for half of the contents of my inbox. It's a mix of Nordstrom’s sales days, Yelp restaurant coupons, Travelocity deals, and iTunes music, plus a dozen newsletters I subscribe to.

I may be the target of a slick promotional campaign, but it doesn't feel that way. That’s the beauty of an email campaign that's skillfully executed. It's also the goal of professional marketers.

If you want your emails to dazzle your customers, read on. The low cost and ease of email marketing makes it an essential tool for business owners. Email marketing helps businesses:

get instant responses from existing customers.
build long-term relationships with loyal customers.
notify customers about a special offer or invitation.

Send emails
Databases integrate with popular mail programs: Outlook, Entourage, Apple Mail. The emails that you chose to send, are stacked in the drafts folder so you can schedule to send them on the right day at the right time for your recipients. Timing of the email is important. Business users arrive on Monday morning to a full inbox. Send your emails Monday afternoon or Tuesday. Also, if you’re marketing to business people at their offices, send it early in the week rather than on a Friday. If you’re sending to homes, recent studies show that Sundays are best!

Process opt-outs
You must provide info on how a recipient can opt-out of receiving your email by adding a line after your physical mailing address at the bottom of the email. The wording is similar to this, You are receiving this email because you or someone used this email address to subscribe to this email. To unsubscribe from this email, please reply with REMOVE in the subject line to discontinue receiving Special Offer emails from us.
Honor your customers’ wishes as quickly as possible after you send a message. Keep in mind that customers who don’t want to receive your emails may change their minds…..