Email marketing is the online marketing strategy that has stood the test of time. Many think it’s on its way out the door, but it’s not going anywhere, simply just changing! As online trends develop such as lists, the use of images, and automation, they become applicable to email marketing as well. Understanding these trends will certainly help keep your emails in inboxes and out of the spam folder!

Avoid being labeled as spam with these 5 tips for email marketing.

1. It’s All in the Headline: Emails with vague or boring headlines, say hello to the spam folder! The headline in the email subject section is literally the first thing customers will see in this form of online marketing. So if a headline puts readers to sleep, there’s a zero percent chance the email will be opened. The spam folder will be your best friend. Hooray for friends!   Get people to open email marketing by making the headline intriguing. The truth is, you should treat email subject headlines like blog post titles. That means that interesting lists or funny headlines work great. If the email marketing is actually a special offer, make sure to highlight the best parts of the offer in the subject headline. If an email provides value to readers through useful and easily digestible information or special offers, then the emails will continue to get opened. If not, hello spam folder!
2. Get Visual: Humans are very visual creatures. Bigger smartphone screens and the image-centric trend among Twitter and Instagram to highlight photos attest to this. If you don’t already see the trend, you soon will!   Peak readers’ interest in your email marketing strategy by including high quality photography, illustrations and graphs. Give readers something to look at and once they open your email, they’ll be more likely to stay. Consider that 55% of consumers said they turn images ON in their emails. This means that over half of the market prefers to see images in their emails as opposed to just straight text. One thing to make sure of when getting visual in email marketing: file size. Don’t overload emails with huge image files that will bog down readers’ computers.
3. Mobile, mobile, mobile: Optimizing your website for mobile is a must in 2014. Enhancing entire online marketing plans for mobile is essential, and email marketing is no exception!   Test emails out in mobile before committing to a layout. If the emails look less than official or, even worse, spammy on mobile, then it definitely needs to be redesigned. More and more audiences and shoppers are accessing content on mobile devices and it’s vital to optimize everything for them.
4. Time Warp Sending: Scheduling email marketing is an efficient way to manage subscriptions and keep followers up-to-date. For brands with email subscribers across the country, scheduling emails according to time zone is a no-brainer.   Time warp sending is just that: scheduling emails based on time zone differences. Schedule an email to go out at 9am in New York and instead of going out at 6am in Los Angeles like it would normally do, time warp sending will make sure West Coast subscribers also receive the email at 9am PST.
5. Have a Clear Message: Is your email marketing campaign a newsletter, or is it an offer? If the answer to this simple question is unclear, there could be a situation brewing…   No one likes to be confused, plain and simple. If emails are coming in and the message of them is unclear, whoops, into the spam folder! Be very clear with the message of email marketing campaigns. If it’s a newsletter, be clear in subject headlines that there’s content to be found within. If it’s an offer, come right out and say so! People love offers about as much as they hate confusion.

Email marketing is a necessary prong in online marketing. However, the line between an awesome email marketing strategy and one that ends up in the spam folder can be quite thin. By following our 5 email marketing essentials, your campaign will steer clear of the dreaded spam folder!