Permission marketing through emails is a no-cost way to build stronger relationships with your prospects and customers. You are able to provide additional content of interest to your website visitors through newsletters. New products and website updates can be presented to past customers. And all the recipients of your mails are reminded of your website so you are not forgotten.

1. Be sure you have permission. Sending mass emails to recipients from whom you haven’t received permission is spamming. Give visitors a reason to receive your email and they will give you permission.

2. Don’t share email addresses. If an email address you have collected is used by a third party, it could damage your reputation. When sending emails to an Outlook group, use the BCC instead of TO address so the emails of the entire list are not revealed. Do not forward recipient’s email to other parties without taking out the originator’s address.

3. Build your own email address database. Don’t use addresses obtained by third parties even if you are told they were given permission. Those recipients did not give you permission to email them.

4. Make it easy to opt-out. Your emails should contain a link which recipients can use to be removed from the mailing list.

If you use Outlook Express to create your emails, create an Opt-out link at the bottom of the page. The message should say something like, “Click here to be removed from the list.” Highlight that text with your cursor. Click on Insert (on the menu bar) and choose Hyperlink. Select Mailto from the Type drop down menu. Immediately after “Mailto” in the URL, type in the email address you want the message to be sent and click OK.

5. Write a good subject line. The subject line shouldn’t be longer than about 35 characters. Any longer and the recipient will see only part of it when they review their emails. A partial subject can get your email deleted before it is even read.

Your subject line should be appealing and relevant like the teaser on a piece of direct mail. You should answer the question, “Why should I care?” Be very careful that it does not look like spam.

6. “From” is as important as “To.” Typically, more than half the email received is spam. If the recipient does not recognize the “From,” they may delete it without reading it. Use your name and domain for best recognition such as “Rich, Clickincome.com.” The “From” can be set in the User Information in Outlook Express from Tools | Accounts | Properties.

7. Avoid attachments. Viruses and worms are often sent through email attachments. If the recipient sees the attachment, they may delete the email without looking at it.

8. Don’t over-do mailings. If the recipient has signed up for a weekly newsletter, weekly contacts are fine. But if you are sending promotional mailings, don't sent more than one or two a month. People get too much email already. Too many emails from you can get them deleted without being read.

9. Include your business identity. Always have your business identity in the footer of the email including your business name, web address and a business slogan or description of your website. You want to brand yourself.

10. Proof your email. Even if you use a spelling checker on your email, proof it again before you send it. The best way is to send a copy of the email to yourself and a friend. You may find additional grammatical or formatting errors. Your friend will provide a fresh set of eyes that will pick up errors you missed.

11. Test your advertising. The big ad agencies do it and so should you. Measure the response from your mailings. Vary the subject lines to find best response rates. See what kind of offers produce the best results. Do this by sending mailings in small amounts, measure the results, and try variations in wording and offers in subsequent mailings. Sometimes a small change in wording can result in better responses.

A simple way of measuring responses is checking your Site Reporting under Manage on the Clicksitebuilder. If you receive a spike in web visitors immediately following a mailing, that will be visitors responding to your message.

12. Send your mailing in the middle of the week. Monday is usually the biggest email day of the week. Busy people tend to neglect their email on weekends. It’s their time to relax. Spammers like to send their emails on Sunday night. You don’t want your message to be lost in the flood of Monday mail. Fridays are also bad days because people are anxious to get things wrapped up before the weekend and won’t take as much time reading emails.

Tuesday afternoon is an ideal time to send your message. The recipients have cleaned up their email from the beginning of the week and have more time for reading and responding to new emails.