Despite rumblings to the contrary, email marketing still has a place in any marketer's arsenal-in both the B2B and B2C arenas. But, the landscape is cluttered with a growing number of marketers attempting to connect with their target audiences online. 

What do you need to know to stand out from the crowd and boost the odds that your email will not only reach its intended recipient, but also get opened-and prompt action? Following are some key best practices that can help you cut through the clutter. 

A Compelling Subject Line

The trick to getting people to read your email is to first get them to open it, says Ken Wisnefski, CEO of WebiMax, an Internet marketing firm headquartered in Camden, New Jersey. Think of your own email habits. Do you, as Wisnefski suggests, prioritize your email inbox based on these categories: family, then friends, then coworkers, then everyone else (a category that includes marketers)? If you're in that "everyone else" category, says Wisnefski, you have "about four to six words to impress people enough to click on your email."

Building Engagement Through Video

Toni Schmidt, marketing coordinator with Purple Gator, an interactive marketing firm based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, says that email marketing is effective primarily because of the level of engagement of those consumers who opt-in to marketers' lists.

"By now, most business owners realize that building relationships it the key to building a successful business," she says. Email can help them do that. "Getting personal on email and humanizing their brands is essential in any email marketing campaign in order to stand out in this noisy world," says Schmidt. One great way to do that is through video. "Video is the single most important thing a business owner can do in their email marketing campaign to stand out."

Test, Test and Test Some More

Adam Jwaskiewicz, director of interactive services at Pinckney Hugo Group, a marketing communications firm in Syracuse, New York, stresses the importance of testing. After all, it is so easy to do in this digital age that it doesn't make sense not to! 

"Use A/B testing to maximize the effectiveness of your email," Jwaskiewicz advises. "For example, distribute the same email to a test group, but use two different subject lines. When sending the actual email, use the subject line that performed best. This helps make decisions on actual data, not just your gut feeling." 

Third-party platforms like Litmus, he notes, allow marketers to test emails on various email programs before even sending the message, which helps users ensure the design and content appears correctly in all programs. 

The results of your testing will allow you to discover your own best practices as you work to continually improve your email marketing efforts-and the results they generate!

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