Email is the most inexpensive and powerful way to reach your customers and prospects alike. When correctly managed, your email campaigns will provide huge returns. You will get better visibility, maintain and even improve your image, and increase the size of your email lists so your next campaign will have even better results.

What's included in the body of your email is of course, incredibly important, and the structure of your email matters more than you might think. By following these 8 steps, people will not be able to help themselves; they will want to open your emails and act on them (translation: they will read then buy).

1. The more information you have

The more familiar you are with your target audience, the better you can determine what the best message is to convey to them. Your message should be be made to suit your objective and your audience simultaneously.

2. Do not go all "Tolstoy" on them

It is not the time to fight with your inner author. If you want to get overly descriptive and drawn out, go write a book. For email, you have to keep your messages to the point and easy. One or two short paragraphs with uncomplicated sentences should be enough to get your point out. People do not want to think too much, and you only have seconds to impress the reader enough to click and take an action within your message. Try being spontaneous, or bring in some humor to the mix. Think about the way you act when you get a good email offer that excites you, and actually conveys something you really need. Something you just have to have. The response you are trying to achieve is almost caveman basic: "Offer good. Me want to buy."

3. Get their attention

Make sure you spell out the offer at the beginning. Be sure your readers lose interest in your message before you even hit them with the goods. Highlight the why you think the offer is a must have and emphasize the valid time frame for the offer as soon as possible. This sense of urgency will be a nagging inner voice, reminding your customers about this once in a lifetime opportunity. Example: "Limited time offer - 25% off Pool Repair when you buy a deluxe pool cleaning kit by April 3rd, 2009!"

4. Ask

Be sure to have call to action links to make it easy for a customer to take advantage of the offer. Include links right at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of your email to help them take action. In addition to the offer itself, provide materials, a free download, and a link to your website for more resources. They are going to hop, skip and jump around your message. Get ready for them and collect their contact information whenever it makes sense.

5. Grammar is still important

You need to make sure your content is easy to ready. Read it out loud. Seriously - find a small space, and let it roll. If your content reads terribly, or sounds like you're stumbling trying to read it, it is not going to be a quick read for the user. It is time to redo. When you're confident in your masterpiece, ask someone else to review it, they might have some effective suggestions that you didn't even think of, or catch some grammatical errors that you didn't catch.

6. Simple design

A simple design is the best option. Do not get busy with format. A maximum amount of pictures put the brain on sensory overload. However, you need to strive for the right balance. Have a picture of your product or offering? Add it in. Offering a service of sorts? Add in a nice graphic to illustrate. The right balance of pictures and text will ensure that your recipients read your email.
Ensure you are consistent with your style and image for follow on email campaigns, it helps the customer remember you, and respond accordingly.

7. The best subject

The subject line is the initial thing folks will read when your email make it to their inbox, so you need to be sure your subject line relates to the topic of your email. After your email is finished, it is time to think of the perfect subject line that will entice folks to open it up.

8. Tracking

Watch and measure your email campaigns. Remember how many emails bounce, get trashed without being opened, and record how many visits you get to your website. After a time, you can compare the effectiveness of your campaigns and learn why one did better than another. This will allow you to learn from past mistakes, and make any tweaks you think necessary for the next round. Your email marketing campaigns will certainly evolve as you change your offerings with lessons learned from past campaigns. Give these proven and sound best practices a try. You have got nothing to lose, and many sales to gain.