If you're utilizing email marketing, you should be utilizing email testing. But it can seem complex and costly, and many small business owners aren't quite sure where to start. If you'd like to use email testing, but aren't sure where to start, here are 4 of the easiest tests to get you going:

It's true that email marketing can get pretty technical. We've got HTML coding, and multi-part MIME messages, and cross browser compatibility, and designing for preview panes, and blacklists and blocklists and SPF records... It's enough to make non-techie marketers throw up their hands and give up on the thought of ever improving their email performance.

Designing the HTML version of your email message can be difficult since there are so many different email client and operating system combinations out there - and they have their own way of rendering HTML. And there really is no way to be positively sure which client your readers will be using to view your messages.

Email marketing is an excellent tool for growing your customer base, growing your brand and growing your sales. But just like any tool, it's most effective when it's used within a plan. If you started off in email marketing without a clear-cut strategy, here are 4 ways to get back on track by the end of the week.

When you're not sending relevant messages that your readers care about, you see your unsubscribe rate increase, your spam complaint rate increase, your open rate decrease, and your ROI plummet. Unfortunately, if you're not testing, tracking and tuning along the way, you might not realize you've missed the "relevance mark" until your list has taken a huge hit.

As an email marketer, you probably spend considerable time testing and optimizing your email content, your email layout and design, the calls to action within your email message. But do you ever stop to consider *when* you're hitting the send button?

Generally, when marketers use the "Do-Not-Reply@DomainName.com" email address in their from field, they are specifying an email address that does not exist. The problem with sending email from a non-existent address is that, eventually, it will trigger spam filters.

How are you doing on your New Year's resolution? Let me guess, it includes shedding a few pounds, getting more exercise, making healthy eating choices, etc. Here's another thing that needs to get into better shape: your transactional email messages program.

On the web, attention spans are extremely fragile. Web surfers are looking for immediate gratification. Do they really want to stick around and read a gazillion word sales letter? Does long copy outperform short copy, even on the internet?

You crafted a great e-zine campaign, and yet the sales aren't pouring in as you expected them to. Only a fraction of your readers actually opened your e-zine. Now what?