Test email marketing by reading as a customer

Before rubber-stamping an email marketing campaign, companies should read the messages as if they were a consumer.

Business 2 Community contributor Zach Heller explained that people can check for mistakes and see how effective any call to action is on the page; factors that can fall by the wayside during the design stages.

He revealed that he recently received a marketing email featuring images that did not load, which suggested to him that the message had not been checked.

In his opinion, it is vital for marketers to include themselves on email marketing lists, so that they get to see exactly what every other recipient is sent.

"The first thing I do when I create a new email is send myself a test. Other than the fact that it helps you spot any errors, as in the email above, but it also lets you experience the email as a potential customer would," added Mr Heller.

In terms of effectiveness, email marketing continues to be one of the best tools available to advertisers, but Marketing Land's features editor Pamela Parker stressed the importance of keeping up with the latest developments in the industry.

The example she gave is related to the way people are opening their emails in 2012, with an increasing number of consumers doing so on their smartphones. She said it is essential to keep abreast of such changes if future campaigns are to be successful.