Are you capturing the emails of your websites visitors?  If not, I will tell you right now you’re leaving a lot of money on the table. You can love email marketing or hate it, but building an email list should be one of your businesses top priorities.  A properly primed email list can be one of the most responsive sales tools your online business can harness.

Email marketing poses many distinct advantages over other forms of advertising. Here are just a few:

• Email marketing offer a great way to build a personal relationship with your buyers.  This is highly important because as people start to feel connected to you they will be much more inclined to purchase from you on a regular basis.

• Your email list is excellent source for market research.  By asking your list what problems they are facing in your industry, you can then focus on developing a product to solve their needs.

• Email lists are extremely cost-effective when compared to more traditional direct mail or print advertising campaigns, making it easy for even small businesses to reach a large breadth of potential leads.

• Marketing emails provide a unique opportunity to directly measure the success or failure of your campaign through metrics such as click-through rate (the percentage of people who clicked on a link in your email) and conversion rate (the percentage of people who ultimately completed a sale after clicking through).

• You can target hand-picked leads for your distribution list, rather than just throwing your message out there randomly to see where it sticks.

• Email campaigns generally bring about faster results than direct mail or print advertisements, as the consumers receive your message in real-time and can act on it immediately.

When it comes to actually crafting and sending your email marketing message, there are some important strategies that can increase your odds of success. Below, I have compiled a list of 12 email marketing tips to help you get the maximum ROI for each email:

1. Make it personal. Your email will have a much bigger impact if you tailor the content to the consumer. Garner attention by addressing the email to the recipient by name.

2. Avoid common spam triggers. Words like “Save” and “Free” and dollar-sign characters, among others, could send your email straight to the Spam folder, where your lead will likely never see it. Craft your subject lines to be filter-friendly.

3. Stay consistent. Don’t send one email and then make your leads wait six months for another one. Set up a regular calendar of emails—at least one per month—and stick to it. This will help build credibility and reinforce your business as a permanent fixture in the industry.

4. But…don’t overdo it. There’s nothing more annoying than receiving emails from the same company every single day. Give your list a rest in between campaigns, and always defer marketing emails during the holidays.

5. Capture quality email addresses. If you’re using an opt-in form on your website to gather addresses, include a validation field requiring that the customer re-enter their email once more. This safety net will help to prevent the email bounces that can come from mis-types.

6. Stay true to your brand. Make sure your email design accurately reflects your company’s identifying factor, making it easy for consumers to recognize the email as yours.

7. Consider partnerships. Many sites strike affiliate deals where they agree to allocate a portion of their email space, such as a lower banner, to another business in exchange for reciprocal treatment. As long as you don’t engage in this type of association with direct competitors, it can be a great way to expand your reach and piggy-back on other companies’ leads.

8. Give them choices. Let email recipients decide whether they view your messages in HTML version or plain-text.

9. Make it easy to unsubscribe. Not that you want to encourage opt-outs, but it’s important to reassure consumers that they always have the chance to stop receiving your messages if they wish. Plus, it’s just good email etiquette to make it easy to get removed from your list.

10. Offer an incentive. Many websites dangle a carrot to get online consumers to sign up for email updates. Common motivators are a percentage discount off their next order, a chance to win a sweepstakes, or previews of special promotions.

11. Make your message count. Don’t send an email just to send it. Put some thought into your campaign, and make sure it’s providing a benefit to the customer.

12. Test, test, and test some more. Before launching an email, be sure to bullet-proof the message by checking all links, proofreading all copy, and making sure any advertised discounts are in place on your website. Preview the message using multiple browsers and versions. Typos, broken links, and defunct promotions are surefire ways to lose credibility.

Follow some basic rules, and your virtual messages can lead to very real sales.