Email marketing takes on a prominent role in the face of online marketing. It is widely used by marketers wanting to succeed in their online businesses. The simple email is the mechanism by which marketers who are employing email marketing strategy will use to reach potential customers. Needless to say, before starting to write any email promotion, it is vital to sit down and plan the strategy for it.

Below are proven guidelines for writing your email promotion. The list is by no means exhaustive, but it can certainly contribute to your planning to roll out your email promotion confidently.

(1) What do you want your readers to do?

This is an important question that you must determine right from the start. What do you want your visitors to do? Sign up for your service? Subscribe to your newsletter? Purchase your product or service? You have to be distinctly clear on this, in order to get a definite and only one response to one request.

(2) What kind of benefits that your readers can get from responding?

Explain the benefits that readers can get from their responding to your call to action. In what ways can they fully benefit from their subscribing to your newsletter, their purchasing of your product or service, or their signing up for your service? Stressing the benefits is one of the vital guidelines for writing your email promotion effectively. Create good value and appeal in your offer that no reader can resist.

(3) How do you plan to create urgency in your offer?

The call to action statement should invoke readers to take immediate action. You can only achieve the desired result if there is urgency in your offer. Inclusion of urgency in your offer will definitely guide your readers to take action without any more delay. Examples would be : "The promotion will be available only for the next two days", "Free shipping only to the first 200 customers".

(4) What do you plan for the length of your copy to be?

The length of your copy should be decided only after you have listed and decided on what benefits to be included, and on which format you have decided for your presentation. A good effective copy is time-proven: it is usually written in letter-style, which appears more professional. If it is necessary to help deliver your message across, this is the length of your email. In ensuring that your emails do not look like ads, you have actually applied one of the important guidelines for writing email promotions.

(5) What do you plan to do with your links?

This area is of vital importance. Do not put the cart before the horse. You will have to present all the benefits and create the urgency in your offer first before you can put up your call to action (e.g "Click Here Now") with your link. Call to action and link should not appear too early in your email, unless you are thinking of offering free gifts.

(6) What sort of audience do you want to target?

This question relates to who do you want to write your email promotions to. Will you be writing only to customers who have purchased your product or service or to all of your customers? Or even to only those who subscribe to your newsletter? Providing a personalized touch through your letter is indeed one of the more important guidelines for writing your email promotion powerfully. This will bring you closer to your customers. For instance, you can write: "Tony, thanks for your subscription!".

(7) What do you plan to identify yourself in your email promotion?

In writing your emails, make known yourself. Readers need to know that they are reading the promotions as originating from the same writer throughout, and a real person for that matter. They tend to identify with the same writer. Therefore, it is vital to retain the same voice for all of your email promotions, and with a personal touch.

(8) How do you plan to arrange for interactive communication?

Readers and customers may want to reach you in case of need. What contact information should you give them? Do not risk your credibility. Always allow readers and customers to contact you easily by providing them with your email address and phone number. Additionally, it would be good to include a valid postal address, as this will avoid the issue of spamming.

(9) What plans have you made to include more benefits?

Your email promotion may have listed all the benefits, urgency created in the offer, and a call to action is being executed. Still it is a fact that readers may just scroll down to the last line to make their decisions there and then. One of the effective guidelines to writing your email promotions powerfully is to include a postscript that should preferably restate the main benefits of your offer or reveal a new and fantastic bonus benefit. This postscript must also include and emphasize your call to action.

Writing email promotions require some serious thinking on how to map out your offer. Always ensure that all required information and details about the offer that you intend to make has been sufficiently collected. This is in effect writing out the formula that will eventually bring success to your email promotion campaign.