If you want your website to be robust enough to generate sales you must consider the option of collecting e-mail addresses of your visitors and using those e-mails to stay in touch. One of the most common practices is to mail monthly newsletters to subscribers, But what about e-mailing standalone product promotions to your subscribers. When used properly this practice can be a useful tool for your visitors.

The fourth of DoubleClick’s annual consumer e-mail studies points to an increasing sophistication of consumer usage of e-mail functionality and a corresponding complexity of purchasing behavior. The study found that 78 percent of people surveyed said they wanted to receive e-mail from their favorite online merchants. And, eMarketer, which monitors more than 1,500 sources daily, found that 67 percent of U.S. consumers liked companies who did a good job with opt-in e-mail marketing.

So, it is still a good practice, even in this day of seemingly endless spam, to use e-mail marketing if you follow a few simple guidelines. To make sure your e-mail promotion is successful make sure it looks professional. A key here is to proofread your e-mail at least three times before sending it to your mailing list. It is difficult for many of us to see errors in our own material, so adopt the practice of having a friend or co-worker check it out as well. If you send an e-mail full of spelling or grammatical errors, it will cost you sales and could permanently damage your credibility.

You also must be certain the information you are sending out has some relevancy to your recipients. Is the offer something they are likely to be interested in, or will it be considered just another superfluous mailing? You must not assume that your subscribers will automatically understand why your e-mail promotion is of interest to them. You need to spell it out. Copywriting 101 teaches that you must explain in detail how your product can help them and why now is the time to buy. Advertisers use the principle of stating “features” and “benefits.” You have to describe the features, certainly, but it may be even more important to focus on the benefits to the consumer. There’s an old axiom in the advertising business that results in a methodology for making a sale. It’s called AIEDA, and represents the following steps in the sales process:

1. Attract Attention
2. Create Interest
3. Educate (features)
4. Demonstrate (benefits)
5. Call to Action (Buy Now!)

The second part of using basic marketing strategy is to make your offer exclusive. You can tailor your promotion just for the subscribers to your mailing list, for a limited time, and then give them a strong reason to buy, such as “introductory prices” or a favorable price for only a “limited time.” This “call to action” from the sales methodology above has been around for ages and is still the most effective design element in your promotional planning process.

When you first enter the e-mail promotion arena, you need to feature one of your most popular products, or one that is in popular demand from other sources. Feature something current, and fashionable, so you can get a good feel for how effective this medium can be in building your business. This is no time to unload dated inventory! If you design your e-mail to give people a good reason to buy one of your best-selling products, you can guarantee yourself a terrific response!

Before you distribute your e-mail to your client base you need to conduct an e-mail evaluation. Send a test version of the message to yourself at your regular e-mail account and auxiliary accounts. Take advantage of free e-mail accounts with Yahoo! and Hotmail, and include these accounts in your test mailing to yourself. The point here is to review your e-mail before you distribute it to clients to catch any formatting errors caused by the way different e-mail programs handle HTML documents. If you have an associate or “beta tester” with an AOL account, send them a copy, too. You’ll be surprised how dramatically your e-mail will change in appearance from one to the other! After going through this trail and error process for a few months you’ll begin to understand the safe practices that work best for general e-mailing.

Your e-mail should have no more than two or three paragraphs. Total length should be less than 250 words. The body should support your introduction using features and benefits, then close with a call to action.

The well-written message uses the active voice and has short, concise sentences, because about half of your recipients will read just the first couple of sentences before deciding to continue. If writing isn’t your strong suit, consider hiring a copywriter. Using the AIEDA formula discussed earlier, here are some tips for copywriting your message.

1. ATTENTION: Carefully craft an interest catching subject line. We are all so wary of subject lines with “Hi” or “Hello” or other meaningless topics that we often filter them before they even get to the e-mail box. Make sure your subject line clearly and concisely embodies your offer. Your e-mail should have only one subject. Don’t fall into the trap of offering multiple products, which can confuse your reader and dilute the effectiveness of your message.

2. INTEREST: The first sentence or two must contain the information that creates interest on the part of your reader, and is the central message of your mailing. It should be clear and intriguing. Be sure it focuses on the benefits they’ll receive, not on what you’re offering.

3. EDUCATE: Briefly explain to the reader the features of the product you are offering. You can provide a link in the copy to another page of information that contains more detailed information on the features and benefits. Some marketing messages fall short of being effective because they fail to include all the information customers need. Be sure to include details such as pricing and deadlines. It’s a mistake to expect customers to browse through your site to get the information they need, so make sure there are links to get them to this data effortlessly.

4. DEMONSTRATE: Now it’s time to demonstrate how this product can be a smart purchase for your customer. Include a graphic that shows the product in use by a happy consumer, or a professional quality photograph of the product or packaging. The subliminal message sent by pictures can have tremendous value, and when selected correctly, can communicate more than you can convey in a thousand words!

5. ACTION: Tell readers what you want them to do. Make it easy for them to follow the path to the “purchase” button. If the purchase can be made from your online store’s website, make sure they can get right to that purchase page without having to navigate through your site, getting confused or losing interest.