Collecting email addresses for your email list may seem like the most difficult chore in small business marketing, but you still have to provide quality content to your readers. If you don’t, your email newsletter is going to be trashed before it’s read. Imagine all that hard work you did on a newsletter, email post or blog links, only to find that no one is reading any of it.

Here are 6 ways to get your email marketing content opened and read. You may even convert a few readers into buying your products or services too!

1. Don’t be salesy. Is your email message or newsletter full of salesy content? Is it only saying, “buy now, act now, limited time offer”, or any of dozens of other words that consumers have now been mentally trained to skip over? This content is dreary and boring and best to be avoided at all costs. What is fine: Have a simple call to action at the bottom of the message, newsletter, or blog for your internet business.

2. Have catchy topics. Write about catchy topics to capture their interest in email marketing. Yes, people know you have products and services. Write about some fun stories that your customers or clients have shared with you. Perhaps they had an unusual problem, then saw a way to use your product or service to make life better. For example, perhaps you have an outdoor clothing store, or a cosmetics business. Write a fun article about how your client brought your products on a trip through the Amazon jungle.

3. Add photographs. Don’t just post photos of your products or services when doing your internet marketing. Post photos of them in action. Put your jewelry on a cat, or show people having fun at an event. Let your potential customers see the products in action.

4. Add graphics or illustrations. Did you know that people will stop and look at a simple cartoon, drawing, or anything else hand drawn on the page? You don’t even have to be a graphic artist. These simple illustrations

can be used to get your point across.

5. Don’t be scammy. People will be skeptical in your internet marketing if you’re saying that your product can cure cancer. You’ll have to carefully navigate around controversial topics. Be sure to back up the facts with sources and references if you are selling products in the alternatives line.

6. Keep it short. People don’t have more than a couple of minutes to spend reading a newsletter. If you want to provide additional information, do it through links to your blog. They can then “follow” your blog and visit it later.

You want to be that internet business that provides value for money. Set up a great email newsletter with plenty of links to great content. You want to be the site that adds a brain worm into the minds of your potential customers so that they’ll remember your content and come back for more.