Email marketing is the need of the day. To stay in touch with your customers, prospects, and subscribers, you have to utilize this tool. This article gives out some tips on how you can make your HTML messages powerful to generate more leads.

Clearly define the purpose of your email and write accordingly

Do you know why you want to send out your email and who are you sending it to? This is the most critical element to consider before you start off. Your objective could be:

• To generate more enquiries and sales
• To bring more traffic to your website
• To introduce a new products, services, promotions to your prospects and customers
• To stay in touch with your acquaintances through newsletters about your company
• To increase brand awareness and enhance company image, and so on

What type of content should you write

There is no need to say that you must write content that makes sense for your target audience. Right form the subject line the content should grab attention and entice the reader to read on and take the action you want him or her to take. Therefore, the content should flow logically through your email so that there is no confusion.

The call-to-action should be prominent and enough supporting statements should be provided for people to take action. This portion should be come above the fold that is the top 20% of your email. Tell them what to do next in easy steps in the rest of the mail.

Do not try to put all the information in one email; give headlines and short descriptions and give links for further information.

Must have elements in an HTML email message

• The layout should be simple.
• Use images only where they make sense. Do not put pictures just because they look good. Your images should support what you want to say. For instance, you can put a chart to complement the figures that you've mentioned in an article.
• All links should be descriptive. For example, instead of "click here", you can write "Visit our website to get a downloadable version."
• All the images should have descriptive Alt Tags. This will make some text visible even when the images are disabled in the mail client.
• CAN-SPAM compliance should be maintained by giving your complete contact details and unsubscribe link.

The problem with HTML messages is that more often than not, they are considered as spam. To avoid this, your script should be clean otherwise your message would end up in the junk mailbox. Make simple HTML mail without any complex codes. You should send your email only to people who have opted for it otherwise there will be a lot of spam complaints against you.

Do not make your email image-heavy as most mail clients do not open the images at first.
Avoid all common spam words. The list is available all through the web. You may also test your HTML code in some content checker tools such as Lyris Content Checker available for free.