Email marketing provides businesses of all sizes enormous opportunities to reach potential customers without spending an arm and a leg on hard-to-measure advertising campaigns. As more computer-savvy consumers go online to research products, compare prices, and ultimately make purchases, now more than ever companies have the chance to reach out to a larger pool of prospects looking for related products and services.

While this provides tremendous potential for online marketers, it’s not as easy as it looks. As the article, “Email marketing represents ‘a great opportunity’,” points out, there are mistakes you want to avoid that can be counterproductive to your marketing efforts. For instance, aimlessly pushing product information in front of thousands of unqualified customers not only appears self-serving, it can cost you potential revenue. You see, in the eyes of your prospective customers, multiple touches that come across as pushy sales tactics can damage the reputation of your brand, not to mention have them running in the other direction.

One example that comes to mind are mall kiosks. You know the ones that rent a small piece of real estate in every shopping mall’s superhighway. I know it’s their job to aggressively pitch hundreds of shoppers a day and miraculously stop them in their tracks as they quickly make their way to their next shopping destination. If that isn’t a tough sell, I don’t know what is. Now, imagine trying to catch the attention of the same shoppers as they pass by a second, third or fourth time. After awhile those once polite rejected smiles turn into rude looks; suddenly you’ve become the annoying sales person that everyone’s trying to avoid.

The same holds true with email marketing campaigns. Unless you’re providing some kind of value to the consumer’s research or decision-making process, after awhile your self-serving message is just another obstacle to avoid.

To improve the success of your email marketing campaigns, your plan needs to be very calculated. Make sure you’re going after consumers that are actually interested or have a need for your products or services. Do your homework so you completely understand what your audience cares about. This will help you provide relevant information your audience can actually use to help in their buying process. Finally, make sure your content is engaging enough to keep them reading or coming back for more. That way, each time they receive an email from your company they are clicking to open, not pressing the delete button.