Email marketing is more successful if it focuses on people you know are interested in what you're offering. For example, if you're running a special offer on computer hardware, it will be more effective if you promote it only to people responsible for buying IT.

People are easily annoyed when they receive an email that's irrelevant to them. And they're likely to delete any later messages from your business without reading them.

But the reverse is also true: an email that holds the interest or meets the needs of the recipient will be valuable to them. Even if they don't buy from you immediately, they're more likely to do so in the future.

Keeping it relevant

If you've got a large database of customers and potential customers for your email marketing campaign, it's worth analysing what you know about them, so you can send a more relevant message. See how to manage your customer databases.

For example, you could send customers who have a high spend with you an email about your new loyalty discount. Customers who haven't bought anything from you for six months will be more likely to respond to an update on your products and services.