1. Subject Line
Always ask would I open that? Make it short and sweet, engaging and a personalisation always gets better results. Check out ‘The Ultimate List of Email Spam Trigger Words’

2. Content
Less is more… Don’t think you have to include everything about your business in one single newsletter or Eshot. Start with a small snippet of information and link out to your blogs, social media, website and other online resources.

3. Design
Design a newsletter to fit your brand. Don’t just use the templates available to everyone. Try to customise the colours, fonts and design to suit your company brand. First impressions are everything.

4. Manage your Frequency
This will depend on your industry, target audience and what content you have to deliver. You need to be frequent enough to be memorable, but not too frequent you are considered a nuisance and unsubscribed.

5. Stand Out From the Crowd
Think of how many emails your receive per day, think of how many emails you delete, unsubscribe or filter through to your junk box… now think of ways you can be different and stand out from the crowd!

1. Social Media
Pick a new social platform that you have never tried and make it your new year goal to become a digital guru for that network and add another string to your bow.

2. Video
If a picture paints 1000 words what does a moving image do? Create one piece of moving digital media to promote your business. It could be a slideshow, animation, interview, or panoramic video. This can be delivered on your website or shared on social media. Don’t forget to measure the response.

3. Landing Pages
We are all knowledgeable about your products or services, give away some FREE information via a landing page which asks for a potential customers details in exchange for this FREE helpful information.

4. Email Marketing
Be brave and try something you have never done before. Add that video you created, start a referral program, run a competition or celebrate a milestone. Contacting potential customers even once a month may just be enough put you in the forefront of their mind.

5. Existing Customers
We all know it’s easier to get more business from an existing customer rather than finding a new customer. Go through your contact list and find one reason to contact each customer, nothing sales based… ask them how your existing service is working for them, or maybe just to see how their Christmas and new year went and see where the conversation leads.

Permission
There are two kinds of permission. Implied permission and express permission. Implied permission is a little loose and covers anybody who you have an existing business relationship with. Express permission is everyone who has directly given you permission by opting in or subscribing either online or in-store.

Address
You must clearly include a valid postal address for your business in your email campaigns. This can be your street address, a postbox or a registered commercial mail-receiving company that your business uses.

Frequency
There are no legal rules of engagement, this comes down to common courtesy. Think how often you like to receive emails from a company and what type of business they run. For example… a supermarket marketing email can acts a weekly reminder to do your online shopping but another business thanking you for your visit then promoting their products on day 1, day 3 and day 5 may become a bit much.

Opt-Out
Let recipients opt-out easily. You should provide a link somewhere in the email for users to opt-out easily.

Identify
Clearly identify that your message is an advertisement. E.g. if there is an offer state what the offer is.

Misleading
Don’t use misleading header information. This specifically applies to: From name, subject line and reply-to address. Email marketing laws stipulate that you must not include incorrect or misleading information in these fields to try to trick people into opening your email campaigns.

New law
New legislation from the General Data Protection Regulation will come in to force from 25th May 2018. It will require your business to take extra measures to ensure customer data is kept safe and used properly. More info >

More guidance

• .Gov on the law in terms of advertising and marketing: Direct Marketing > 
• Electronic Email marketing: ICO on Email Marketing >
• Your email marketing and anti-spam law: Law Donut on Email Marketing >​