Perhaps the most important component in turning visitors to your web site into customers is email marketing. Make no mistake. If you do not have an effective email marketing campaign you may be losing up to 95% of your potential customers.

Your web site should have a method of capturing email addresses such as an opt-in form. How do you get visitors to send you their email address? By giving them something of value in return. For example on my web site, kdaviesnz.com, I give away a short report about how a particular web site averages $27,000USD in revenue per month with only around 100 visitors a day.

When creating your email marketing campaign remember the most important thing is to build a relationship. Your goal may be to make a sale but people are more likely to buy from you if there is a relationship there. This is because you've given them a chance to know and create you.

Don't go for the sell right away. It usually takes at least seven emails before someone is ready to buy. Instead, take the time to build the relationship. If you go for the sell too soon you will lose your potential customer. Get your prospects a chance to like and trust you.

When writing each email always have the recipient in mind. Write the email as if you were sending it to just one person and imagine you are the person you are sending the email to. How would you feel when you read it? Would you think that it was just another email by someone trying to push a product? Or would you think "wow, there's some really useful stuff here"?

Here's a tip. After you write each email send it to yourself. That way you get to see the eamil from the recipient's point of view.

After you compose the email you need to make sure it gets delivered and not sent to the recipient's junk box. Fortunately there is Lyris's ContentChecker that will check your email for you. It's available at http://www.lyris.com/contentchecker.

Now for the email itself.

You must have a subject line that practically guarantees your email will be open. Afterall, if your email is not opened then you've wasted your time writing it. Emails that have a personal sounding subject line are more likely to opened than ones that sound commercial. Where possible use the word "this" and include elllipsis points at the end. Some good subject lines are:

"I just have to tell you this ..."
"Here's what you should know ..."
"I almost forgot ..."

Be sure that the subject line agrees with the sender. For example if you're selling a new exercise technique (eg the sender is something like "me@secretexercisetechnique.com") you wouldn't use a subject line such as "This is how to save big bucks on your mortage". You could however use something like "This is the secret ..."

The first few sentences of the email should be used to establish rapport. Let the recipient know something about yourself. For example you could write something like "Hi, how are you? It's been hectic here but things are finally starting to calm down." Imagine you were talking to a friend.

The rest of the email should be on just one topic and provide value. Use language that is pleasant, conversational, and familiar to your prospects. That way you build a rapport with them which leads to trust. Don't waste your prospect's time and avoid formal speak. It'll only turn your prospect off.

Finally, when your prospect is ready to act, tell your prospect what they should do - whether it's buying a product from you or subscribing to an ezine.

When someone reads an email you have sent them they are doing you a favour. They are trusting that you have not wasted their valuable time and that you have sent them something of value to them. Do not abuse that trust.