According to the experts, you have just a few seconds to engage your customer's attention with your email. If you send something out with a boring subject line, if it looks like spam or is difficult to understand then it will be instantly deleted.

You want people to be interested enough to open and read the email, click on the links and ultimately become a customer. So make sure your subject line is clear, concise, and interesting and try to do this with no more than ten words.

Keep the design simple so that once the email is opened the reader is not confused by too many colors or too many fonts but will want to read some clear text that is easy to read.

Don't use Flash or videos and don't use too many graphics or images. This is particularly important for people reading your message on mobile devices, a growing segment of your target population. According to SurveySampling (2007) about 65% of potential decision makers are reading marketing messages on text-only mobile devices. If your email takes too long to download or display, you will fail to capture the attention of that potential customer, and maybe they will not even get the message as many major email services don't allow audio, video and Flash in emails.

Make sure you test your email marketing message so that it looks good in the recipient's program as well as your own and send it out in both HTML and plain text to offer the best of both worlds.

Once your email has been opened, make sure you have something worthwhile to say, so that a busy customer will want to read your message. Get to the point quickly and provide a link for more information.

People are more likely to respond to useful helpful advice or information rather than an aggressive sales pitch. This is where email marketing excels as it gives you the chance to offer value, unlike a TV commercial that offers color, soundbites, flashy effects and attention grabbing gimmicks.

Your email message offers something of value-advice, tips, information, a special promotion, an offer or sale - and you can provide your readers with links to more information on your own website at the end of each paragraph, rather than overwhelming them with too much information in the email. Test your links before you send out the email - because if recipients can't click through to your site, all your efforts have been wasted.

Remember that customers buy only from people that they trust are giving them valuable information. A tip to consider is not to solicit a new sign up too quickly - but create their loyal interest first with information about your product or service and remember that a hard sell is the quickest way to the delete button.