Despite what some might say, email marketing is still alive and well, but all messages aren’t created equal.

You don’t have to let your email marketing campaign fall short. All it takes is a solid understanding of your target audience and respecting their valuable time.

With the average person receiving 121 emails a day, you have to do something to stand out from the crowd. A few tweaks to your campaign can make a major difference in how well your messages resonate with recipients.

1. Keep It Short And Sweet

What sounds better - a three page email or a few paragraphs with a call to action? Your audience is busy and they’re not interested in reading a full length landing page. If you want them to read beyond the first few sentences, you have to keep your message short. Think of how to say more with fewer words. Attention spans are short, so get your point across immediately.

2. Use Catchy Subject Lines

Email is second only to social media when it comes to how people spend their time online in the United States. It’s one of the reasons 56% of marketers stated email was their most effective channel. The problem is it’s only effective if you can get recipients to open the messages. Getting creative with your subject lines is the solution.

The idea is to make recipients curious and eager to see what your email has to say. For instance, Birchbox used the subject line “We Forgot Something In Your February Box!” to get the recipient to click. Though nothing was forgotten, the email did have a special discount code inside. Short and descriptive, questions and catchy calls-to-action are all perfect ways to get more clicks.

Think of how to say more with fewer words. Attention spans are short, so get your point across immediately.

3. Target With Different Lists

Relevant, segmented emails provide 18 times more revenue than broadcast messages and have an 8% higher click-through rate. Instead of sending one mass message to your entire list, segment it to provide more relevant messages. After all, a bachelor probably isn’t buying baby diapers and seniors probably aren’t interested in the latest crop tops.

4. Include Obvious CTAs

Email marketing is pointless unless you include a clear call-to-action. What do you want your readers to do? Make this obvious with links or buttons. For best results, use more than one call-to-action, such as one in the first paragraph and one at the end of your message so it’s not easily overlooked.

5. Personalize Messages

With numerous emails to go through daily, no one wants a general “Hi Random Email Recipient” message. They want to know the sender cares about them. Take the time to add the recipient’s name. Some brands even add the name to the subject line. This also goes well with targeted, segmented lists. Base discount campaigns around what the recipient has purchased or expressed and interest in before.

Studying previous campaigns helps you to change future campaigns to make them far more effective.

6. Reduce Frequency

The worst mistake you can make to kill your email marketing campaign is to abuse the recipient’s email. Sending messages daily marketing your products is just going to cause them to unsubscribe. Send a weekly or bi-weekly email. Recipients are more likely to read messages when they don’t feel pressured or overwhelmed by the frequency.

7. Study Your Data

Are you collecting analytics data from your email campaigns? If not, you should be. You have a wealth of information at your fingertips to better understand when your target audience opens messages most, what types of calls-to-action generate the highest click-through rates and what types of messages resonate best with different segments on your list. Studying previous campaigns helps you to change future campaigns to make them far more effective.

Email Marketing Can Be More Effective

If your email marketing efforts aren’t effective now, it’s time to change things up. Work on better subject lines, calls-to-action and targeted messages. Think more about what your customers want versus strict marketing and you’ll see better results every time.