Adding email to your existing marketing strategy is a cost-effective way of using email in order to better market to and service your customers, reduce your expenses and increase overall sales. Here are 8 key principles which will advance your email marketing success.

1 Building your List Be creative, use hooks to provide incentives to your target audience for subscribing to your communication. Whether your objective is sales, marketing or customer service, the golden rule remains the same: DO NOT SPAM.

2 Make it easy to subscribe Whatever medium you use to grow your list, put yourself in the shoes of the subscriber. Having to fill in a long subscription form will put people off. The minimum being e-mail address, name and areas of interest.

3 Keep an 'electric paper trail' In order for you avoid being accused of spamming, keep a log giving such information such as date and time and if possible the IP address of the subscriber.

4 Have automated responses to communications As much as you might like to, it is impractical to answer each response personally. An editable auto-responder will do the work for you. This will provide the subscriber with confirmation of the action, and gives you the ability to give a personalized response.

5 Prepare quality look and subject matter This part is very important. In order for your mail to opened and remembered, it needs to look good, be functional and share information that will be of value to the subscriber. It's worth taking your time to get it right.

6 Don't block the exit door. Just as spamming is an absolute no no, so having the option in each communication to unsubscribe is paramount. This will build trust and give you an added incentive to maintain the quality of the communications.

7 Find the frequency hot spot This could be different from campaign to campaign. The happy medium of not too often and not often enough. Something else to consider when choosing the frequency of the communication, is when to send it, the beginning of each month may not always be the best time.

8 Personalize, personalize, and personalize. The ability to individualize each mail with your subscribers first (or last) name is vital. The way the subscriber is made to feel when reading your communication will affect the way they perceive you as a potential supplier.