One overwhelming positive to going with a reputable email service provider is the quality of the free email templates. There is nothing worse than staring at a blank screen trying to be creative. Not only that, the temptation is to copy.

You will, of course, have studied the creations of your competitors. Let’s face it, they will study yours. It is so easy to just transfer their design ideas to your emails but that would put you behind them. You need to be innovative.

If you had your website professionally produced then you will, no doubt, want to exploit all that investment and there is certain logic to duplicating it. After all, corporate image is important and you will not want to surprise your customers with something new.

There is a problem with this easy solution though. Websites have an entirely different function to perform compared to marketing emails.

Your website has to attract the casual browser, brought to it after a search engine, for some strange reason, favoured you. You will know nothing about this person other than that they might well be interested in your products. Your site has the dual role of standing out from others whilst at the same time not putting any potential customers off. It can’t be bland and it must not startle. It has to appeal to everyone.

Compare that to your email. You will have divided your subscribers into groups, such as those who are willing to spend a great deal on a quality item and those who prefer a bargain and are willing to accept compromise. You know your customers well enough to be able to predict their preferences to a certain degree and you must exploit this.

The universal design of your website might not put off either of the two groups above but you need to engage with them, go for their emotions, excite them. Being ordinary is not the way.

Ensure that your customers know it is your company they are dealing with, by using your logo and a similar banner, but after that use the free email template to hone it for the group in your crosshairs