Email marketing software will allow you to fashion a marketing email that will stand the best chance of being read. Just trusting to luck is not good enough. The days of finding a few internal memos and a letter or two in your in tray are long gone.

Most people have systems for dealing with bulging inboxes, but their responses can be classified under three main headings.

1. Deleting it immediately

This is the favoured option for most it would appear. Any problem is solved in one click. Not only that, there is a certain satisfaction with the action. It is addictive.

2. Reading it

Whether the email is there to inform, entertain, promote a sale or for some other function, reading it requires a conscious decision. Something about the sender or the Subject line must attract. Research suggests that there is a strict time limit, varying from around two minutes for B2B emails to a little longer for those sent to customers.

3. Passing it to someone else

If you are paying someone to take the drudgery out of your life then there is every possibility that emails will be amongst the first of items passed to them.

4. Deferring it

There are systems included in most email service providers to facilitate filing items to apprise later. The reasons an email is not deleted instantly vary considerably but there remains the possibility that it will be deleted later.

You can, via good quality email marketing software, design the appearance and content of the email to increase the likelihood of preferred option 2/. Once an email is opened the recipient will scan the content to see if, in their opinion, it is worth reading closely. That is when the design of the email becomes critical.

Those new to email marketing, or perhaps taking it seriously for the first time, might well feel the creation of the email is too difficult. Do not be put off. Free email wizards explain the process simply and will show the methods. Your email marketing software will let you improve the quality of your email after each successive campaign.