If you are giving a special offer, or simply sending to a particular group of people, it may be worth writing a special page, so that when they click the link, they find themselves at a page semi personalised, like:

Welcome to all helicopter fans. I have written this page to tell you more about the air display which takes place on July 15th and to offer you a special discount as I explained in my message . . . .

What we call a "signature" seems to include an ever increasing number of items. Often this extra text runs into more than 500 words. I am not about to tell you what you could put down there, but what you must include. If you insist on disclaimers and a business history or CV, that is fine, but please make it priority to include:

A friendly sign off:

Your full contact details

"Tell a friend (forward message) reminder / option

In case reader has received message from someone else, a "subscribe" link

Always, always, a "remove me" link. Do make the system simple. If someone wants to be removed, they do not want to be taken through ten pages of your website to complete the process. A click to confirm is enough.

If you like – a spam reporting facility – to give a professional feel and build confidence of customer or reader.

Only you can best write your message. But managing your lists – who has said yes, who has said no, who opted out since last time, which names bounced, and all that, can best be left to a professional service. Spam is a very emotive issue. You do not need to take any risks when an expert system will make mincemeat of the technical side of sending out newsletters and promotional offers to your customers.

Spammers are becoming more and more sophisticated and anti-spam systems and software struggle to keep up. No matter what software protection you use, it seems that there are always a few which slide through.

Spammers harvest email lists through different sources. Some are lawful, some are unlawful. They also use many different tactics to persuade you to read their message, once it has entered your inbox.

Now, your anti-spam software can never be perfect – because it cannot know that an item is important to you, when the same item may be spam to someone else. Furthermore, it is all too easy for us to consign an item to spam accidentally because we do not notice the contents carefully enough, or maybe we have inadvertently selected it along with real spam items. For this reason, I strongly advise you to look through your spam box every couple of days. You will be surprised how many "wanted" messages have been accidentally directed there.

To make sure that the messages you send do not go into the spam folder, you must send them through an accredited and trusted source. Always use email services that follow accepted anti-spam standards and are properly accredited. "Accredited" means they have been approved as a sender by one of half a dozen accreditation schemes which are themselves approved by most big ISPs. The result is that messages sent through an accredited sender have a far higher chance of getting through to the receiver’s inbox.

Finally, I want to share my experience of checking junk mail with every businessman. Check your junk mail folder at weekends, but do not automatically delete everything immediately. Among all the rubbish, there might just be some gem you can use in your business or your personal life!

Different businessmen have different marketing strategies depending upon the nature of their businesses. But everyone need email promotion. It is the easiest and lowest cost way to reach old and new customers and clients.

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