Email marketing returns no value to your business if your potential customers don’t open or read it. But with the high volume of email that IT decision makers receive each day, it’s difficult to rise above all that noise and capture their attention.

There are several ways in which you can dramatically increase the likelihood of getting recipients to open and read your email. However, your email marketing strategy must be consistent and demonstrate a deep understanding of exactly what your customers are looking for.

1. Tailor Your Emails to Your Customers, Not Your Company

Begin by asking yourself what gets you to open one email over others. Almost everyone opens emails that come from someone they know, or at least feel they know. There are a few ways to achieve this. They may actually know you, or they may have seen your name so many times that it’s become familiar. This is called “unaided name recognition,” and it’s the reason so many companies put out so much email and other marketing volume. They’re simply working to build unaided name recognition. Your name also might sound familiar. Many companies, for example, have named themselves with the word “Columbia”: Columbia sportswear, Columbia bicycles and even the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS).

This full article originally appeared on Samsung Insights and is authored by David Gilbert.

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