With another year quickly approaching, content creators and marketers alike are trying to find new ways to expand their reach, increase conversions and boost overall traffic. Perhaps the oldest method of digital marketing that still retains much of its power, email marketing, can be highly effective when utilized properly. Unfortunately, many people fail to grasp the basic concepts and faux-pas of this method, leading to ineffective and time-consuming campaigns. If your email marketing efforts have been less than optimal in terms of conversions, clicks and other metrics, then continue reading to find out about five email marketing tips that you’ll want to embrace for 2015.

Email Sparingly

Email is free and easy, and this makes it very difficult to resist sending out countless emails whenever we have a new idea, piece of content or product to promote. Unfortunately, countless studies have shown that bombarding your subscribers with emails is a net-negative and can often result in them ceasing to read your emails. Each customer has a specific interest and value; make sure you are addressing this by sending out emails relevant to their needs – and doing so sparingly.

Accommodate Mobile Users

If you are not yet using a mobile-responsive email template in each and every one of your emails, then no wonder your engagement rates are suffering. With 40% of all internet traffic pinging to Google coming via mobile devices and a majority of people now checking email on their mobile devices daily, any email marketing campaign must be configured to display properly on smartphones and tablets. While plain text will work across the board, having an aesthetically-pleasing template that works with mobile devices is preferred.

Customize and Split Your Lists

Depending on how your subscription preferences are setup and the analytics observing who opens what and who doesn’t, you may have the ability to divide your mailing list into multiple, smaller lists for ideal targeting. No one subscriber will be interested in every email you send; the more you can divide this list up, the more (relevant) emails you will be able to send to each subscriber.

Connect Personally

A story or experience – whether that be of a customer, someone affiliated with your brand or a more personal yet relevant experience – can sometimes make the difference between a conversion or being ignored. This is an especially potent strategy when combined with the above method of customizing and splitting your email lists into smaller, more niche segments; with a variety of other metrics telling you what each group prefers, you can then use stories that are relevant to each list to connect personally with readers.

Always Link

Just like you would do when pinging to Google from your blog, the inclusion of links in your emails is a no-brainer. Even if you are just providing an update or basic information (and not selling a product), it is a good idea to link to one part of your website or another in every email. You can even publish some of your emails to your blog or website as a way for readers to share the email easily via social media and other means.