• From name – Is the “From Name” recognizable to your recipient? If they don’t recognize it then it is very unlikely that they will open it.
• Subject Line – Make the subject line enticing enough so they stand out in the heap of unread emails your recipients might have. You might want to add personalisation as that can often attract their attention.
• Time Being Sent – The time your email is being sent can have a big impact on your open rate. For instance if you send late at night by the time your recipient views their emails in the morning yours will be at the bottom of the pile and may get mistakenly deleted.
• Preview Pane – The preview pane is the first glance of your email the recipients will see so make sure you’re this is your focus point. Add your main content/images at the top of your email as they will be seen. Remember that email clients will often have images turned off as default so add Alt tags to your images to make sure they know what to expect.
• Optimize Your Design – If you are lucky enough for the email to be opened then you need to make sure it is what they expect. It is your job to make sure that if they are expecting a newsletter, e-flyer or coupon then that is what they see. If it is not the correct type of newsletter then you have no chance and the recipient will often unsubscribe all together. This might sound silly but believe me this can happen.

Now your email has been opened, what next?

• Email Copy – Is the content in the email suitable? Remember who your target audience is. You may even want to use our segmentation tool to make sure your email is sent to the ideal target audience.
• Logo – Is your company’s logo clearly visible? It is always best to make sure your company logo is at the top section of the email as it helps to clarify that the email is indeed from your company. Again don’t forget to use Alt text in case the recipients have not downloaded the images yet.
• Calls to Action – Make your calls to actions are clear so your recipients know exactly what you would like them to do. Would you like them to click a link to your website? Would you like them to share your newsletter or comment on your blog? Make it obvious to them. 
• Focal Point – The important content/images should be at the top of your email as that is the section that will be seen first. If you need something extra to attract the eye to a specific section then a Gif image can do the trick. They are easy to make (with the correct software) and can make that focal point just that bit special. Please note a gif image will only rotate in web based email clients so remember that as Outlook is a desktop based email client it will only show the first frame, so you will need to make sure that first frame is still note worthy.
• Go Social – Everything is going social so why not join in? Add buttons into your design to allow users to follow you on Twitter or Facebook. You may even want them to send the emails to their friends, if so then again make it obvious how they can do this.