We would like to notify you that although the GraphicMail software will be available as usual, our UK office will be closed on Monday 25th May as it's a bank holiday.

As the UK will be closed during this bank holiday, support via email, live chat and the telephone will be unavailable however if you do require any assistance then please check our Help Center (tab on the left within your GraphicMail account).

Our Help Center has lots of user guides, video tutorials and FAQ's for you to use; you can also gain direct access to it here: http://graphicmailuk.uservoice.com/knowledgebase

Please note, our UK support office will reopen at 9am on Tuesday 26th May.

Creating a responsive email has never been easier since we introduced our newest email editor. Not only does it provide over 80 responsive templates to choose from but it also has lots of features which help you to change the layout, styling, edit images as well as text with ease.

One of the main features we've recently introduce is an online Image Editor which allows you to crop, resize and enhance images among other things. With all of these features at your fingertips it means you can create your own customised emails within minutes.

Once the email has been created it's important you really think about how you can get your email delivered into the inbox and grab the attention of your subscribers so they actually open your email.

Here are 10 tips to get your email opened:

1 - Segment Your Mailing List - All too often we see users sending one email to the entirety of their mailing list. Our segmentation tool allows you to create a specific target audience from your subscribers by setting certain parameters. You can use basic information such as gender, location, last product bought or any other information you have. You can then alter the colour scheme, products being displayed, or formality of the email being sent to that targeted list.

If you don't have any additional information from your subscribers then it's time to ask for a little from them, simply direct them to your subscription form so they can update their profile.

2 - Check Your Spam Score - Before sending your email, you should check the spam score rating of it as this will score the email, from address & subject line. The score will be between 0 - 5 and give you advice to reduce a high score if one is given as having a low score will increase the chance of your email landing in the inbox.

3 - Setup an SPF & DKIM Record - ISPs use authentication as a way of identifying what emails are spam and what emails are not. By adding SPF & DKIM records to the DNS settings of your domain, they will help tell the receiving ISP that domain.com can send emails on behalf of your domain. This will help for the email to be trusted and therefore accepted for delivery and placed into the inbox.

4 - Use A Valid Company 'From Address' - If you send from a Free Mail address (such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail...), your delivery might be negatively affected due to new abuse policies at major ISPs. It's best to use a 'from address' relating to your companies web domain as this will also allow you to setup SPF & DKIM records.

5 - Use Our A/B Testing Tool - The subject line is the last hurdle before your email gets opened. If the subject line isn't enticing enough then your email will simply be skipped or deleted. Using our A/B testing tool allow you to test upto 5 different subject lines to see which one receives the best open rate. The winning subject line will then be sent to the remainder of your mailing list.

6 - Design For The Preview Pane - As many email designers will agree, Outlook Desktop can be a real pain when it comes to designing emails, however one advantage it does have above others is the preview pane. This preview pane gives us an extra chance to entice our subscribers to fully open the email so it's important that we use it. The preview pane will display the top left section of the email so we suggest that you place your logo & any important images that immediately explains the purpose of your email. This will help to confirm the email is being sent from your company & give the recipient a sneak preview of what to expect.

7 - Add Email Snippet Text - All of our email templates are created with the preview pane & pre-header (email snippet) text in mind. We have a section of text presented at the top right of the templates which automatically displays as a pre-header in the inbox. This means this text displays immediately after the subject line giving you an opportunity to get your message read.

If your email design doesn't cater for text at the top then don't worry as you can simply use our Email Snippet tool which will add some hidden text to be used. To implement this follow these steps: Advanced Mail (tab at the top) >> Emails (tab on the left) >> My Emails >> Select the email & on the right click on the drop down menu to select "Edit Email Snippet".

8 - Review Previous Campaigns - Previous email campaigns hold the key for you to better your next campaign, as you can compare all of your email campaigns to see which ones obtained the best open rates. Once you know which ones were successful, it's time to look at the time the majority of your subscribers opened your email as that gives you a good time frame to send your next campaign. You can also review the subject lines that worked & just as importantly didn't.

9 - Add Personalisation - You can add personalisation to your email design but did you know that you can also add it to your subject line? By personalising your subject line you can immediately grab the attention of the subscriber as "Jake, this deal is perfect for you" is far better than "This deal is perfect for you".

10 - Add Emoji's - On occasion it's also worthwhile for you to add an emoji to your subject line as that will help it to stand out. A great tool we came across to gather the required code for specific emjoi's is EmailStuff

We hope that we have given you lots to think about and wish you every success in increasing your open rates. If you'd like to try GraphicMail for free then you can create a no obligation trial account here.