Everyone says to build your list so that you can make offers to them over and over again. That's OK. But what if not enough subscribers open your emails for them to have any effect? Here are some ideas to ensure your emails get opened every time.

1 Send your ezine out regularly. In fact, if you think "regular as clockwork" you'll stand a much better chance of improving open rates. How would you feel if you never really knew when you were going to get an ezine in your inbox? Sometimes it's every day, then it's a week later, then there's a long gap, and so on. There's no fast rule as to what the regularity should be but whatever you decide then keep to it completely. Maybe when your subscribers and customers know you well enough, you can start varying it. Until then, keep it so they know where they are with your ezine and you.

2 Tell subscribers what you want them to do. If you do, they'll usually do it: such as, click a link or respond to questions. It's alright not selling hard but rather as if you're recommending a product. However, if you leave it at that, they'll probably just pass over it. You want and need action from them, so tell them exactly what that is, even repeatedly.

3 Tell them stories if you need to. Some people find it difficult to organise a piece of writing, especially if they're selling or recommending something. An easy way to get round this is to tell subscribers your story or a customer's story in relation to the product in question. Bigger than that, you could have a larger story about your business, into which you can fit ideas about products.

4 Be unique or as original as you can. This is not necessarily to do with the contents you're giving out. It's more to do with your attitude or voice that comes across to the reader. All you have are the words on the screen, so make them count in conveying your feelings and attitude about your topic. You might be expressing a neutral judgement, excitement or disappointment. If your ezine issues all sound the same readers will become tone-deaf to them and stop opening them.

5 It must be helpful. Finally, without your contents being helpful in some way to your subscribers they will unsubscribe. Remember that even non-buyers are possibly useful by spreading the word to actual buyers, so you want to keep people subscribed where you can.