In the world of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat, email is still the No. 1 digital activity. According to online marketing firm Ezanga, 58 percent of adults check their email first thing in the morning.

Here are a few tips to help you optimize your email marketing:

1. Create personal experiences.
   • Don’t aim to sell; aim to enrich by creating a valuable experience through email marketing. This doesn’t mean you can’t promote your products or business, but show your customers how your products can benefit them.
   • Know your audience. Most email marketing tools allow you to segment your mailing list into groups. Pay attention to your audience’s interests; who’s clicking on what? This will help you craft emails that feel more personal and less generic.
2. Make a good impression.
   • Automation – When I subscribe to an email list, I expect some sort of “hello” email or discount welcoming me. I’m not alone in this. According to the marketing automation platform Ometria, 74 percent of people expect a welcome email when they sign up for an email list.
     • If that’s not enough of a push – the average open rate for welcome emails is TWICE the normal open rate, AND they’re shown to improve lifetime engagement by 33 percent.
   • Don’t overload your subscribers with information. Don’t send out an email about every little thing. Under normal circumstances, there’s rarely a reason you should send more than one email a day. Bombarding your readers with too many emails is a quick way to drive up your unsubscribe number.
3. A well-designed email is a happy email.
   • The inbox matters. The first thing someone sees when you email them is what sits in the inbox – Name, subject line, preview text.
     • Think before you send. Who is this email coming from? This goes back to crafting a personal email.
     • Cutoffs – iPhones cut off a subject line after 32 characters.
   • Email Content – Here are a few tips to consider while creating your emails:
     • Be consistent with the look and feel of your emails.
     • Use web-safe fonts that will appear the same on all computers (just not comic sans, please).
     • Make all fonts at least 13px or iPhones will automatically resize for you, potentially messing up your template.
     • Create an email hierarchy: Most important stuff should be at the top and the most prominent.
     • White space: Use it. Don’t feel like you have to cover every inch of the email with news or images.