Open your personal inbox any morning of the week, and it feels like everybody is using email as a marketing tool. The more emails your targets receive from other companies, the less likely they will have the desire to open yours. According to business writer Eric Krell, engaging customers and prospects in a way that makes them more likely to purchase requires email campaigns that create enough relevance to keep customers engaged. Such email campaigns incorporate personalization, timeliness, and appeal.

Personalization: By taking into consideration past purchase behaviors and expressed preferences, marketers can improve customer engagement by creating more personalized, targeted offers that not only resonate, but inspire action—such as a transaction.

Timeliness: When companies use email communication to be proactive, to respond to customer cues and/or to act on event-based opportunities, they demonstrate that they have the customer’s best interests at heart, are listening to them, and understand their needs or preferences.

Appeal: Customers love specials, discounts and sales. Emails containing free product or service offers, such as subscriptions to online services or access to useful content, are especially appealing. Not only can they improve customer engagement, they can be very effective in getting a person to try the product or service, adopt it, and remain a long-term customer.

Engaging customers via email is not an easy endeavor. When too many companies abuse email marketing, customers stop trusting email marketing messages. Ensuring that your emails are targeted to customer needs can help your company rise above the competition.