The best way to approach e-mail marketing is to think of every e-mail address as someone's personal space on the Internet.

And the key to making e-mail marketing work — so that you create meaningful relationships that help grow your business — is to make that personal space a Relevant Space to your prospects and customers. You must send e-mail communications that they — not just you — find relevant. By continuously delivering value to your prospects and customers, you are bound to enhance your brand and stay top of mind with the people who matter most to your business.

You must also respect the personal nature of e-mail, by only using e-mail to communicate with people who give you permission to, or with whom you have a relationship. That's how you establish the trust to form the relationships that make e-mail marketing work.

Trust is the only way to get your prospects and customers to let you into their personal Internet space again-and-again. To get them to repeatedly open, read, and click-through your e-mail newsletter, event announcement, product coupon, etc., so that you connect with them and a relationship forms.

The strength and number of relationships that your e-mail marketing activities build determines the strength of your brand and your e-mail marketing ROI (Return on Investment).