One of the main reasons email marketers fail is that they don't use targeted opt-in lists. You'll be spinning your wheels if you don't use direct response marketing for your email marketing business. Your emails may be unread even if your prospects don't mark them as spam.

These are the 3 strategies I will be sharing to improve your list's responsiveness.

• Use or build a targeted email mailing list

• Ask your prospects for permission

• Utilize action-provoking subject lines

Create or use a targeted email list

You don't have to buy an entire list of email addresses from a list broker. Instead, you can use them in your email blasting software. You will need to focus on a particular audience and send the right message to them. To do this, you will need to research your target market to find out who they are. You can then build an extremely targeted schools mailing.

Permission to Contact Prospects

You will need to get permission from your prospects. This can be done easily by asking them to complete a lead capture questionnaire. This is called the "opt-in" process for email marketing.

Many programs are available that can grab email addresses from social media and classified ads networks for marketing purposes. These people didn't grant you permission. This is a spammy method that can be used to send messages to stolen email addresses. If you want to start a legitimate business, you should avoid it.

Utilize Action-Provoking Subject Lines

Did you know that emails can be made more interesting? You'll get more emails opened if you do. A subject line is what sounds most compelling:

• Targeted opt-in email list direct marketing

• Three tips to get 100 leads within 24 hours