Email marketing is evolving and, as much as anything, it’s about quality over quantity. In short, current trends show a resurgence of the human touch.

• Emails genuinely originating from an individual tend to get higher open rates, particularly when sent by contacts or personnel familiar to the recipient and with information that genuinely resonates with their interests. This approach prioritises targeted, meaningful communication that also seeks to foster or reinforce genuine connections.

• With so much economic uncertainty around at present, individuals involved in purchasing professional services want connection and empathy, not platitudes. The human mind is finely tuned to detect insincerity and to question what we are being told.

• If the tone of your email strikes the right note, it can make a reader or viewer stay and engage more with a professional services brand, such as by clicking on a website link, downloading a guide or watching a video etc. Humanising and personalising a message can go a long way to help with this without much effort.

• If the tone isn’t right, a prospective customer may end up feeling a business couldn’t be bothered, especially if an email has a ‘sent to all’ feel to it. Remember to be mindful of specific issues that may be facing a particular customer or an industry sector as a whole.

• Also remember that sending emails can be useful to assist with business retention but should not be relied upon alone to try and generate new business enquiries.