As the Internet and digital sphere has evolved and transformed over and over again in the short time that it has existed as the centerpiece in our lives and in society, certain forms of marketing have persisted in their importance. Even with the dominance of social media, the importance of SEO marketing, content marketing, and other online strategies, email marketing still remains an important part of an effective online marketing strategy. This is in large part owing to the fact that, whether you are offering custom web design, premium SEO services, or lead generation, email allows you to take a very targeted approach to marketing your services.

Here are some different tools that you can use to sharpen your own email marketing strategy.

1. Mail Chimp

Mail Chimp is actually a paid email service provider with all sorts of features. They do have a free application that is very useful in helping you hone a very important part of your email game – writing a compelling subject line. The Mail Chimp app has a tool called the Subject Line Researcher, which allows you to input a potential subject heading which in turn is crosschecked against rating feedback from Mail Chimp’s 7 million users to return to you a 1 to 5 star rating reflecting how effective that subject line was for other users. That is very valuable insight when it comes to helping you create your own subject lines.

2. The Hemingway App

The Hemingway App is an interesting tool that allows you to plug in your copywriting and receive a rating that tells you whether or not your copywriting is too wordy and confusing for the average reader. Drowning potential customers in an ocean of jargon is never a good thing, so this would be a useful tool for anyone with this problem.

3. Sublime Text

Not everyone is much of a coder, and even if you are you are busy doing other things required to run a successful business. It’s great,then, to have a tool that color codes lines of code so you can more easily edit fancy messages with layers of code.

4. Visual Website Optimizer

This tool allows you to test the effectiveness of your email campaigns, including conversion rates, and does so according to precise goals for improvement you set. This is a pretty sophisticated weapon to have in your email marketing arsenal.

5. Flashissue

Flashissue is an awesome item for newsletters, automatically summarizing blog posts and content pulled down from anywhere on the web to generate a more tailored feeling newsletter that you send to your lists. Think of the time you save with that? Plus, this service starts at only $5 a month.

6. Constant Contact

A great overall email marketing platform, Constact Contact has a wide assortment of email templates and options for customization. It shares to social media, collects data on different behaviors of recipients such as opt-outs and complaints, and allows you to measure the success of your campaigns from start to finish.