1. E-mail marketing software packages for broadcast and tracking

There are three main types of Email marketing software for creating, broadcasting and tracking your emails:

1. Desktop Email software packages
2. Server-based Email software
3. Online 'Application Service Provider (ASP)' or 'Email Service Provider' systems - not technically software since they are a web service.

• Read my review of the best email marketing software packages

2. Email marketing bounce management systems

If you use one of the server based or ESP email software packages, it will have management of e-mails bounce built-in. However, if you are using an inhouse system it may lack those facilities.

• Read about email bounce management solutions.
  

3. Email marketing deliverability checking tools

Marketing e-mails can be blocked as a 'false positive' for two reasons - due to reputation of the broadcaster or due to filtering because of spam words or other features of the e-mails

• Try these free E-mail spam word filter tools.
• See Spam Assassin and Microsoft Outlook list of spam words in subject and body that can trigger spam filters (if total threshold point reached).
  
• Real-time black list (RBL) checker
- You definitely don’t want to be on one of these! But if your deliverability falls dramatically you should check here

• Try this free Email sender reputation management tool - it is best to log in for this tool - extra reports are generated
• View this guidance on troubleshooting delivery in Hotmail and Windows Live Mail.
  

4.Email marketing rendering checking tools

Emails will render differently in different readers or web mail platforms, and it is very time consuming checking out the way they appear manually. These are paid tools with free trials, but they will soon pay for themselves in time spent and improved quality of emails in the inbox. The latter two tools can also be used to assess how web pages render in different versions of different browsers.

• Lyris Email Advisor
• SiteVista
  
• Browsercam
  

5. Email Marketing HTML templates

Creating Email templates using HTML is trickier than creating web sites using HTML. I would always use an agency or developer who has experience of this. Many techniques you may use like linked Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) won't work so you have to create in-line CSS. What works in one email reader may not work in another.

• Read guides on creating HTML templates for Email Marketing