I work with many different groups to help them with the email announcements to members. They have varying resources but all have vibrant communities who want to stay up-to-date on what the organization has to offer. Unfortunately, the clutter in today’s email boxes works against them. In order to keep your community members informed you MUST learn how to use email EFFECTIVELY. There’s a great round-up of the most important emailing techniques in ClickZ today. I’ve extracted to off the most frequently violated, but I highly recommend the whole article by Kirill Popov and Loren McDonald of EmailLabs.

Link: How Nongeeks Can Increase E-Mail Delivery.

A recognized, expected, consistent sender name.
When scanning overloaded inboxes, recipients may look at the sender line, subject line, or both. Use, and stick with, a sender name that’s simple, easily recognized, trusted, and expected by subscribers. When possible, use a sender e-mail address that’s recognizable and in plain English, such as newsletter@companyx.com. This is particularly important for e-mail clients such as AOL that display only the sender address, not the name.

"Branded" subject lines.
Subscribers may receive a few hundred e-mail messages a day, much of it spam. As recipients scan their inboxes, they’re probably looking for messages that are either clearly spam or opt-in e-mail they trust and want. You want your message to be easily, immediately categorized as "recognized and wanted." It helps to brand your subject and reinforce it in the sender name.

For example, if your e-mail is sent by "Global Inc. Newsletter," the subject might include "Global News Update" at the beginning of the subject line. Though this approach uses up valuable subject line real estate, it makes your message stand out and reduces the chances of being missed, ignored, filtered, and unopened. Consider conducting a few A/B split tests to determine what works best with your subscribers.