With school back in session, college students are an important demographic to businesses, but how should email marketers effectively reach them with all the noise and constant presence of Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Foursquare, etc.? Find out in today’s guest post by Campaigner Marketing Expert Paul Turnbull.

College students receive hundreds of emails – many which remain unread. These messages come from a variety of sources – school, extracurricular activities, parents, friends, employers, etc.

This clearly causes a problem for anyone trying to reach out to college-aged consumers via email. How does a business make sure an email resonates with this target? Here are a few top tips to reach this influential group:

1. Develop a Sweet Subject Line

An email subject line that is clear and compelling gives your email better visibility in a crowded inbox. For example, if you need your recipients to take action, be sure to include that in the subject (i.e. “please respond, act now, etc.”). A generic subject line like “Newsletter” doesn’t offer a compelling reason to open your message and will likely mean a very low open rate.

2. Be Mobile-Friendly

Almost everyone has a BlackBerry or iPhone, and the student population is no different. In fact, for many students, their smart phone is their only phone line and the way they access their email most frequently.

Being aware of that, you may want to test your emails to ensure they display properly on these devices and/or that any links in your message direct folks to a mobile-friendly site. Those little touches show that you are in tune with the way your target audience accesses their email. Believe me – they’ll be grateful.

3. Use a Multi-Channel Approach

Message frequency is key. Simply sending your email message isn’t enough – you need to reach these students through more than one channel. My suggestion would be Facebook. It’s cheap and relatively easy to set up a Facebook page (don’t do a group – use a page for your business), and any updates you post will automatically be added to the newsfeeds of your followers.

Paul Turnbull is a marketing expert with email marketing service Campaigner.