How do you stay out of your customers' spam inbox and get your customers to click on your e-mails? A recent study by Constant Contact looked at more than 2.1 million customer e-mails that were sent to more than 100 recipients over a 13 week time span to find out which e-mails had the highest click-through rate.

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Overall, e-mails with three or fewer images and about 20 lines of text tended to have the highest open rates among e-mail subscribers.

Evaluating by industry, Constant Contact researchers found that real estate professionals saw the highest click-through rates when their messages were limited to around 35 lines of text. Also, the e-mails that were specific to new listings tended to get the highest click-through rates.

Ron Cates, director of digital marketing education for Constant Contact, emphasizes that to get higher click-through rates, e-mails should be concise, to-the-point, accurate (avoid misleading readers by using words or jargon that don’t offer a clear representation of your message), and courteous.

"While every brand and business has their own 'voice' in terms of communication, the general rule of thumb is to keep it nice and friendly," writes Nicole Leinbach Reyhle, author of "Retail 101: The Guide to Managing and Marketing Your Retail Business," in an article for Forbes.com. "Sure, you can offer a sassy twist if that’s your style, but keeping it courteous is always in style, as well."

Watching your click-through rates on your e-mails is important in judging the success of your campaigns.

"Click-through rates are perhaps the truest measurement of the quality of an email's content and its effectiveness as a marketing tool," Christopher M. Litster, senior vice president, sales and marketing at Constant Contact, told Forbes.com.

"Regardless of industry or customer base, click-through rates convey how often you are able to get your e-mail subscribers to go where you want them to go and complete your call-to-action. This new research is a big step forward in helping small businesses craft e-mail content that will result in even more successful campaigns going forward."