Email marketing is an affordable, and oftentimes very effective way to reach your prospects and existing customers. The only problem is 25% of those emails are getting tagged as spam and going straight into the recipient’s junk mailbox.
This number can jump even higher if your messages contain certain red flags for spam filters.
Don’t worry, “how not to spam” is the question even the most veteran email marketers continually ask. To help increase the odds your business email actually gets read, check out these five sure-fire ways to avoid your recipient’s junk mailbox.
Follow the Anti-Spam laws
To protect the general public from cluttered in-boxes, rules were put into place in 2003 with the CAN-SPAM Act. It is crucial to understand what these laws are before emailing anything to anyone.
The basics of the rules include offering an unsubscribe feature, being honest in headers and truthful in subject lines. Fines for not being in compliance with this regulation can be up to $16,000 per email infraction.
Watch content
This is a big one. Spam filters are designed to look for specific content in order to protect recipients. For example, if your message has certain flagged words, too many exclamation marks or too many images versus actual content, you may find your emails never making it past the junk box.
One of the most effective things you can do to avoid being tagged as a spammer by your readers is to ensure your email content is honest and to the point.
Make sure your subject line indicates exactly what the email is about and get to the point quickly in the content of your email. Just write what your target audience needs to hear and take out all the nonessential fluff.
Create a positive reputation
Just like back in the days of high school, whatever reputation you create for yourself is going to follow you around – whether it is warranted or not. This is the same with email marketing.
Because recipients can mark your messages as spam or file complaints, your domain name or IP address can acquire a bad sender score, which can tag your business as a spam violator and freeze your messages out of in-boxes.
If you are curious about your score, check out your score here.
Once you’ve got your score, make sure you keep a good email reputation by following the CAN-SPAM rules and honoring your recipient’s time by issuing messages with valuable and easy-to-understand content.
Use an email marketing partner
A seasoned and reputable email marketing partner can help you design and send compliant email messages to your customer lists.
Additionally, most email providers offer an unsubscribe service which will track and immediately remove those email addresses who no longer wish to receive messages.
Another great advantage to using a reputable partner is their consistently high email volume. Sending lots of emails each month can boost a sender’s reputation.
Most small businesses are probably not going to be sending out the type of volume warranted to get the improved reputation. But, an email partner will bring this benefit to the table. Here are some recommended email marketing partners.
Use caution buying email lists
The best email list any business can use to avoid appearing like a spammer is an existing customer list. But let’s face it; new businesses don’t have any customer lists. It can be incredibly tempting to purchase email lead lists, but be cautious.
Sending blind email messages out can result in much higher unsubscribe rates and filed complaints. It can hurt your reputation. Consider prospecting and marketing to collect emails.
Ideas include attending a craft fair or tradeshow and collecting emails, asking friends and family members for emails and having an email collection campaign through your website or social media outlets.
David Hoang works as a copywriter for Write Any Papers. He used to be a web designer, but he decided to change his career. In this case, David has an opportunity to tell others how to create a perfect website design.
