Spam is unsolicited email being sent to a number of people. However at times, even perfectly legal and permission-based newsletters and eMarketers will result in being spam filtered. If you find that your email open rate has suddenly dropped below your average, or you have an abnormally high bounce rate, you probably have a problem with spam. Here are some tips on how to avoid your eMarketing being marked as Spam.

Tips:

1. Never use deceptive headers, from-names, reply-tos, or subject lines. Deliver on what you promise.
2. Always provide an unsubscribe link.
3. Don’t hide your unsubscribe/opt out link. People who don’t wish to receive your emails will either hit unsubscribe or spam. So make the unsubscribe link easily apparent.
4. Include your company contact information (address, phone, fax etc.) to engender confidence in your company and the validity of the email.
5. Avoid using terms generally associated with spam such as ‘Urgent’ and ‘Free’.
6. Avoid using ALL CAPITALS.
7. Don’t use lots of exclamation marks!!!!!!!
8. Pay Attention to your formatting. Avoid excessive use of different fonts, colours, sizes, images etc. Make sure your email looks professional.
9. Be Consistent with your email frequency and content. If customers expect or recognise your email, they’re less likely to hit spam.
10. Don’t take too long to contact new subscribers. If people forget they have opted in to your site, they may mark you as spam.
11. Don’t use the word ‘Test’ in the subject line.
12. Don’t create an email that’s just one big image. Spam filters can’t read images so assume you’re trying to trick them.
13. Don’t send a test to multiple recipients within the same company. Their company firewalls are likely to mark it as an attack.
14. Don’t use purchased lists of email addresses.
15. Don’t send eMarketing to everyone who has ever bought a product on your site. You must request that they opt in to join the mailing list first.
16. Test your email by sending it to yourself first through a number of different email accounts (ie. Hotmail, gmail etc.) If it ends up in the junk folder, go back and work on it.

In the world of eMarketing, YOU MUST HAVE PERMISSION to send your emails out to people. In order to avoid spam, it’s not just about being legal, it’s about being polite.

1.  How do I write effective eMarketing?

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