SolveYourProblem
Article Series: Opt In Email
How Do I Get Opt-in Emails Past ISP Filters?
Anti-spam
features in many email programs offer the recipients of
email control over unwanted emails.
HTML files received by Outlook and AOL will not include
the images that made your presentation so appealing when
you designed it unless you have been added to the trusted
sender list. Once you have been placed on the trusted sender
list your email will arrive in the same format it was sent,
including all photos and formatting.
In the meantime, there are several things you can do to
ensure that your email will arrive where it was sent, and
that it will receive the notice that it deserves after all
your hard work.
Some
words are known to be included in many spam messages and should be avoided at all costs. These include free, unlimited,
any form of guarantee, and almost any word relating to sex
or body parts. Unless you are a legitimate pharmacy, you
should also avoid drug related words.
If you must use colors
in your header, stay away from red.
Spammers love red and use it regularly. It is also difficult
to read for some people.
All
caps is another spam technique. This is particularly
annoying and, although it gets your attention, it looks angry
and overly dramatic. It increases the chance of your email
being picked up by a spam filter equally dramatically.
Your actual
physical address, or that of your company, is
required on advertising emails sent to the public. It’s a
good idea to include a return email address and phone number
in case your contact has questions or wants to proceed with
a purchase. A link to your web site is another “must have”
on your email and newsletters.
Over
punctuating is another obvious spam trick and is sure
to get your email added to the spam list. It is one of those
annoying habits that some emailers seem to feel is cute.
The great “CLICK
HERE” is a left over of the early years
of email and web page design. Now it’s rare to see the words
unless they are included in a spam mail out - especially
in all caps. A better way to link is through a photo or a
descriptive line of text. Most people who frequently use
email know that underlined text is usually a link and will
mouse-over it if they want information on the subject.
Numerous
symbols like $$ and % will get your email picked
up as spam in the blink of an eye. There is no need for this
in an email as one-dollar sign is just as effective as two,
or ten, in getting the message across. The other symbols
rarely have any meaning when used in the text of a subject
line and more; often confuse legitimate leads into throwing
your mail out.
A
blank “From” line is a dead giveaway that either the sender
is an amateur or a spammer. Even if you don’t want to receive
a reply from the email, this can be pointed out in the text
of the email itself.
Bounce backs require some method of checking the email address
for typing errors. If there is no error you will have to
assume that a bad email address was given originally and
remove the name from your opt in list.
Even though you may not want opt-ins to use the reply option
in their email program to return or unsubscribe, some will
anyway. This is because they are afraid to use the unsubscribe
link. Now, as in the past, spammers have used this technique
to glean email addresses and this message has got out to
subscribers. Those subscribers will use the reply option
of their email program to unsubscribe so care should be taken
to forward those emails to a monitored email address to be
removed from the mailing list.
If your company grows to international size, and this all
becomes too big a load for you and your staff, there are
companies that will do the work for you. Many will do as
much or as little as you want, even to the point of designing
your newsletters so don’t panic when your list and mail outs
become to large to handle. Be happy!
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