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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SolveYourProblem.com : 2007

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