Email is the single most effective marketing tool for many businesses — and being blocked as an email spammer can be their biggest headache.
It’s getting more difficult to get into inboxes, as the battle between spammers and Internet service providers rages on. Nearly one in four commercial emails doesn’t make it to the inbox and is either shunted to spam folders or blocked altogether,six months earlier, that figure was one in five.
Small companies often run afoul of spam filters, even if they have opt-in email lists of supposedly willing recipients. Many who are new to email marketing start off on the wrong foot. “They ‘spray and pray’ and hope that someone will click and buy,” but are hit with angry complaints and find their emails blocked as spam, Ironically, many companies send too few messages to have their way smoothed by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) as known commercial email senders.
But you can significantly improve your odds of reaching customers and prospects by taking the right steps. Here are some essentials to keep in mind:
Polish your reputation.
Spam filters used to look closely at email content and punish spammy messages (i.e. Viagra! FREE!!). But experts say sender reputation is by far more important now.
In the same way a bad credit score can freeze you out of the lending market, a bad sender score for your domain name or IP addresses can keep your emails out of inboxes. ISPs, including Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo Mail, use a number of tools to determine sender reputation. Key among them is the number of user complaints, which are made by clicking a report spam button. If more than one in a thousand email recipients complain, your messages will be blocked altogether, Messages that fail to engage recipients can also hurt you. Once you start being relegated to the spam folder, it can be difficult to get out. “People have to report that you’re not spam,”
Use clean lists.
ISPs punish senders with shoddy email lists. Avoid buying lists as they typically include spam traps, which are fake addresses used only to catch spam, and addresses of people who haven’t given permission to receive marketing messages. These people are more likely to complain and less likely to buy anything.
It can be time consuming, but you’re probably better off building a list of real customers and prospects who have agreed to receive email from you. When you ask customers for email addresses, have them specify the types of email they want to receive. If they agree to a newsletter but not marketing messages, honor the request — or risk dinging your reputation. Also consider segmenting your list by type of customer to make it easier to send relevant messages. Also, maintain good list hygiene by regularly removing addresses that bounce or opt-out. If necessary, thoroughly cull your list by sending a message asking for permission to continue sending email and keeping only the addresses that respond.
Hone your content.
Spammy content triggers spam filters only 17 percent of the time, but if you are new to email marketing or too small to have built a reputation, that rate could be higher. Moreover, annoying and irrelevant messages can lead some recipients to click the “report spam” button. Avoid trouble by targeting messages, clearly identifying yourself in the “from” address, crafting an engaging subject line and making sure messages appear correctly on PCs and mobile devices.
Hire help.
When it comes to sending commercial email, there’s strength in numbers. Consistent volumes of 50,000 emails a month or more enable ISPs to recognize legitimate senders. If you don’t send that much email, consider teaming up with other small and responsible senders by sharing servers or using a recognized emailing service such as Ginger Domain. Using marketing tools can boost your sender score and firms such as these can help you manage your lists and otherwise stay on the straight and narrow.