Email Marketing for Business: How Not Being Blocked as an Email Spammer
Many businesses and entrepreneurs use email as the only marketing tool and they cannot afford to have their emails being blocked as spam and losing potential customers. It’s getting more and more difficult to get into Inboxes, and it became a real headache for marketers to not being treated as a spammer.
According to Return Path, a New York email deliverability monitoring firm, nearly one in four commercial emails is either filtered to spam folders or completely blocked. Six months earlier, they reported one in five.
From one side, Internet service providers do take measures to get spammers out of the game. From the other side, you too can take the right steps to improve significantly your Inbox deliverability. Here are some basics to keep in mind:
1. Watch your sender reputation.
We used to think that spam filters analyze the content and punish spam looking messages, but experts say the sender reputation is more important now. Just like the message content gets a spam score, sender reputation can have a good or bad score.
ISPs, including free ones such as Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail, use a number of parameters to determine the sender reputation score. Primarily, they watch the number of user complaints made by clicking "This is Spam" button. Return Path says that if more than one in a thousand recipients complain, all future messages will be blocked. If the recipients do not open your emails, it can also hurt your reputation.
If your emails start being filtered to a spam folder, it ‘s hard to get out and restore your good reputation. For this purpose, people will have to mark your emails as not spam. You can use a free online service from Return Path, senderscore.org, where you can create an account and see your sender score and causes of a bad score, so you know what to fix.
2. Send to confirmed and verified lists.
The internet and email service providers punish senders with bad email lists. So, the first thing you have to remember: DO NOT buy email lists
To build a good list, put a subscription form on your site and allow people to subscribe to your emails.
In addition to a confirmed opt-in method, good list hygiene includes the removal of bounce and opt-out emails in a timely manner. So, make sure you send the unsubscribe link in each message and have the unsubscribe process running smoothly.
With G-Lock WPNewsman newsletter plugin for WordPress you can put the subscription form to the sidebar, within any post or page and collect subscribers using a confirmed opt-in method. WPNewsman provides you with the unsubscribe link and handles the unsubscribe process automatically. The Pro version of WPNewsman allows you to process bounce emails and have them unsubscribed and excluded from future campaigns.
3. Polish your content.
Though experts say that spam looking content is not the primary factor that triggers spam filters, but if you are just starting in email marketing and have not built a good reputation yet, the content can play a role. So, when you are creating your message try to avoid using words and phrases that are known to trigger spam filters. Here you can find the list of popular spam filter triggers.
For example, instead of "your income" you can write "your revenue", instead of "risk free" write "absolutely no risk", "Act now! Don’t hesitate!" can be replaced with "Take it now! Don’t wait for too long" etc. to make your email look healthy.
Also, pay attention to the message tone and relevancy. Boring and irrelevant messages can make some subscribers to click the "Report Spam" button.
You can avoid troubles by sending relevant information, clearly identifying yourself in the "From" line, writing an intriguing subject line and using a responsive email template so the message opens correctly on desktop computers and mobile devices.
4. Use the right email marketing tool.
When it comes to email marketing, it’s important that you choose right email marketing software that will allow you to manage (import, export, move, copy, segment) email lists, create and send email messages.
The simplest way is to sign up with a reputable email service provider such as Constant Contact, iContact, Mailchimp, Mandrill or Amazon SES. Using these marketing tools you can avoid deliverability troubles and gain a good sender score. Email service providers have different monthly plans based on the list size and volume of emails you send. When you start, it’s not expensive, but when your list grows, your monthly payment can increase to hundreds of dollars a month.
If you look for a more affordable way to do email marketing, try desktop email software such as G-Lock EasyMail7. With G-Lock EasyMail7, you can have your email lists and messages kept private and secure as you don’t need to upload them to a 3rd party database. With G-Lock EasyMail7 email marketing program, you get numerous responsive email templates that you can use to create email newsletters. There are also many list management capabilities including the ability to connect to a remote database (MS Access, MS Excel, MS SQL, MySQL, etc.) and segment the list. G-Lock EasyMail7 supports autoresponders, so you can set up an email series for your subscribers and send them newsletters automatically.
To maintain your lists clean, you can use the Bounce Handler in G-Lock EasyMail7 to delete or unsubscribe bounce and opt-out emails from your list after each marketing campaign.
The best part is that G-Lock EasyMail7 is integrated with the Amazon SES. Amazon SES is the cheapest email sending yet reliable service — $1 per 10,000 messages. So, you can sign up with the Amazon SES and use their API in G-Lock EasyMail7 to send your campaigns.
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An effective email marketing system should include the following tools:
- Automated email sequences that drip on your contacts over time to build trust and convert your subscribers into active and happy customers.
- An email scheduler for planning your announcements, newsletters, and special occasion emails weeks or even months in advance.
- A simple way for you to create sign-up forms so you can connect your marketing efforts to auto-populate your contact lists (we provide WPNewsman plugin for WordPress for free).
- A professional collection of quality responsive HTML email templates that you can install and use for your newsletters on the fly.
- An automated way of processing bounce and unsubscribe emails to be in compliance with the CAN-SPAM law in various countries.
- Training and support from those who have years of experience in email marketing systems, management and success.
With G-Lock EasyMail7 you have the right email marketing system to help you maintain and grow your business.
I have used several versions of EasyMail and recently upgraded my version to 7.0 and we bought several copies for the company I work for as well. The cost is very reasonable and the tech support is prompt. Updates arrive frequently.
I love the fact that my mass emails can be highly personalized and still look like regular emails, vs. emails from Constant Contact etc. I can also go into the HTML code and tweak things if they are not right. We use Amazon Web Service SES which is very affordable. A great product for those who have reasonable computer skills to set everything up.
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President at singles2couples.org