Posts Tagged ‘spam rules’

A brief Introduction to Email Deliverability

Thursday, February 10th, 2011

Email DeliverabilityEmail deliverability is a term that refers to everything connected to the ability of your emails to turn up at the recipients’ inbox.

Email deliverability directly influences the effectiveness and reach of your campaign: no one can view an undelivered email or click an unseen link. That’s why good email deliverability is vital to the success of your email marketing campaigns.

The main pitfalls in email deliverability

1.Bounced emails

Bounced emails can’t be avoided. Whether the address has been deleted, domain expired, or mistyped from the start, bounced emails will hinder your list development at all times. Correct them as you go, because ISPs will likely think that you are a spammer

2.Spam filters

Spam filters usually check for content quality, senders IP and reputation. So it’s important to keep your reputation in good condition. Even more importantly, always think about what you are writing in your message body. As there is more spam traveling around the world than actual marketing related emails, it is important you are aware of words not to use in emails not to be identified as spam. You can read more about avoiding spam filters and words not to use in this article.
Spam filters usually act in favor of the user, but can cause your email to land in the spam folder.

Note that most email service providers (ESPs) have built-in spam check options that offer you to check spam-rating of your emails before you send them.

3.Invalid HTML

Most emails sent today are not W3C compliant and invalid HTML emails are likely to be blocked, just because email spam senders sometimes use standard-ignorant HTML to their advantage. Use the W3C validator for keeping your emails standard compliant.

How to ensure deliverability (or at least better it)

1.Send targeted emails

Most of the errors in deliverability are caused by using low quality email lists, or not having email lists targeted enough. Blast an email to too broad of an audience and you will get unhappy readers because of wrong interests.

Targeted emails aren’t simply ones with the recipient’s name in the email.
The content of relevant emails is relevant to the user’s interests, isn’t overly sales-oriented, and doesn’t contain misleading information, links, etc.

2.Use ESPs for sending email.

Although you are the one who’s responsible for proper delivery, ESPs can help you deliver more emails than by going solo.

First of all, ESPs act on the basis of permission email marketing, which is actually the only legal way of sending commercial email in the U.S. and most countries around the world.
ESPs also have ongoing relations with internet service providers, and employ a significant amount of tools (bounced email removal and logging) for making your life easier.

3.Be honest to your subscribers

This one usually goes without saying, but telling half-truths is lying — at least in email marketing, anyway. Tell your users about when, how often, and about what you’ll be sending emails. You can’t exploit the email because somebody signed up for your company newsletter a while ago.

In a nutshell

Send targeted emails, probably with the help of ESPs.

Personalize emails for better delivery results, and practice honesty to your subscribers.

There is no ‘magic pill’ for bettering email deliverability, but honest, transparent campaigns will be delivered to more recipients than the ones that reek of email spam.

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Posted in Email Deliverability | 5 Comments »

The importance of the unsubscribe link

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

Never underestimate the unsubscribe link.

Although it is what it is – in many cases a lost client – you can reinforce your way of thinking and make the most out of your unsubscribes. There are many different ways to try avoiding opt-outs, but they sometimes are the only feedback you’ll ever get. And remember – no clever way of placing (or omitting for that matter) of the unsubscribe link can save against a client who has lost interest in your services or products.

email unsubscribe
You need an unsubscribe link because:

  • You want to be polite to your customers.
  • You want to comply with the CAN-SPAM act.
  • You want to remain in good terms with your clients even after they’ve left you.
  • You want to gain useful information whenever a client unsubscribes.
  • You want to keep your list clean.
  • You don’t want more bad feedback from clients who would’ve left anyway.

…and the list goes on.

Simply put, you need an unsubscribe link, and to make the most of it, you should also include a simple textbox at the opt-out link where the user can write his reasons for leaving your list. While many users will leave the text box blank, you will gain enough information from those few who fill it.

Furthermore, think about the placement of the opt-out link. The latest studies indicate that a counter-intuitive unsubscribe link at the top of your e-mails reduces the number of spam complaints. As spam complaints usually come from inactive subscribers, you could simply join them in a segment and place the link in the top of the e-mails they receive.

You can gain valuable information from unsubscribing trends. An example of this would be an opt-out rise after you’ve sent too many e-mails during a week (4-5+). If there’s a such rise in unsubscribes, it’s time to decrease the e-mail volume. Maybe you aren’t using segments when sending the information and you need to send more targeted information when you see people unsubscribing after an apparently normal campaign?

And lastly, remember that nothing is really black and white when someone unsubscribes. The client may simply have chosen a different medium (Twitter?) to communicate with you; maybe the client has too many lists he/she has subscribed to. An opt-out doesn’t mean that you list is bad. A hundred opt-outs a day could indicate something, though.

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Posted in Email Deliverability, Tips & Tricks | 1 Comment »

The Six Key Rules not to be identified as SPAM

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Unsolicited, unwanted, junk or spam email messages is the term used to describe email messages that customers don’t want.
Before sending any email to an existing or potential client you should understand clearly how to follow the Rules and not be identified as Spam by us or other email providers.

In-depth definition of SPAM you may as well find here on WikiPedia.

There are six basic email marketing previsions that you must follow in order for your e-mail marketing to be efficient and not to be identified as unsolicited commercial emails.

The Six Key Rules not to be identified as SPAM

  1. The email message can not contain misleading email header information.
  2. The email can not contain misleading Title and Subject line.
  3. The email sender must be existing return email address.
  4. All unsubscribed emails must be removed within 10 business days after unsubscribing.
  5. Any commercial email must have the company name and postal address of the sender.
  6. Unsolicited advertising messages must have clear identification of being commercial message and has clear notice for the recipient to unsubscribe from your recipient list.

Technical terms described in points 2, 4 and 5 are taking care of by Mailigen and are performed automatically, in this way e-mails correspond to all the technical criteria stated in the rule.

We, at Mailigen, are making sure that your e-mails which are sent from our system include automatic unsubscribe link as well as the name of your company and the address. Your job however is to make sure that your e-mail contains valuable information for your client, and that it is not unsolicited electronic advertising thus you will make your recipient pleased with the content you have provided, which means that your e-mail won’t be declined yet the first time you send it.

Mailigen automatically purges your e-mail database from unsubscribed e-mails and dead e-mail addresses giving you detailed reports on that. The whole process is fully computerized and it doesn’t need your implication whatsoever.

In order to get more information about Mailigen’s SPAM policy, please read Mailigen’s Anti-Spam regulations or contact us at any time.

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Posted in Email Deliverability | No Comments »