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How to avoid spam complaints and make sure your email doesn't get trashed
You may or may not know that there are now some heavy laws regarding emails from businesses.
For example, in Australia there is a law about emails since 2003, that you have to include accurate details of the your business name and physical address/es in every email you send.
You have to include a functional 'unsubscribe' facility to enable people to opt-out if they want to.
And, you can only send messages to people who have subscribed to your database - eg, by filling out a form or sending you an email requesting to join.
You must avoid doing those things to...
- avoid the heavy fines
- make sure your messages aren't trashed as spam by your customers
- make sure the email servers on the receiving end don't decide your messages are spam and blacklist you from the entire system
If your messages are thought to be spam by your customers, they will simply delete them without reading them.
If your messages are thought to be spam by the receiving email system (eg Yahoo or Hotmail webservers), then the system will mark you as a spammer and prevent ALL your emails to all of their Yahoo or Hotmail addresses from ever reaching their readers.
That is, if you get it wrong, you can be prevented from reaching huge chunks of your database - all the ones with Yahoo addresses or Hotmail addresses, for example.
So you need some strategies to make sure your messages aren't trashed.
You prevent the customers from deleting your emails before they read them by including their name in the subject line so they see their own name before they open (or delete) the email.
Example:
Instead of a subject line of "XYZ Massage announces new service"
You put a subject line of "Jason, I've got a new massage service I want to tell you about"
Do you see the difference?
Which one sounds more friendly, personal and down-to-earth?
Which one would you be more likely to click to open?
If an email has your own name in it, it can't be spam, can it?
I mean, it has to be for you.
So the customers usually go ahead and open the email to see what is in it for them.
Most of the professional email marketing software programs can easily handle this feature for you.
The software I use does it automatically.
Stopping the email servers on the receiving end from marking you as a spammer is a little more tricky, particularly if your database has grown very large.
Without going into the tech details, these are the sorts of things a good professional email software package will do for you to make sure your messages do get delivered:
| 1. |
Set mailing speeds (i.e. throttle) to major ISPs like Hotmail, Yahoo, and AOL -- so you avoid hitting their servers too fast like a spammer. |
| 2. |
Remove potentially harmful e-mail addresses by filtering using any keyword like ".gov," ".edu," "spam," "abuse," "majordomo," "listserv," etc. |
| 3. |
Mail each subscriber individually -- so ONLY their e-mail address appears in the "To:" field! |
| 4. |
Protect yourself from "phony" subscription requests with the option of using a double opt-in system -- that CONFIRMS every subscription you receive! |
| 5. |
Check the content of EVERY e-mail before you "Send" to make sure it won't accidentally trigger spam filters (sometimes changing a few simple words can mean the difference between getting delivered and getting 50% of your e-mail caught in "Junk Mail Folders!") |
Plus, you can do a few common-sense things yourself...
Here are four seemingly easy things to do to avoid spamming...
- NEVER email a list of non-targeted email addresses picked at random (such as by using software to "harvest" email addresses posted on the web).
- NEVER buy lists of email addresses from unknown list brokers or suppliers (many of them offer thousands of names on CD-ROMs, are often useless and are known as outright scams). Trust reputable ones only.
- NEVER email any contact unless you have their explicit permission to do so (and that includes adding email addresses in bulk to your autoresponder database!).
- NEVER share your own opt-in list to others, since their spam will kill your business even if it wasn't your fault!
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