If sending email to a mailing list is part of your marketing or business
building strategy, you want to make sure your messages are reaching
your audience. Are your readers getting your emails?
Due to the proliferation of sp@m, ISPs (your web access and email
provider) have added content checkers to try to reduce the flow of
unwanted mail. In principle this is a good idea. In practice, lots
of sp@m is still getting through and many legitimate emails, possibly
including yours, are being blocked.
You may assume that since your content is legitimate and because you
only send messages to 0pt-in readers, your prospects and clients are
getting all of your emails. But presently sp@m filters are blocking
emails that include words such as:
here
n0w
legal
questi0ns
legitimate
order
bu1k
check
mi11ions
st0ck
f0rm
marketing s0lution
remove
opp0rtunity
Even to send this article to the people who've requested it, I've
had to write carefully and creatively to disguise these words to get
them through the sp@m filters.
In an effort to eliminate junk mail, most email providers have sp@m
filters in place, and, smart as these are, they don't know you are
not a sp@mmer if it includes what it considers to be suspicious words.
Some filters automatically dump suspicious email into a bu1k mail
folder, others block them entirely.
Chances are you don't consider yourself a sp@mmer. You don't blindly
send mi11ions of emails a day to people who don't want your information.
You do respond to client inquiries and send information to people
who request it. Even if you only send email to people who have double
opted in for your ezine, you can have your newsletter or message labeled
as sp@m if you're not careful. 10-30% or more of your emails may be
getting filtered by overzealous ISPs.
Usually, use of just one "offensive" word won't get your email blocked,
but repeat it or use it in conjunction with another "offensive" word
and your recipients won't receive your articles or notes.
I hate junk email as much as the next person. But if the recipient
has requested your ezine or an email response, they should get it.
In there effort to eliminate sp@m, the ISPs are beginning to infringe
on legitimate communication and commerce.
What You Can Do Review available lists of words that ISPs consider
"suspicioius". I've posted one list of some innocuous and common words
that if used together or frequently can get your email blocked at:
http://www.marketingforsuccess.com/wordstoavoid.html
Use one of the online content checkers to see which remaining words
could create problems with sp@m filters such as: Ezine Check http://ezinecheck.com/check.html
Lyris http://www.lyris.com/contentchecker/
Where possible, replace "offensive" words. If you need to use a word
like "marketing" because it's the best word for the job, you can get
creative with, as I did above, but some sp@m filters block emails
containing odd characters.
No strategy for getting by the ISP filters is foolproof, but every
effort you make to eliminate potentially problematic words will increase
the likelihood that the people who want to read your emails will get
them. Take a minute to check your email before you send it and you'll
increase the number of people who read it and respond to it.
About the Author:
Charlie Cook, is Chief Executive of Ideas and Inspiration at In Mind
Communications in Old Greenwich, CT and can be contacted via http://www.charliecook.net,
or by calling 203-637-1118. To get the F*ree Marketing Guide and the
'More Business' newsletter, full of practical marketing tips go to
http://www.charliecook.net
Read this newsletter at:
http://www.MarketingNewz.com/2004/0707.html
I'm Jenny and I work at a software development company. We're
now considering different on-line advertising opportunities.
So my question is: what are the best resources to place an ad
so that it reached small business owners?
By
Charlie Cook