Avoiding Spam: Check Yourself

If you think that you work is done once you've composed, edited and hit the "send" button, think again. Your email list requires maintenance and monitoring. Business email lists and newsletters may arrive in your inbox like any other email, but they have to do much more to prove themselves in order to get there. Done incorrectly, your company's newsletter could find itself blacklisted, marked as spam, or bounced back, which defeats the purpose of having an email list to begin with. Email delivery techniques are essential for turning your email marketing campaign into a successful means of communicating with your clients and, hopefully, bringing in new ones.

We'll start with the obvious- unsolicited email is spam, as far as your recipients are concerned. It is not uncommon for people to forget they've signed up for an email list, and think that they are being spammed by your company. This is easily prevented by using a confirmed opt-in, reminding people they've signed up for the list and asking them to confirm that choice. Only send the emails that people signed up for; if you want to create another category of email, invite your current recipients to sign up for it, but do not automatically place them on that list.

When you send emails, make sure your company name is clearly displayed, and that your subject line is enticing, without sounding overly spammy. Not only will clients refuse to open emails with a subject line such as "Free doesn't get any better than this! We have exciting, enticing, offers just for you!!!!!" but many service providers will notice the subject line and automatically direct your email into the spam box. If you're wondering how often you end up in the wrong box, you might consider running a spam check.

Having services that can run a spam check or an email blacklist check is invaluable. Running these features allows you to see where email delivery simply isn't happening. It might be that you have too many bounces on your list, but you may also have made other mistakes, such as using rented lists (a surefire way to be blacklisted), or using a service provider, such as an online email list, with no, or few, barriers to entry. The work of spammers on that service may have gotten you blacklisted simply based on the amount of emails you are sending out. These are only a few of the many ways by which you can protect your email delivery rate, there are as many more ways to protect yourself as there are to get yourself in trouble, so be sure to learn as much as you can, and use the appropriate software to manage your email lists.

Written by Mel Bryson. Complete email delivery solutions including email blacklist check, spam check, email rendering diagnostics. More info at http://www.emailreach.com