Spam: Tips on how to avoid anti spam and increase your email deliverability

Spam remains a significant challenge for internet marketers using email campaigns as part of their overall marketing strategy. In fact in March, antivirus provider Symantec reported that spam messages accounted for about 90% of all e-mails sent! So it’s no wonder that email deliverability and CAN_SPAM compliance continue to be important issues that online marketers should be aware of.  Recently, Lisa Arthur, CMO of Aprimo, a provider of integrated marketing software, provided tips to help marketers overcome the spam filters and boost email deliverability. Here are some of her comments.

Create, follow and maintain e-mail best practices. For example, email frequency is critical. Subscribers should receive no more than a few emails each week. Also, unsubscribe and profile change options should be clearly laid out in the email.

Work with an email service provider. As ESPs are working with internet service provider all the time they are up to date with new regulations and compliance issues. “It’s not enough to (just) worry about bypassing the spam filter. (ESPs) have to worry about their reputation and overall deliverability,” she said. So using ESPs will go a long way to help keep your messages compliant.

Check that the template doesn’t trigger spam filters. The wrong design can scream spam, even if it’s a legitimate message. For example, templates make it easy to plug in information and create a newsletter without having to continuously redesign. However, it’s worth noting that larger template headers often trigger spam filters, Arthur said.

Share email content on social networks and websites. By posting links to e-mail newsletters, webinars and blog posts on social networks channels, your blog and website there’s a better chance that those readers are better-qualified and less likely to flag incoming messages as spam. “When someone signs up after reading an example of your e-mail marketing, those people are more engaged and you get better deliverability overall,” Arthur said. “You’re also going to get more viral action when people share that information with friends and colleagues.”

Ask for preferred placement. If subscribers place your e-mail address into their address book or create a rule—for example, “Always place e-mail from this address in the inbox”—you’ll have a better chance of your e-mails getting through. You can encourage this with a brief reminder in the footer or in the body of your e-mail.

Here are a few more tipr not mentioned in that interview but also of prime importance.

Maintain the integrity of your email list. This includes updating for wrong addresses and unsubcriptions. Too many bouncing emails and Spam complaints are red flags for ISPs.

Split test your delivery. In a recent whitepaper, RightNow technologies suggest emailing to smaller audiences before executing a major campaign. This will allow you to build a “credit rating” on sites like Senderscore. com, which ISPs use as a barometer of a sender’s reputation.

 Finally, a take home message from Lisa Arthur. “We’re constantly hearing from our …… customers about the continually changing needs of their end customers and those customers’ desire to change and control interactions, including e-mail,” Arthur said. “You’re going to have to work more closely to make sure you’re providing them with what they need and in a method that works for them.”

Hope these tips were useful to you.

To your success,

Mike Firer,

NimdX Admin