StrateScapes - Keep Out of My Inbox


		Excerpted from StrateScapes - Volume 6, Number 3

Keep Out of My Inbox
Why spam may be creating a barrier to your e-mail marketing success.

Spam isn’t scaring off e-marketers. According to a study by Arial Software, 76 percent of respondents said they plan to increase e-mail marketing efforts this year.

You’re not the bad guy, but bounced e-mail rates may have you believing otherwise. That’s because as Internet service providers (ISPs) institute every line of defense available against spam, your opt-in e-newsletters and e-mail updates may be getting caught in the crossfire — being rejected or ending up in your customers’ bulk- or junk-mail folders rather than their inboxes.

“As ISPs try to protect their users from spam, a lot of opt-in e-mail is victimized,” Matt Blumberg, CEO of Return Path, an e-mail services company, told Direct Magazine recently, adding that 17 percent of permission-based e-mail is being incorrectly blocked. “It’s like throwing the baby out with the bath water. It is up to every company sending e-mail to make sure its campaigns are done appropriately so that they avoid triggering spam filters.”

So what can you do to make sure your next e-mail campaign doesn’t get filtered out?

Use a reputable broadcaster for your mailing.
If your e-mail broadcaster has a history of mailing spam, ISPs will blacklist all mail coming from that particular IP address. Companies such as Yesmail, CCG’s partner in producing Countrywide Financial’s e-newsletters, say they purposefully work to maintain good relationships with all the major ISPs. They also team up with ISPs to learn about new filters so permission-based programs are minimally impacted.

Choose keywords carefully.
According to a recent article in Inc. Magazine, the following words in the subject line or body copy tend to cause your e-mail to be blocked: newsletter, Internet, mortgage, offer, live, pics, protect, now, free, solution, work, news, credit. While avoiding these terms in your body copy may be difficult, most software programs look for multiple occurrences rather than a single incidence of the word.

Watch your file size.
A large e-mail may send a red flag, especially if an ISP gets flooded with messages from an unknown source. As an AOL spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal recently, “We block first and ask questions later when it comes to suspicious e-mail to our members.” Try to keep your HTML e-mail size under 30K by eliminating unnecessary code.

Educate your customers.
When customers opt into a newsletter or e-mail marketing program, they can alert their mail software to allow messages from that sender. It may be worthwhile to include a message reminding people to tag your e-mail address as a favorite.

With these ever-growing hoops, is e-mail marketing still worth the effort? Go to customer.com/articles/email to see how e-mail marketing can fit into your direct marketing strategy, providing an economical and effective way to communicate with your customers.

STRATESCAPES and STRATESCAPES SUPPLEMENTS are published by Customer Communications Group, Inc., a full-service agency specializing in relationship marketing and customer communications. Our comprehensive, turnkey services include data analysis, customer segmentation, strategic consulting, account management, creative execution, print production and multimedia solutions.