How to avoid
Blacklists?
Good Email Marketing Strategy
You are a thorough business professional, who
likes to make sound investment, you are profit
minded and smart in your business decisions why
show carelessness when it comes to sending promotional
email newsletters and get yourself bracketed among
spammers and end up black listed.
It always pays rich dividends, if you have a well
planned out strategy before pressing the SEND
button. If your email marketing strategy is smart,
sensible, meticulously planned, and double-opt-in
nature, and you believe in no spamming policy,
there is high possibility of a smiling recipient
rather than a cursing one. Beware; too many cursing
recipients will put you in a blacklist. What is
better, a good emailing strategy or a black hole?
Only a welcomed email is read and generates favorable
results.
OPT-IN
Make the consumer opt-in for your service. Do
not waste your time gate crashing, be sure you
are invited. Whenever, customer visits your site
provide them with option of 'opt-in' for receiving
your promotional newsletter. If they opt-in and
leave behind their e-mail address and other requisite
personal information, smile but do not rejoice
yet.
DOUBLE
OPT
IN serves your purpose much better than a SINGLE
OPT-In. Send a confirmation email and make yourself
double sure that the customer you are going to
lure is a genuine one and they are truly interested
in your service. It also sets aside fear of mischief.
In case your IP has been blacklisted, double opt-in'
is the most straightforward way to prove that
an individual's spam report was erroneous.
If the customer confirms, he/she is your right
target, you are sure about your welcome and your
promotional newsletter or content will be read.
But, if they do not confirm, follow the thumb
rule, 'never send email', delete the customer
from your data base. If you are stubborn and insist
on sending emails, you risk being blacklisted.
OPT-OUT
Always provide the option of opt-out at the footer
of every promotional matter you send. It helps
customer unsubscribe from your service, if they
are no longer interested in your email promotions.
And follow the thumb rule, 'never send email again'.
Delete the opted out customer from your data base;
they no longer exist for you.
Confirmation in your pocket, now concentrate on
your email planning. Subject line, sender's address,
content are all important element of a promotional
email.
SUBJECT LINE
The customer might have given you the permission
to enter his/her inbox but you still have a long
way to go. Make sure your subject line is accurate
and looks trustworthy. Subject line should not
have bad hellos. It should scream for attention
but not make the recipient suspicious. If those
40 words do not get your opted-in recipient's
attention or trust, you are a spammer for them.
In spite of being asked for, you will end up in
the black list.
Ask your creative people not only to work on the
content but also to give good thought to the subject
line. The subject line should be catchy but information
based, highlighting on the content in the promotional
newsletter. Avoid using jargons or words commonly
used by spammers. Distinguish yourself from others
in the inbox. One word here and there makes all
the difference- you might end up being in the
junk box or clicked on for further read.
SENDER'S ADDRESS
Make sure your email address looks legitimate
and does not make customer hesitant. Almost all
email providers have strengthened their spam filters
and any email address that reads a little different
from the usual lands in the bulk folder or land
you in the black list. If possible, use your company
@ address or stick to personal name with @ address
of known email service providers like yahoo, hotmail,
AOL etc.
CONTENT
Do not disappoint your valuable customers with
your promotional content. Tailor your content
according to the expectation of the customer and
provide them something substantial in those words.
The information provided in the content should
be simple in language, easy to comprehend, informative,
fulfilling the need of the customer and of course
true. If the customer cannot relate to your content,
he/she may opt-out or block you from further correspondence.
He/she has given you the opportunity, take full
advantage of it by dishing out what the customer
is looking out for.
SIMPLE AND ACCURATE SEND PATH
Do not bluff the customer on the source of the
email. Spammers often play the trick of email
spoofing, that is forging an email-header to make
it appear that it came from a different source
than the actual source. If you are doing that,
you have full chance of being blacklisted, even
if you are spoofing your own domain. Keep the
source of transmission obvious and original.
1. Ask your prospective
customer to opt-in for your service. Confirm with
them whether they are really interested in your
newsletter or not by going in for double-opt-in
option.
DO NOT FIDDLE
WITH SPAM FILTERS
Play it safe, do not try developing strategy to
break spam filters and sneak in. Spammers have
more end-run spam filters knowledge than you,
whatever strategy you develop you will always
be behind. If you try your strategy, you will
be straight away blocked and black listed. The
strategy is already considered as spamming.
ADHERE TO
THE LAW
Make sure you know do's and don't of CAN-SPAM
act and ensure that all your e-mail is CAN-SPAM
compliant.
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