The Company you Keep

Mom’s advice still holds: you’re known by the company you keep. Since 15% of all reported spam  last month was finance-oriented, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are scrubbing emails with references or offers related to money, the stock market or other financial “opportunities” including investments, credit reports, real estate and loans.

What’s this mean for legitimate financial services emailers? You’ve got to fight harder to keep your own reputation intact. The good folks at Listrak give great advice including pruning your subscriber list and asking subscribers to re-opt-in from time to time.

Here’s the exciting news for legitimate emailers:  ISPs have added a new metric to the reputation measurement – level of subscriber interaction and engagement. ISPs can tell who opens and clicks on a message and who ignores or deletes it. More importantly, they monitor how many subscribers click “this is not spam” if the message is delivered to the junk mail folder instead of the inbox. Monitoring subscriber engagement lets the ISP know which senders are delivering relevant content that subscribers want and which ones, like spammers, are continuing to blast out message after message even if no previous action has been taken (emphasis added).

Takeaways:

• Keep email content brief. Link elsewhere for the full story
• Engage subscribers with surveys, downloads and linked graphics
• All email templates have a built-in forward feature, but it can only help to suggest specific possible recipients, for example:
  • A coworker whose spouse was recently laid off
  • A neighbor whose house has been languishing on the market
  • A relative whose adult children have moved back in

If your content isn’t engaging, it’s more likely to be trapped in a spam filter. Call me to develop a content strategy that keeps receivers engaged and sending you referrals.

Your Reputation as a Spammer

You think you’ve properly built a subscriber list of folks who OPTED IN to receive your e-newsletter.  Turns out, that’s not good enough.  Your email might still wind up in the SPAM file.

Lyris, Inc.’s 2008 analysis showed one out of every four permission-based email messages sent to U.S.-based Internet Service Providers (ISPs) lands in the junk mail folder.

What’s up?  While results vary by the filter policy of each ISP (such as Yahoo, Hotmail, AIM, etc), the report says it’s the sender’s reputation driving 25% of messages to the SPAM folder.

How do you earn the right reputation?

• Craft a compelling message.
• Don’t bombard your list — send no more often than your recipients bargained for.
• Make it easy for people to find the “Unsubscribe” button.  If it’s easier to hit “SPAM” than “Unsubscribe” you’ll get a reputation as a spammer on ISPs’ scorecards.

Stefan Pollard, Lyris email marketing expert, points out that “The definition of spam has moved beyond the legal requirements of the CAN-SPAM Act to include any message that is unrecognized, unexpected or unwanted... This puts the onus on senders to make their messages recognized, expected and wanted.  Until they do, invited email will continue to be delivered to the bulk folder.”

Spam filter trigger words:

Act Now!                     Free!                               50% off!         While Supplies last

Click Here                  Call now!                       Earn $             Why pay more?

Discount!                   You’re a Winner!        Credit               Serious Cash

Weight                        Opportunity                 Compare         Double Your Income

Removes                   Collect                           Amazing           Work from Home

Offer                           As Seen On…                Click Here         “Stop” or “Stops”

Buy Direct                Loans                            Buy Direct         Satisfaction Guaranteed

Subscribe               All Natural                    Winner                Avoid Bankruptcy

Promise You         Cash                                Easy Terms       Special Promotion

Get Paid                 Great offer                     One time             Guarantee, Guaranteed

Join millions       No cost, No fees          Order Now         Online Marketing

Please Read        Don’t Delete                   Save up to          Time Limited

Problems with promotional email

In a study by Merkle, “View from the Inbox,” 2009, the main reasons subscribers choose to opt out of email programs, are perceived irrelevance (75%) and sending too frequently (73%).

Promotional emails were deemed the most  intrusive. Solution?  Make your newsletter informative, not promotional.

Merkle reported that 20% of those receiving e-newsletters thought they were worthy of reading, and received, on average,about eight newsletters each month.  That’s a heap of competition for YOUR customers’ attention.

Your reputation intact

If you can’t do the job in house, pay a good ghostwriter/copywriter.  You’ll offset by the fees with savings to your reputation with customers and ISPs.

When you decide to outsource, be sure you hire someone who not only can cut a phrase and punctuate, but also who knows your firm/industry.  That is, unless you really want to bring a writer up the learning curve(!)

Pardon my plug to consider my turnkey newsletter service. When you go to the trouble of communicating with customers, track results so you know what’s working and what’s not.  My service includes custom templates with analytics that can tell you details like who opened what link in what browser.

Speaking engagement

At the kind invitation of the Carolinas Professinal Saleswomen and Entrepreneurs, I’ll be speaking on CAN-SPAM and e-newsletters June 18.  Hope to see you there.

Connecting the Dots

Whether you’re a business owner or employee, no doubt you appreciate the need to network.  If you’re in the Charlotte, NC area Monday 3/9 at 6pm, drop by Connect the Dots, a monthly networking group sponsored by The PR Store .

I’ll be the featured speaker this month, talking about one of the things that gets under my skin: unsolicited newsletters.  What makes so many people think that just because they have my email address I actually want their newsletters?

I posed this question to a group of fellow solo-preneurs, who pounced:

“Everyone else does it so if I don’t do it my competitors get ahead of me.”

“Why wouldn’t they want to hear from me?”

“It’s not illegal, you know!”

“They can always hit ‘spam’ or  ‘unsubscribe’.”

“If I’m not sending out a monthly newsletter I’m not being professional.”

“I can’t afford to send brochures and postcards and besides that, no one opens snail mail anymore!”

“If I send them an email asking them to opt in, half my list will go away!”

When I went on to tell them they could incur a federal fine of $11,000 for doing so, they became frantic.

“No one’s going to turn me in.”

“Can’t get blood from a stone.”

“That can’t be right.”

Since I offer custom newsletter content, templates and management services I have a vested interest in getting the word out about CAN-SPAM compliance.  But so does every business that sends out what’s defined as “commercial email.”

That probably includes YOU.

Hope to see you on March 9 at 6pm.  I’ll be giving away a free newsletter consultation to one attendee.  Hope it’s  YOU!