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.
Recipients determine who's a SPAMMER
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.
Less is More
Less is really more in e-communications
Interesting blog post at MediaPost, a firm that provides an array of resources for media, marketing and advertising professionals. In it, I discovered it’s not just my inbox getting bruised and swollen by a flood of marketing messages.
LESS is MORE. Did your newsletter subscribers sign up with the belief they’d be getting a monthly coupon and now you’re pummeling them with daily exhortations to BUY NOW? You’re probably shooting yourself in the foot.
If enough of them hit “spam” to rid themselves of your aggressive communications, you can’t email them again. Plus that, you run the risk of a $11,000 federal fine under the CAN-SPAM ACT.
Focused and fresh content, delivered at comfortable intervals, will help you avoid “spam” reports from recipients who are overwhelmed by everyone, including you. One way to avoid the compulsion to blast an email: devise an editorial calendar. I spoke on this topic Monday night at Connect the Dots, a networking event run by the PR Store. If you want a download of my presentation it’s available here.
Connecting the Dots
Delivered to your inbox the last Monday of the month
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!
