How Not To End Up In Your Customers Spam Box: 4 Simple Tips

So you have built an email list.

You want to get into this email marketing you have heard so much about. Or perhaps, you have been into email marketing for quite some time. Hopefully, you are using a Wi-Fi marketing & analytical platform to collect email and reach out to your customers.

Then suddenly, you notice your open rate is plummeting.

You can’t explain it.

You have done everything by the book. Your headlines are drool-worthy. Your content is fresh and highly-informative. A lot of man-hours and resources have been spent putting your newsletter together.

So why aren’t they getting opened?

Oh no…

Are your customers cheating on you with your competitors? Don’t they love your newsletters anymore? Has your email list been hacked? Is the government spying on your email list?

Okay, maybe you didn’t think that last bit because it’s silly.

The right question to ask is, “Why aren’t my emails getting delivered?”

That question and the solution to it is why I have written this post. You see, in the email marketing world, deliverability is a huge concern. Presently, only 5 out of 6 emails sent get delivered to recipients.

Just one out of six, that can’t be too much of a problem, you say?

Well, if you blow that number up, you will find out that the number of missing emails adds up quickly. And that fresh and informative content will fail to reach a significant number of your eager recipients.

So, why aren’t they getting delivered?

The answer is simple – Spam filters.

Apparently, 59% of all emails sent in the world are spam. Spam filters are programs designed to keep out harmful emails from reaching your customers’ inbox.

So, it is a good thing, right? Yes, it is.

But…

They are not perfect. They are designed to use a set of criteria to determine if an email is a spam or not. If your newsletters meet any of those criteria, they will be flagged as spam and get tossed in the spam box.

You have to forgive them. They aren’t human. Spam filters cannot read that beautiful piece to know that it’s not a spam email.

So your newsletters get caught in the cross fire in the war against spam emails.

Cheer up, I have got the solution.

Here are 4 simple tips to get your newsletters in the right place – your customers’ inbox.

1. Only Send Your Newsletters From Your Own Domain

Using free web-based emailing platforms to send bulk newsletters is a no-no. They will get flagged as spam and prevented from reaching your customers’ inbox. This – sender’s address – is one of the criteria used by spam filter programs to catch spam emails.

Here’s what you should do…

Get a custom email address that bears your domain name. For example: [email protected]. Make sure it is linked to your website, and that your website is always running.

Pro tip:

Use your name in the first portion of the custom email format. For example, instead of [email protected], use [email protected].

2. Get Your Domain Verified

Sometimes, even after you have created your own domain name, your emails still takes a detour to the spam box. The spam filters still don’t like you sending emails to too many people. Therefore they prevent good deal of your emails from reaching your customers.

Annoying, right?

You can fix this by taking step one above a bit further. And that is by having your domain name verified. This verification will get spam filters to tolerate your bulk email sending.

If you have never heard of domain name verification, here is a post that will help you learn more.

Do check it out and get your domain verified.

3. Be careful when crafting your content

Remember how I said spam filters cannot read your email content? It’s true. They really can’t read. But they can go through your email newsletter content sniffing for certain words, phrases, characters, formats, or links.

Spam filters are programed to flag email newsletters with these words, phrases, characters, etc. as spam.

So when you are writing your email, here are a few things you should watch out for:

• Fishy expressions like “This is not a spam!” or “Click here now!” are prime targets for spam filter bots. Try to avoid these phrases. For your call-to-action, use phrases that resonate with your content like “Get your copy” or “Learn more here”.
• AVOID TYPING IN ALL CAPS IN YOUR SUBJECT LINE OR CONTENT BODY. It makes your recipients feel like you are screaming at them, and spam filters don’t like that.
• Avoid the excessive use of exclamation marks!!!
• Cut down on the use of spammy words and characters like “free”, “sale”, or “$$$$”.
• Make sure your content is useful to your recipients or you risk being marked as spam.
• Keep your content length moderate. Although this is changing, spam filters do not like emails that are too lengthy. Just to be safe, keep your newsletters at 20 to 30 lines for the body, and between 35 to 50 characters for the subject line.
• Emails are great with pictures. But keep in mind that your content could be flagged as spam if there are too many images in the body. For one, it makes your emails difficult to load. For another, spam filters see images as white spaces.
• Be sure that every link you embed in your emails leads to your site or any other reputable sites.

4. Build and Maintain a clean email list

When building your email list, check the authenticity of each email address you collect. Ask your subscribers to confirm their email addresses before you add them to your list. Having dud email addresses in your list will increase your bounce rate. The increase in bounce rate will cause spam filters to flag your emails as spam.

Try to maintain a high sender score. Because this will keep spam filters off your back and get your emails to the right place.

Do you offer free Wi-Fi to your customers? If yes, you should consider integrating it with a Wi-Fi analytics and marketing software.

Why?

Our Wi-Fi marketing & analytics software can help your email marketing to be more effective and yield better results.

How?

Spoton Wi-Fi will help you segment your customer email based on certain criteria. This will enable you craft more personal newsletters that will increase engagement and ultimately, sales.

What’s more?

With our product you can collect valuable customer data that will enable you know your customers better. Knowing your customers better will help you know what they really want and offer better products or services.

To find out more contact us and let’s get you started.

POSTED ON October 22, 2019