Tips for avoiding email spam folders and blacklists

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Tips for avoiding email spam folders and blacklists

Posted On : Nov-10-2011 | seen (646) times | Article Word Count : 609 |

If you have an email newsletter, you're sure to have concerns about whether or not your subscribers actually receive your emails and open them. Spam filters have come a long way in terms of how accurately they label emails, but there are still some problems you might encounter. So when you're composing your newsletters, here are a few tips to consider.

Make sure you have the recipient's permission. One of the quickest ways to get sent to the spam folder is to send unsolicited emails to people. You should only send emails to your subscribers - and you should obtain subscribers by using an opt-in offer rather than an opt-out offer. Allowing your visitors to choose instead of automatically subscribing them when they sign up will bring you more relevant interest. You should never buy a mailing list or use someone else's list - it can lead to having your messages marked as spam, which lowers your reputation with your ISP. Furthermore, using dated mailing lists runs the risk of using bad or old addresses which can bounce your emails or that are being used by your ISP as "spam traps" to catch spammers.

Include an unsubscribe link in your emails. Although you don't want people to unsubscribe, there is a very good reason for making it easy. If people don't have the option, they'll mark your email as spam instead to keep it from coming into their inbox. Not only will you lose that subscriber, but you can also be blacklisted if enough people click the spam button, which registers a spam complaint with your ISP. Plus, not including an unsubscribe link can cause people to feel cornered and trapped - not something you want them to feel.

Don't send too many emails. Nothing annoys subscribers more than having their inboxes flooded with emails from the same sender. Even if you think you need to send out that many emails to convey all the information you want, it will end up running more people off in the end. The best thing to do is really think about what topics you want to cover and condense the information into bite-sized chunks. Just get the main points across and let your subscribers come to you and your website if they want more information about a topic. Usually a few points is enough to satiate their curiosity.

Always use your company domain for things like unsubscribe links, reply-to, from, etc. Using a different domain for links and email addresses can cause your emails to be caught by spam filters. Additionally, you should make sure that you create a SPF record for your domain to verify that your mail server is allowed to send email for your domain, so that spammers cannot pretend to be you. Finally, you should be careful of what sorts of domain names and links you include in your emails. Spam filters watch these closely, so make sure that the links you include don't seem like spam.

Use W3 standards for HTML templates and provide a plain text version as well. When creating your HTML template, you should make sure you follow web standards and relatively clean design. Spam filters will usually pick up on poor mark-up and bright colors and sort them accordingly. You should also provide a plain text version of your newsletter for people who would rather have something that's quick to load and straightforward.

These tips may seem like a lot to remember, but taking the time now will save you grief later. You can always contact an e-commerce provider for advice and help with creating email newsletters.

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<h1>Tips for avoiding email spam folders and blacklists</h1> Author: <a href='http://www.articleseen.com/profile_Infigra.aspx'>Infigra</a> If you have an email newsletter, you're sure to have concerns about whether or not your subscribers actually receive your emails and open them. Spam filters have come a long way in terms of how accurately they label emails, but there are still some problems you might encounter. So when you're composing your newsletters, here are a few tips to consider.

Make sure you have the recipient's permission. One of the quickest ways to get sent to the spam folder is to send unsolicited emails to people. You should only send emails to your subscribers - and you should obtain subscribers by using an opt-in offer rather than an opt-out offer. Allowing your visitors to choose instead of automatically subscribing them when they sign up will bring you more relevant interest. You should never buy a mailing list or use someone else's list - it can lead to having your messages marked as spam, which lowers your reputation with your ISP. Furthermore, using dated mailing lists runs the risk of using bad or old addresses which can bounce your emails or that are being used by your ISP as "spam traps" to catch spammers.

Include an unsubscribe link in your emails. Although you don't want people to unsubscribe, there is a very good reason for making it easy. If people don't have the option, they'll mark your email as spam instead to keep it from coming into their inbox. Not only will you lose that subscriber, but you can also be blacklisted if enough people click the spam button, which registers a spam complaint with your ISP. Plus, not including an unsubscribe link can cause people to feel cornered and trapped - not something you want them to feel.

Don't send too many emails. Nothing annoys subscribers more than having their inboxes flooded with emails from the same sender. Even if you think you need to send out that many emails to convey all the information you want, it will end up running more people off in the end. The best thing to do is really think about what topics you want to cover and condense the information into bite-sized chunks. Just get the main points across and let your subscribers come to you and your website if they want more information about a topic. Usually a few points is enough to satiate their curiosity.

Always use your company domain for things like unsubscribe links, reply-to, from, etc. Using a different domain for links and email addresses can cause your emails to be caught by spam filters. Additionally, you should make sure that you create a SPF record for your domain to verify that your mail server is allowed to send email for your domain, so that spammers cannot pretend to be you. Finally, you should be careful of what sorts of domain names and links you include in your emails. Spam filters watch these closely, so make sure that the links you include don't seem like spam.

Use W3 standards for HTML templates and provide a plain text version as well. When creating your HTML template, you should make sure you follow web standards and relatively clean design. Spam filters will usually pick up on poor mark-up and bright colors and sort them accordingly. You should also provide a plain text version of your newsletter for people who would rather have something that's quick to load and straightforward.

These tips may seem like a lot to remember, but taking the time now will save you grief later. You can always contact an e-commerce provider for advice and help with creating email newsletters.About the Author: About Infigra E-Commerce:
 
Infigra E-Commerce is a Charlotte, NC based company that offers software as a solution (SaaS) and enables retailers to increase their sales by offering sophisticated e-commerce management tools. Our mission is to help move inventory by increasing the product visibility on different online global marketplace segments, such as Ebay and Amazon.
 
For more information, visit <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.infigra.com">www.infigra.com</a> Article Source: <a href='http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Tips-for-avoiding-email-spam-folders-and-blacklists_102787.aspx'> http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Tips for avoiding email spam folders and blacklists_102787.aspx</a>

Article Source : http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Tips for avoiding email spam folders and blacklists_102787.aspx

Author Resource :
About Infigra E-Commerce:

Infigra E-Commerce is a Charlotte, NC based company that offers software as a solution (SaaS) and enables retailers to increase their sales by offering sophisticated e-commerce management tools. Our mission is to help move inventory by increasing the product visibility on different online global marketplace segments, such as Ebay and Amazon.

For more information, visit www.infigra.com

Keywords : e-commerce, eCommerce, e-mail newsletters, email newsletters, avoiding spam folders, marked as spam, blacklisting,

Category : Internet Business : Email Marketing

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