How to make your newsletter Spam Filters friendly
Spam Filters, Spam Laws And Legal Email Marketing.
When publishing a newsletter there are some points to
remember to make sure your publication will get read and you are in
compliance with the Can Spam Act. How to combat the Spam filters How to comply with the
Can Spam Act What is legal email marketing and what is illegal How do you combat the filters? Here are some ways You can use an email analyzer software which will
pinpoint the trigger words and allow you to correct them to get your
newsletter through the spam filters. This device is very useful for any
email advertising. For your newsletter you can have a special website page
for your current issue and direct your readers to this, in case they
have not received the letter due to spam filters. In your welcome letter to new readers advise them to
adjust their filters to let the newsletter through. If they are serious
about your newsletter they will do this, if not your auto responder
should take them out after a number of bounces. I have found this to be
effective. Do not let the Can Spam Act intimidate you and put you
out of business as a publisher. Just keep records of all who have
subscribed to you and their requests to subscribe. Also if anyone does
unsubscribe keep their names in a special file too. Add a proper
disclaimer to your newsletter “ you are receiving this newsletter
because...” and your name and address at the bottom. Always provide a
remove link at the bottom of your newsletter or any email you send to
your list, this is very important and just plain polite. With these small points you will be in complete
compliance with the Can Spam Act and deliver your newsletter to your
readers, without fear of reprisals. I add a small legal disclaimer at the bottom of my
newsletter but it is not necessary to do this as your newsletter is very
legitimate. Just to protect yourself you should always inform your new
readers that when they subscribed to your newsletter they have given
consent to receiving advertising. This should not come as a surprise, as
offline newsletters and magazines always include ads. What is legal and what is illegal email marketing? This
is very simple and easy to understand. Legal emailing are communications
that you send to your legitimate list. The ones who have expressly
requested to be on your list.(subscribed to your newsletter) Illegal
email marketing is unsolicited email marketing Spam, (sending out emails
to people who have not asked to receive anything from you. These are the
people who have initiated the rise of Spam filters. Spam is a weak and dangerous form of advertising. Weak,
because it does not produce good, if any, results. Dangerous because
complaints of Spam can get your whole business and internet shut down.
With these points you will be able to market effectively
and legally with email marketing. This is one of the most powerful and
easiest forms of marketing, when done right. Above all you will be able
to continue to publish your newsletter without fear of reprisals. There are many Spam Filters on the market and even some
initiated by our ISPs to block annoying Spam. We know they block off
some Spam and even our friendly mail at times, but what are they and how
do they work? Here is a simple explanation. A Spam Filter is software that is programmed to block
email. They work by scanning the incoming email and looking for certain
"trigger" words. For each trigger word they will give 0.5 or 1 point
when the email reaches above 5 points it is classed as spam and will be
blocked or sent to the bulk or junk mail folder. Excessive punctuation
(!!!) will also count as points against the mail, as will CAPITALIZATION
that is out of place. Some Spam Filter software will ask new senders to
verify their names and email addresses so that the recipients can make
the decision to let the incoming mail in. Others are not so kind. Spam filters, have become an important part of email
marketing. We are all aware of Spam, clogging our email boxes, making
our good email bounce, and annoying us so much that sometimes even
friendly mail takes on an evil face. Spam has become a large worldwide
issue, and consumers are no longer going to sit down and take this abuse
to their privacy. Times are changing for all of us who do business and
send any sort of email thru the Internet. Spam Filters, are the inevitable answer to spam. Our ISP
services, which allow us to operate on the Internet, have become the
self-proclaimed watchdogs of our mailboxes! Anybody trying to do business on the Internet knows that
Spam Filters have become one of the biggest challenges. There are so
many words and phrases that “trigger” these filters, that even
legitimate mail gets trashed before the recipient even gets to look at
it. Many ISPs do not even give us the option to decide, what is
legitimate mail anymore. There have been far less Solos, coming into my box, even
from legitimate newsletters/Ezines. Advertising seems to have taken
quite a beating! However flexibility =success so it is up to us as
business people to adapt to the times. We will need to be flexible and
always open to explore new avenues, to promote our businesses. There
will always be new trends and ways, to advertise. With the recent laws being passed against Spam,
publishers, and advertisers are certainly facing more challenges. Many
readers have been flooded with requests from publishers to agree to
advertising in or from their newsletters and ezines. A sign of things to
come? Possibly. Publishers will need to take a look at the way we will
be doing business in the future. Double Opt-In subscriptions will soon
become the norm. Maybe we will see less free newsletters/ezines and more
subscription publications, like the “offline world.” Whatever happens
there will always be a way for publishers to produce quality reading for
their subscribers and even to do a little “soft sell” on the side. Recently I came across a very useful piece of software.
That will analyze your email and show you the trigger words that will
stop your email from getting through spam filters. This is particularly
useful for newsletter publishers. I have found it a great help. Email
marketing
Article written by Cathy Qazalbash (Cathy Q) Publisher
of the A-Y-B marketing newsletter and A1-newsletter Cathy is a
successful Freelance writer, specializing in business articles, http://advertise-your-business.com
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