Are Your Emails Getting Through?
by Charlie Cook

If sending email to a mailing list is part of your markëting
or business building strategy, you want to make sure your
messages are reaching your audience. Are your readers
getting your emails? Due to the proliferation of sp@m, ISPs
(your web access and email provider) have added content
checkers to try to reduce the flow of unwanted mail. In
principle this is a good idea. In practice, lots of sp@m is
still getting through and many lëgitimatë emails, possibly
including yours, are being blocked.

You may assume that since your content is lëgitimatë and
because you only send messages to 0pt-in readers, your
prospects and clients are getting all of your emails. Bu
presently sp@m filters are blocking emails that include
words such as:

- hëre
- n0w
- lëgal
- questi0ns
- lëgitimate
- ordër
- bu1k
- chëck
- mi11ions
- st0ck
- f0rm
- markëting s0lution
- rëmove
- opp0rtunity
- cl1ck hëre

Even to send this article to the people who've requested
it, I’ve had to write carefully and creatively to disguise
these words to get them through the sp@m filters.

In an effort to eliminate junk mail, most email providers
have sp@m filters in place, and, smart as these are, they
don’t know you are not a sp@mmer if it includes what it
considers to be suspicious words. Some filters automatically
dump suspicious email into a bu1k mail folder, others block
them entirely.

Chances are you don’t consider yourself a sp@mmer. You don’t
blindly send mi11ions of emails a day to people who don’t
want your information. You do respond to client inquiries
and send information to people who request it. Even if you
only send email to people who have double optëd in for your
ezine, you can have your newsletter or message labeled as
sp@m if you’re not careful. 10-30% or more of your emails
may be getting filtered by overzealous ISPs.

Usually, use of just one "offensive" word won’t get your
email blocked, but repeat it or use it in conjunction with
another "offensive" word and your recipients won’t receive
your articles or notes.

I hate junk email as much as the next person. But if the
recipient has requested your ezine or an email response,
they should get it. In there effort to eliminate sp@m, the
ISPs are beginning to infringe on lëgitimatë communication
and commerce.

What You Can Do
Review available lists of words that ISPs consider
"suspicioius". I’ve posted one list of some innocuous and
common words that if used together or frequently can get
your email blocked at:
http://www.marketingforsuccess.com/wordstoavoid.html

Use one of the online content checkers to see which
remaining words could create problems with sp@m filters such
as:
Ezine Chëck http://ezinecheck.com/check.html
Lyris http://www.lyris.com/contentchecker/

Where possible, replace "offensive" words. If you need to
use a word like "markëting" because it’s the best word for
the job, you can get creative with, as I did above, but
some sp@m filters block emails containing odd characters.

No strategy for getting by the ISP filters is foolproof, but
every effort you make to eliminate potentially problematic
words will increase the likelihood that the people who want
to read your emails will get them. Take a minute to check
your email before you send it and you’ll increase the number
of people who read it and respond to it.

2004 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.
-
The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals and
small business owners attract more clients and be more
successful. Sign up for the Frëe Marketing Plan eBook,
'7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business'
at http://www.marketingforsuccess.com

DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware.

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