Improve Your Email’s Deliverablity
by Karen Fegarty
With SPAM accounting for over 50% of the email that is
delivered to our inboxes many corporations and ISPs have
implemented solutions to deal with this growing problem.
SPAM filters, IP blocking, domain blocking, and legislation
are in place, but often messages that are, in fact, wanted
by the recipients, are filtered and not delivered. What do
legitimate marketers need to do to ensure that their clients
receive their messages? We have collected a number of rules
that, if you employ, can greatly increase the number of emails
that are delivered and opened by your customers or prospective
customers.
1. When delivering to AOL email addresses you need to make
sure your SMTP service's domain can be verified using a
reverse DNS lookup. Check with your Webmaster or Host
Provider. For more information on this topic check out:
http://www.dnsstuff.com/info/revdns.htm and
http://ezine-tips.com/articles/resources/20010817.shtml 2. America Online (AOL) has recently released the newest
version of its product, AOL 9.0. To protect it's users
from receiving SPAM, AOL has put some measures in place
that will affect how your message is received by your AOL
subscribers. All graphics will be blocked from being
displayed in HTML emails; as well links will be
deactivated for any new message sent to an AOL 9.0
inbox. When an email is received in AOL 9.0, users will
have to click a link at the top of each message
(Show Images & Enable Links) to view any graphics
within your email. If this action is not taken, images
and links will not be displayed or enabled.
This is the default setting for AOL 9.0; however, the
email recipient does have the ability to add the sender's
From Address into their address book, which AOL classifies
as People I Know. Once this has been done, all emails
received from this address in the future will automatically
have images and links showing correctly.
Your recipients must add you to their address book as a sender
they recognize and approve. You should add a line to the top of your
email, which states something like this... "Attention AOL 9.0 users
- please add fromaddress@company.com to your address book so
that you can see our entire message". For more information on this
issue visit:
http://library.marketingsherpa.com/barrier.cfm?CID=2455 MS 2003 will also filter the images. For more information visit:
http://ktdcommunications.com/communications/katydid_023.htm 3. Be aware of the current and proposed SPAM laws. Check out
http://www.spamlaws.com for current legislation.
4. Ensure that each message contains an unsubscribe statement
that links to a valid URL or a valid Mailto: link. However do
not use the words "to unsubscribe" as these are now getting filtered.
Use something like "to leave".
5. Do not include .exe or attachments in your message.
6. Do not purchase lists.
7. Do not rent lists that are not double-opt-in.
8. Don't sell or rent out your own lists.
9. Always remove any unsubscribes immediately.
10. Always remove any undeliverables immediately.
11. Remind people of their relationship with you. Tell them in the
message the email address that they used when they subscribed.
12. Communicate with your recipients on a regular basis, but don't
communicate with recipients too often. An email that is welcomed
on a monthly basis may become unwelcome when sent more frequently.
13. Include a correct reply email address and telephone contact
information in each email.
14. Avoid sending long text articles.
15. Do not send HTML messages without Text alternatives.
16. Avoid sending messages with a large number of hotlinks.
17. Do not use BCC distribution methods with over 10 names per
email. Use a product like Broadc@st, which creates an individual
message for each email.
18. If you are sending a newsletter place the word "newsletter"
and a date including month in the subject line. This reduces
your SPAM score.
19. Watch your email lists, heavy B2C distribution to @aol.com,
@hotmail.com. @msn.com etc may be flagged.
20. Avoid using words or phases that trigger spam filters. For
more information on this visit:
http://www.doctorebiz.com/06/021106b.htm and
http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt8/spamfilter_phrases.htm 21. Check out the common tests that filters like Outlook
and SpamAssassin use to filter your emails and try to avoid
the common issues. For information on these tests visit
http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/preview.aspx?AssetID=HA010450051033&CTT=98 and
http://eu.spamassassin.org/tests.html 22. Routinely check
http://www.spamcop.net to see if you
have been blacklisted unfairly. Send an email to have this
rectified. To check their list enter:
http://spamcop.net/bl.shtml?111.111.111.11 (where 111.111.111.11 is the IP address of your sending SMTP.)
23.Use services such as Assurance's Message Checker to pre-check your
messages for common filtering flags and Assurance's Black-list Alert
to keep on top of where you may be blacklisted.
24. Sending your delivery in small batches of 500 or less might avoid
filtration.
25.For additional information and a practical guide on avoiding
SPAM filters check out Marketing Sherpa’s “How-to Kit: Get
Your Permission Email Past Filters”
http://www.sherpastore.com/store/page.cfm/p.cfm/2094?1044. About the Author
Karen Fegarty is co-founder of MailWorkZ. MailWorkZ is the producer of
innovative e-marketing tools including Broadc@st, a leading email/bulk email
marketing software tool and ezTrackZ online ad tracking. Claim your trial
of Broadc@st today
http://www.mailworkz.com/download.htm and trial ezTrackZ
at
http://www.eztrackz.com. You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your
ebook or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are
included.
| 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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