You’ve probably received something that is called SPAM. SPAM is unsolicited email commercial. Many people harvest other people’s email addresses on email and web forums and send them info that they didn’t request. This is very frustrating because you loose your precious time deleting those unwanted messages. In this article I will try to explain how NOT to appear like a spammer.
Opt-in
If you have an email newsletter it is very important that you don’t appear like a spammer. If you want to stay long in e-publishing business your newsletters should be based on opt-in method. It means that subscriber opted to receive your newsletter and that you have their permission to send them your newsletter. It is called Permission Marketing. I would suggest that your list be double opt-in. Now what is double opt-in? Double opt-in means that your subscribers have to confirm their request to join your list. Confirmation is done by replying to the message that you send to everyone who had initiated subscription. Beside replying people can confirm their request by clicking to a certain link. This ensures that one person can’t subscribe another person against his or her will.
Welcome message
I would suggest you that you ask your new subscriber to save your welcome message. There you can put the necessary info about your list and list management: list description, subscribe/unsubscribe address, digest address, owner’s email address, list rules…
This is important because of the following. Many people promote their newsletter for some time, until they get enough subscribers and then publish the first issue. However, it is most likely that someone who had subscribed to your list several months ago forgot that he or she actually requested to be a member of your list. And then, they can accuse you that you are a spammer. If they saved a welcome message they can see that they wanted to be your subscribers.
Subject line
Subject line is very important in email newsletter. Beside, >From field it is the most important thing for someone to decide whether to open your newsletter. I would suggest that your subject line consist the title of your article, issue number and date. If your From or To field doesn’t consist your list name than you should put your list name in Subject line, too. If you have your subscriber’s first name in your database you should definitely put their name as the first thing in the Subject line. Then it is more likely that they will open your newsletter.
Filtration
Many people use email programs with powerful email filter options. Many people set their filters to delete messages with get-rich-quick-schemes, porn and similar content so it is wise that you don’t put that kind of text in your messages if you want that people read it. Also, don’t capitalize your words like FREE, MAKE MONEY, GUARANTEED… I wouldn’t suggest that you use this or similar words in the first place beacuse these words are often used by spammers.
If you have an option that in To field be your visitor’s email address and not, for example Your list name, that would be ideal because some mail washer programs automatically flag messages which don’t have a recipient email address as possible SPAM.
List management
Always provide very clear information regarding list management in your newsletter. Very important thing is that your list management provides very easy way of unsubscribing. For example, newsletters with hosted on powerful list hosting have at the very bottom an unique unsubscribe address for every subscriber. It is something like leave-yourlistname-111327893L@yourlistserver.com This way, your subscribers can unsubscribe only with one click and they don’t have to worry if they sent unsubscription request from address which is in your subscriber list. Good list management is, also, useful because you won’t loose your time explaining to your subscribers how to do something, for example unsubscribe or set receiving messages in digest mode.
At the end, you can read several SPAM messages and – do the opposite in your list.
Dejan Bizinger is a Contributing Editor for SKYLIST, Inc. SKYLIST is a permission-based email delivery and list management services company. SKYLIST solutions assist businesses to seamlessly deliver, track, and report the results of email communications. For more information visit: http://www.skylist.net
