subject: How to Keep Your Emails Out of the Spam Filters [print this page] How to Keep Your Emails Out of the Spam Filters
So you've finally built up a list and you're excited. Finally, you have a large enough list that you think you can quit the day-job and make a living selling affiliate productor even your own!
One problemyou sales rates are abysmal! You've got less than one person in a hundred buying the products you recommend. Are your sales pitches really that bad?
So you go into your autoresponder dashboard and see that your sales rates are actually pretty damn goodfor the people who opened your emails! But your tracking is telling you that a lot of them just aren't being opened.
Sure, a lot of people on your list only signed up for the freebie. It happens. But if you've got an abnormally small open rate, then it might be time to consider if your mails are going directly into the spam zone. How can that happen?
Bad subject lines. Bad subject lines are the number one reason for ending up in the bulk mail folder. If your subject lines tend to have these key phrases: #1 reason Investment Sales Selling Bonus Free, Fr*ee, Fr*e, etc. Cash Paid Winner You have won
Then you're probably ending up in the spam zone.
Solution: Quit using bad lines! It's really not that hard to think of interesting subject lines that don't include the words or phrase above. Just spend a little bit of extra time on your subject linesit won't take much.
Using the word "free". The word "free" in your body text can throw you into spam folders just as quickly as having it in the subject line, when it's combined with certain other words.
Currently, some marketers can get away with "fr*e, f.r.e.e." etc. in the body text of their emails. So go ahead and do that if you absolutely have to. But it's a safe bet that someday, email filters will pick up on this trick.
Solution: Spend twenty bucks on a thesaurus!
You send attachments. Attachments can be a big no-no if you're not someone a user consistently emails back and forth with. And as a list owner, you're probably not. With all the viruses, spyware, Trojan horses and worms out there, it only makes sense that attachments will land your email in the bulk folder quicker than you can say "rootkit".
Solution: If you've got a bonus download to give out to your listand you should, every once in a whiledon't send it via attachment. Instead, upload it to a server, then email the link to your list.
You're using your hosting account's autoresponder. Professional autoresponder services like Aweber and Getresponse have been around for a while. They've taken steps to make sure they aren't used for spam purposes, and have worked with the major email providers. But there's a good chance that yourdomainname.com hasn't.
What's more is that web-host autoresponders are usually slow as well. This can make a big difference if you're promoting the latest product launch against 20 or 30 other listsor even against one!
Solution: shell out a few bucks a month to Aweber, GetResponse, or another professional autoresponder company. You'll be glad that you did.
