subject: Email Sender Pitfalls: Errors That May Send Your Emails To The Junk Pile When Employing A Mass Email [print this page] It happens pretty oftenIt happens pretty often. Every morning, like clockwork, I have breakfast, settle down with a cup of coffee and go through the emails awaiting me in my inbox. Every single time I've done this, I have found spam there waiting for me. I'm just referring to the messages that made it to my inbox. Never mind the several hundred waiting for me that got automatically filtered into the "junk mail" folder. Junk mail is definitely the bane of my existence. A lot of folks feel the same way as me. Junk mail haters, unite! :)
I'm fairly certain that most people will go along with me when I state: there's far too much spam being sent nowadays. Fortunately, alot of spam is caught by the filters in our email clients. The bad news is that sometimes they filter incorrect emails: your legitimate "opted-in" emails that potential (or active) customers have asked to receive. How does this take place? And why? Maintain reading to discover!
First and foremost, email marketers are sending mail to an old list. This is one of the most popular mistakes made, as well as the most simple. Why? For a couple of reasons. First, people's needs and preferences change over time. As an example, maybe your subscriber was enthusiastic about learning about acne treatments 6 months ago because she was burdened by it. Half a year later, she doesn't have acne anymore and, consequently, is not really interested in your email tips about how to solve her acne problem. It isn't often that we are lucky enough to find out why our subscribers unsubscribe. Its just important that we understand that they actually do (and definitely will).
An additional common reason we might send to an old list or subscribers is simply because we don't put an "unsubscribe" link towards the end of our messages and solicitations. Adding this one thing to your emails will solve this concern more often than not. Making it simple for your subscribers to "opt out" of email streams might seem counter-intuitive. This is always the most beneficial strategy. Why is that? Because this will keep our emails from being reported as spam!
Another frequent mistake is forgetting to make certain your emails are presented consistently across various email clients. Not all email programs are created equal, and this means not all email clients will display the exact same email identically. In fact, there are a few email programs that do a very, VERY poor job of parsing html (what your templates are likely created with). So is there a fix? Whilst not bullet-proof, making use of an email template that's personalized, easy, yet elegant usually yields wonderful results. Your take-away with this is: ugly emails either get or reported (and ususally both).
Next pitfall: sending messages with inconsistent frequency. Exactly what is the optimal rate to send messages out, then? Uh... I don't know! And neither do you. Only your subscribers know how often they want to receive your messages. So give the subscriber some options when subscribing to your list. Monthly and bi-monthly should be the standard. Ideally, you would also offer daily and weekly (if you're able to support it). The subscriber will like you more because you have given them some control and they, in turn, will probably not report your emails as spam. Everybody wins!
An error that undoubtedly (or hopefully, at least) falls into the "unintentioned" category is dull content or production. You want your emails to have pizzaz! and not just because you might turn them into customers. If your submissions are boring, then your odds of being reported as spam go way up. Spam isn't good. It's bad, that is, unless you enjoy eating it.In which case, I guess, spam might be good. :)
The last great mistake an email sender makes is sending irrelevent content. This is huge! If you own a site that sells more than one product or that sells to more than one demographic, then you may very well be making this mistake right now. Making use of your mass email service, generate categories for your subscribers based on whatever charceristics you would like. Then use these groups to send highly relevant messages. You can repurpose the same emails for each group. Now you can send super-targeted offers across a very broad base of potential customers.
