Posted by Tom Kulzer (AWeber CEO)

Ensuring requested opt-in E-mail is delivered to subscriber inboxes is an increasingly difficult battle in the age of spam filtering. Open and click thru response rates can be dramatically affected by as much as 20-30% due to incorrect spam filter classification.

Permission

Confirming that the people who ask for your information have actually requested to be on your list is the number one step in the battle for deliverability. You should be using a process called confirmed opt-in or verified opt-in to send a unique link to the attempted subscriber when they request information. Before adding the person to your list they must click that unique link verifying that they are indeed the same person that owns the E-mail address and requested to subscribe.

Subscriber Addresses

When requesting website visitors to opt-in ask for their “real” or “primary” email address instead of a free E-mail address like Yahoo or Hotmail. Free emails tend to be throw away accounts and typically have a shorter lifetime than a primary ISP address.

List Maintenance

Always promptly remove undeliverable addresses that bounce when sending E-mail to them. An address that bounces with a permanent error 2-3 times in a 30 day period should be removed from the list. ISP’s track what percentage of your newsletters bounce and will block them if you attempt to continually deliver messages to closed subscriber mailboxes.

Message Format

Usage of HTML messages to allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is growing in popularity and is widely supported by most email client software. Most spam is also HTML formatted and thus differentiating between requested email and spam HTML messages can be difficult. A 2004 study shows that plain text messages are undeliverable 1.15% of the time and HTML only messages were undeliverable 2.3%. If sending HTML it is important to always send a plain text alternative message, also called text/HTML multi-part mime format.

Content

Many ISP’s filter based on the content that appears within the message text.

Website URL:

Research potential newsletter advertisers before allowing them to place ads in your newsletter issues. If they have used their website URL to send spam, just having their URL appear in your newsletter could cause the entire message to be filtered.

Words/phrases:

Choose your language carefully when crafting messages. Avoid hot button topics often found in spam such as medication, mortgages, making money, and pornography. If you do need to use words that might be filtered, don’t attempt to obfuscate words with extra characters or odd spelling, you’ll just make your messages appear more spam like.

Images:

Avoid creating messages that are entirely images. Use images sparingly, if at all. Commonly used open rate tracking technology uses images to calculate opens. You may choose to disable open rate tracking to avoid being filtered based on image content.

Attachments:

With viruses running rampant and spreading thru the usage of malicious email attachments many users are wary of attached documents. It’s often better to link to files via a website URL to reduce recipient fear of attachments and reduce the overall message size.

CAN-SPAM Compliance

The January 2004 Federal CAN-SPAM law introduced a number of rules regarding the delivery of E-mail. It’s important you have your legal counsel review your practices and ensure you are in compliance. The two most important rules include having a valid postal mail address listed in all commercial messages and a working unsubscribe link that is promptly honored to remove the subscriber from future messages.

Reputation

Reputation services are often used by large ISP’s as a way to vet E-mail senders regarding their email practices and policies. Businesses listed with these services are then given less stringent filtering or no filtering at all. Several reputation services are:

• http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php
• http://www.bondedsender.com
• http://www.habeas.com

Relationships & Whitelisting

Contact with major ISP’s and email providers is essential in letting them know about your requested subscriber E-mail. Many large providers such as AOL and Yahoo have specific whitelisting programs and postmaster website areas to ensure your email is delivered as long as you meet their policies and procedures in handling your opt-in list.

E-mail deliverability is about ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to the intended recipient. While no single tip will enable you to get 100% of your E-mail delivered each one utilized as a group can go a long way to reaching that goal.

SourceOne Technologies has several packages available to assist you with your E-Mail Marketing Needs.  To find out more you can visit our E-Mail Marketing Packages page or feel free to call us at 720-306-5001.

If you are on the fence about adding E-Mail Marketing to your marketing mix the following statistics should help you see the power of using E-Mail Marketing.

• Consumers who subscribed to email newsletters generated 34.25% more product sales. – ConAgra Foods case study in association with MarketingSherpa (2007)

• Email’s ROI in 2008 was $45.06 for every dollar spent on it. – DMA (2008)

• Email drove an average of $0.14 in revenues per delivered message. – Epsilon “Q3 2008 Email Trends and Benchmark” (Jan 2009)

• 56% of recipients of permission-based e-mail from retailers say they are more likely to make purchases from the retailers that they receive e-mails from

• 54% of respondents in a consumer survey said they had a more favorable opinion of the companies that send them email. – Epsilon (Oct 2008)

• 48% say they feel more loyal to retailers and their products as a result of receiving permission-based e-mail

• 55% share a coupon or forward the e-mail

• 62% of marketing executives surveyed say that email newsletters are tactics that are a part of their 2009 marketing strategy. – Datran Media “3rd Annual Marketing & Media Survey Results” (2008)

• 67 percent of respondents stated that email has helped boost sales through other channels. – Datran Media, “Marketing & Media Survey” (2008)

Get Started today with our turnkey E-Mail Marketing Packages

As a business owner I am sure you realize the value of your customers. Customers are what makes a business successful and allows you to succeed. If you do not have customers then you will not have revenue and in time you will go out of business.

I am sure you are often searching for ways to add additional customers and increase your revenue. This is a great way to increase your sales, however there may be another way to go about this.

What if there was a way to focus on your existing customers to increase your revenue as well as add additional customers?

There is a method that any business that wants to generate additional revenue from their existing customer base should be using in today’s economy. This method is E-mail marketing.

E-mail marketing is a direct mail method that is done by sending electronic mail or E-mail to your customers. This method is very effective and very direct because you only send this to customers that have given you permission to send them E-mail.

Using E-mail marketing you stay in front of your customers reminding them what products and services that you offer. Staying in front of your customer will make it so that when they need a product or service you are offering you will be the first to come to mind.

One great way to utilize this tool is to send coupons via -mail to your customers. Often if someone receives a coupon it will push them to action so that they can utilize the coupon. Here are some examples of effective use of coupons:

Restaurant Owners:

If your customer is thinking about going out for dinner and they receive a coupon via E-mail more than likely they will visit your restaurant versus another so that they can get the discount

Examples of coupons: buy one get one free, 20% off your total bill, Free Appetizer with meal, Free Dessert with Meal

Chiropractors:

Often patients will come in when they have something bothering them and only them. If you are communicating with patients regularly and offer coupons that provides an additional service or discount they are very likely to come in and use the coupon. You could also provide coupons for referring new patients.

Examples of coupons:

Refer a New Patient and get 50% off your next visit, Take 25% off your next visit if you come in by April 30, 2009

Bottom line is that by communicating with your existing customers regularly and offering coupons they are more than likely to come in more frequently and often spend more and even refer others to your business.

E-mail marketing is an excellent way to stay in contact with your existing customers and increase your revenue from the customers you already have.

SourceOne Technologies is here to help you implement an effective E-Mail Marketing Campaign so that you can follow-up with your existing customers easily and effortlessly for less than $5 a day.

Contact us today at 720-306-5001 to find out more about E-Mail Marketing and how you can implement it so that you are able to increase your bottom line with your existing customers.