In 2003, then-president George Bush signed an act into law that prohibited the sending of spam email. Spam, which is an acronym for “Un-Solicited Pornography and Marketing,” which was intended to limit the ways in which marketer could contact people using email and that there were restrictions on sending unsolicited mail. Unfortunately, the act is largely unenforced, and spam continues to be a huge problem
For business owners looking to use email marketing as a way of connecting with their customers, being able to send emails is critical. But, there are some ways that you can help to get the message to your contacts—without being labeled as spam, which can ultimately blacklist your company and prevent you from being able to use email marketing.
First, it is important that you get permission to use the person’s email address. This is often done by getting people to subscribe to your list. Once they give you permission to use their email address to contact them, you should follow certain important guidelines so that the email is effective and not a nuisance to the recipient.
- Always include an “unsubscribe link at the end. This allows the recipient to choose to politely stop receiving your messages, and, if they click on the unsubscribe link instead of marking your email as spam, you will not have problems with violation of any spam rules.
- Make sure that your email is not misleading. Don’t try to trick someone into opening an email just to boost your open rates. For example, using a subject line like, “Your friend is sending you an important message” is going to be a problem. Instead, try using “Great deals this month!” or something like that, then make sure you are describing the great deals you are offering in the email.
- Always include your contact information. This helps when a customer is interested in learning more, and it makes your company look much more legitimate.
- Be clear about what you will be sending at the time the person signs up for your list. They should know how often you plan to send an email, whether it is daily, weekly, monthly or just occasionally.
- Clean out your list at least twice a year. Any invalid email addresses should be deleted from your list. Offer subscribers an opportunity to re-enlist for your emails. While having a nice beefy email list may look great, it is only useful if people open the email and click through to the offers.
- With every email, be sure that you include a statement such as, “You are receiving this email because you signed up for mailings.” This could be located near the unsubscribe link. If you make it difficult for recipients to unsubscribe, then they will just report your message as spam. Too many reports, and your email campaign is in serious trouble.
Even when you are sending out legitimate emails, to people you have permission to contact, you are not immune to being reported as a spammer. If someone feels that a message is spam, then it is. Unfortunately, this is very subjective, but ensuring that you are sending out quality and relevant information can help your email campaign be more successful, and make it less likely that your messages are reported as spam. Email marketing continues to be a great way to stay in contact with your customers and generate new leads, just be careful about how you use it!
If you have any questions or comments, please leave one below and I’d be happy to answer it.