Posts Tagged spamtrap
Compliance 101 – Clean your email marketing lists
The SimplyCast Compliance department “delivers” once again with very important tips on improving your deliverability and overall happiness. Yes, they are that good.
During the spring months many take the opportunity to “spring clean” their homes. For email marketing this is a good time to “spring clean” or re-opt-in your mailing lists.
Email marketing lists should be cleaned at least a few times per year. This will help increase deliverability rates, open rates, ROI, etc. By keeping a clean list you avoid sending to spam traps which can develop over a period of time when an email address becomes inactive for whatever reason.
ISP’s take this opportunity to turn the address into a “spam trap”, monitoring the inbox and blacklisting those who sends email to it.
Having your list of subscribers re-opt-in not only cleans spam trap addresses and recipients who no longer wish to receive your mail but also gives you the opportunity to update your recipients on how often you send (which may or may not have changed) and what you will continue to be sending.
It is important to understand that even though your recipients may know who you are already and have confirmed that they want to receive your mail at one point in time, they may have changed their mind and no longer wish to receive your mail.
At this point the majority of those people will report the email as spam rather than clicking the unsubscribe link. To stress the obvious, you do not want that.
Therefore giving the option to re-opt-in helps keep your complaint rates low, your deliverability high and your lists squeaky clean.
A sample re-opt-in email is below:
Dear ,
Previously you provided us with your e-mail address when you subscribed to (company/newsletter). We are updating are lists and would like to confirm that you still wish to receive our company newsletter/promotion/etc. We will continue to send our monthly newsletter and from time-to-time, you may receive email updates or special promotions. You may unsubscribe at any time via the link at the bottom of the page or by emailing.
Sincerely,
(company)
(address)
Feel free to email us at deliverability@simplycast.com anytime for further explanation.
SimplyCast’s Interactive Marketing Suite includes:
Email Marketing | Survey Marketing | Event Marketing |
Fax Marketing | SMS Marketing | AutoResponder Marketing
2 comments May 6, 2010
20 ways to avoid email spam filters
One of the major benefits of email marketing is that email is free, but obviously this is the same reason why spam has become so popular and so frustrating to us all.
With spam comes spam filters and with spam filters comes the blocking of legitimate email.
How do you avoid spam filters when sending out your latest email marketing campaign?
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Here are 20 important ways to dodge those pesky spam filters.
1. Follow best practice email marketing techniques.
2. Have permission to contact the recipient. If you don’t you are spamming.
3. Avoid spam trigger words in your subject line.
4. Use a consistent “From” field.
5. Monitor blacklists using www.blacklistmonitor.com.
6. Don’t use carbon copy to a lot of recipients.
7. Personalize the “To” field.
8. Don’t keep mailing to someone if they have unsubscribed.
9. Don’t use a mailing service that tolerates spam.
In case you are wondering, SimplyCast is strongly opposed to spamming and we will make every effort to discourage the sending of spam.
10. Remove bounces from your list.
11. Don’t use the recipient’s email address in the subject line.
12. Don’t use multiple exclamation marks or dollar signs.
13. Ask recipients to add your email address to their “trusted sender” or “whitelist” list or Address Book.
14. Don’t use excessive capitalization.
15. Avoid javascript, embedded forms, and hidden text in HTML emails.
16. Prefix all links with http://
17. Don’t use an IP address in links instead of a domain name.
18. Block generic email addresses from your list (postmaster@, abuse@, nospam@, sales@, info@, webmaster@, etc.)
19. Use confirmed opt-in (ie. send a confirmation email whenever someone is added to your list).
20. Avoid using words that appear in Microsoft Outlook’s Junk Filter list.
As an email marketer, it can be difficult to sell your message as well as sail past all spam filters. By following this helpful list, you will give your campaign or newsletter the best possible chance to be delivered to the intended destination.
SimplyCast’s Interactive Marketing Suite includes:
Email Marketing | Survey Marketing | Event Marketing
Fax Marketing | SMS Marketing | AutoResponder Marketing
3 comments May 22, 2009
Kill your email marketing with spam-traps!
A spam-trap is an email address collected using automatic harvesting methods for the purpose of sending unsolicited communications. The spam-trap address is usually hidden from view by using tiny font or coding the email using the same color as the background. However, spam-trap emails are different than regular emails, if an email is sent to this address the owner of the spam-trap will process the unsolicited email and beginning a complaint process to your ESP/ISP or block your domain/IP completely.
The only way to protect yourself from falling into a spam-trap is first, ensure you follow best practices of email collection using only closed-loop double-optin confirmation process, where users must confirm their intention of receiving your email. Second, remove all hard bounces regularly to ensure you are sending to a clean and current list.
SimplyCast Email Marketing has a built-in system to automatically remove bounces from your list and the web sign-up form will automatically generate a closed-loop double-optin confirmation for each recipient.
3 comments October 20, 2008
