Are Your Business E-mail Spammy?

Spammy e-mails get rejected by servers, returned to senders or inadvertently deleted. But when I mention to clients that they need to implement certain details or don’t want (or need) to do certain things in their e-mail so as to avoid being misidentified as spam, they ignore my advice in lieu of doing what they want anyway. Regardless of the ramifications. All for things that have nothing to do with communicating with clarity and professionalism, in fact many times it is quite the opposite. All to often simply because they don’t want to make the minuscule effort to have all the bases covered.

When we are advised of the things we need to consider to avoid having our e-mails get blocked (and be viewed as more professional in the process), we need to embrace this information as it is not one person’s advice, idea or opinion. It is a fact that if you do spammy things, your e-mail risks being blocked by networks both public and private.

Today, I had two clients who I’ve discussed these issues with many times over the years, basically state they didn’t really care about my advice and they will “take their chances.” To risk opportunity in hopes of their competitors lacking the same level of tech savvy is simply not smart business. If they are wrong, what will happen when their competitors e-mails make it through to the intended recipients and theirs do not?

Here is an article on the topic that I posted back in May as a reminder so you can make sure you aren’t sending spamming e-mails and therefore risking lost opportunity.

How To Avoid Looking Spammy

Adding to Your Mailing List: Ask BEFORE You Add!

Your mailing list of e-mail addresses that you use to send mass e-mails has to be managed carefully, respectfully and with courtesy.

Because you communicate briefly with a new acquaintance on a forum doesn’t mean you automatically add them to your business promotional e-mail list. New contacts met at a business function are not to be automatically added to your e-mail blasts either. The only reason to add these new contact’s to your list is if you specifically discussed the topic of doing so and they showed interest.

Simply because you communicate with someone once or twice doesn’t mean they should be added to your group mailing list. That makes you a spammer! Then, add insult to injury by putting their address in the To: field with all the other folks you know but they don’t and you’ve just shown a complete lack of consideration for their privacy. You need to use the BCc: field when e-mailing a group of onliners so you don’t expose their addresses to strangers.

Never assume that someone you just met will automatically want to receive mass e-mails from you about your business or anything else for that matter. If a person doesn’t specifically give you permission to be added to your mailings, you should not add them — period.

When it comes to forming new relationships and long term business partnerships, sending mass e-mails to someone new can cause them to distance themselves from you moving forward. In business, adding new contacts to your e-mail blasts, newsletters or e-zines without their specific permission to do so can cause them to decide to not do business with you. You’ll know this to be the case when you receive their unsubscribe request shortly after they receive your mailing.

Ask before you add!

Are You Spammy?

Many times e-mails do not get through to their intended party because they are spammy. Meaning that there are elements in the e-mail that are spam-like and typical of what spammers do when sending their unasked for junk.

Many onliners and businesses alike when sending out e-mails or in-house created newsletters, neglect to take into consideration these issues which can deny their e-mail the best chance of being received.

Typical things such as word choice and formatting of the To:, From: and Subject: fields as well as the body of your message can unknowingly have elements that cause delivery problems. Becoming aware of what you shouldn’t be doing can increase your receipt rate exponentially.

Here is a simple checklist that you need to consider so that your e-mails are not mistakenly viewed as spam and deleted or returned before read:

• Always include an appropriate, short and accurate SUBJECT:. Leaving the Subject: field blank is spammy. Many times spam does not have a SUBJECT: or it is malformed without appropriate text. Many email programs auto delete subjectless e-mail to Junk/Trash. You also want to avoid using the words: stuff, hello, hi, help or new as these terms may trigger spam filters.
• Type your subject with appropriate capitalization and structure. All small case or all caps gives the impression of being spam, (or that you are lazy and lack education — neither is good).
• Refrain from using common terms abused by spammers in your subject and/or first paragraph of your email. You know what they are – you see them every day. Many spam filters track these terms and may inadvertently send your e-mail right to Trash.
• Make sure your name is formally displayed in the FROM: field. Example: Jane A. Doe is correct. All lower case or lack of punctuation here indicates the lack of online savvy typical of spammers and that your e-mail could be spam.
• Refrain from using any formatting just for the sake of doing so. Formatting text into fancy fonts, colors or bolding will trigger spam filters when combined with some of these other red flags.
• Do not embed background graphics, logos, your photo or other gratuitous files in your e-mail. This is a huge red flag as that is how viruses can propagate! E-mails are not meant to be a business brochure.
• When using any sort of spam software or filtering system, before you purge your trash, it doesn’t hurt to take a quick peak to see if any email is in fact from folks you know or recognize whose email was deemed spammy.

So don’t look spammy! Communicate with the written word rather than relying on formatting, and point folks to your Web site for any graphics you want them to view.

You can’t state that you hate spam, but then do spammy things in your e-mail that then causes your e-mail to be returned or blocked. You can’t complain about spam, then complain when ISPs, networks and software are identifying the typical signs of spammers and by you doing the same, your e-mails get deleted with the rest of the spam.

You may not like these guidelines, I hear how “unfair” they are all the time, but in a day when spammers are abusing networks and causing a strain on resources, which in the end the cost gets passed on to us — the consumers, it is in your best interest to use e-mail as the communication tool it was meant to be — sans all the fluff.

By keeping the above issues in mind, you have the best chance of you day-to-day communications getting to the intended person on the other side.

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