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Time for a pop quiz!
What's the biggest challenge that spam poses for permission marketers?
1. Recipients who can't tell the difference between you as a sender and spammers who send them unsolicited or junk email.
2. Recipients who can't find your email if it gets rerouted to their junk mail folders or buried under spam in their in-boxes.
Answer:
Assuming they give affirmative consent (the U.S. government standard, meaning they actively opt in to your mailings, not just leave a prechecked box unchanged), today's consumers are usually savvy enough to recognize email with your name on it.
In fact, a new survey from the Pew Internet & American Life project shows that though Americans say they are still getting spam in their home and work inboxes, they are less likely to let it affect their email habits and trust (see the full report with statistics).
For true permission marketers, the challenge comes later in your relationship. If you don't send your first email until weeks after the opt-in date, and if that email goes into the junk folder or gets buried under spam in the inbox, your recipients likely will never see it.
That's your big challenge. You know your recipients want to hear from you, because they've asked to be put on your mailing list. Now, how do you make sure your email stands out from the spam crowd?
Here's a list of best practices that have proved to work for other emailers:
1. Get permission (the affirmative consent mentioned above).
It all starts with permission. Be transparent in your subscription process:
1. Don't load forms (order blanks, whitepaper downloads, site registrations, other info requests) with prechecked boxes that force users to remove the check if they don't want to be on your list. A New York state court ruled several years ago in a spam lawsuit that prechecked boxes don't constitute permission.
2. Explain your email privacy policy briefly at sign-up and link directly to your full policy.
2. Use the confirmed/double opt-in process.
While you will see some drop-off during this two-step process, the second step ensures that only those people who truly want your emails will opt in. These subscribers usually are more active and bring higher value.
3. Manage expectations.
Tell potential subscribers how often they will receive emails and what the messages will contain. Provide a sample they can review, such as your most recent offer, newsletter or announcement.
4. Welcome newcomers as soon as they confirm.
This is especially important for marketers who send infrequently. If you let a month lapse between an opt-in time and your next mailing, your newest subscribers are more likely to forget they opted in and to assume you are spamming them.
Send newcomers a welcome email with more information on your email program and value, links to resources and subscription-management details: how to unsubscribe, update their preferences/profile, etc.
Consider sending a survey or your most recent mailing to introduce your "from" and subject lines and content approach.
5. "Add to address book" language.
Include a phrase at the top of your email such as: "Add newsletter@companyx.com to your address book." While no one has researched how often this helps get email routed to the inbox rather than the junk folder, it has become a standard best practice and reminds subscribers to take this step.
This device also helps to make sure the recipient's email client will automatically display images. More email clients today block or disable images by default unless the sender's address is on the approved list or the recipient manually changes the setting. This can make sure your message goes to the inbox rather than the junk or quarantine folder.
6. Design for preview pane and disabled images.
Most marketers have yet to design the tops of their emails for preview panes and the growing use of images being disabled.
Here are four quick fixes:
1. Include teaser text at the top of your email -- such as a brief list of headlines or contents.
2. Develop a new masthead made up of HTML colors and text, rather than one that is image-based.
3. Use descriptive "alt" tags on all your images, though with many email clients they too won’t appear if images are disabled.
4. Test your email in a preview pane. Is anything there? Redo it so that it provides enough teaser information to help someone decide whether to open the email.
7. Use a consistent, plain-English "from" or sender name.
Use your company or mailing name -- they are logical and trusted. Also use an easily identified "from" address such as newsletter@companyx.com. Some email clients only display the "from" address and not the name. Don't use a person’s name as the sender unless the name itself is a strong, identifiable brand.
The EmailLabs Resource Center has a free tool that shows you how major email clients and ISPs render your "from" and subject lines.
8. Brand subject lines.
Email recipients use various means to scan their inboxes for wanted emails, by the "from" name, the subject lines or a combination of both, or by what they can see in a preview pane.
So, make it easier for them by providing secondary branding in your subject lines. If your "from" name is "CompanyX," then the subject line might include "{CompanyX News}" or {Name of Newsletter}."
We like using brackets { } because they are another way to help your email stand out in the inbox without triggering spam filters.
We don't like the super-safe approach, which uses the issue number (Volume 4, Issue 3) or month/date (June 2005) (The Intevation Report, May 23, 2005), etc. in subject lines. It does nothing to interest the subscriber in actually opening the email. That is, after all, what subject lines are supposed to do.
9. Don’t over-email.
A sure-fire way to provoke recipients into seeing you as a spammer is to send them too many emails in too short a time. If you tell subscribers they’ll receive three to four emails a month, don’t send seven.
Also, larger companies must coordinate mailings from divisions and departments. You don't want different branches of your company emailing the same individual multiple times a day.
Use frequency limiters, which enable marketers to limit how many separate emails can be sent to individuals in a certain time period. This service is usually offered mainly by full-feature email service providers such as EmailLabs.
10. Include an administrative box in your emails.
We’ve nicknamed this concept the "Email Admin Center." Whatever you call it, include a box or distinct area (in the same location in each email, probably at the end) with as much of the following information as you can provide:
> How to unsubscribe or change preferences, with a link to the preference page on your site
> The email address you are sending to
> Your postal mailing address (CAN-SPAM requirement)
> Contact information
> How and when the recipient subscribed
> Brief description of and link to your full privacy policy.
This admin center helps your subscribers update preferences and contact you, which boosts their trust in you and helps keep them on your list longer. It also provides greater transparency and instills additional trust that your email is legitimate and one they asked to receive.
11. Work to get more email delivered to the inbox.
Emails filtered to bulk or spam folders are much less likely to be opened. You can boost your delivery rate -- both getting email delivered into the ISP and getting it routed to the inbox instead of the bulk folder -- with a variety of techniques, such as email authentication, HTML code verification, whitelisting, bounce management and more.
That, however, is a whole different topic from this month's concentration on making your email stand out in a crowded inbox. If you want to know more now, though, you'll find plenty of helpful articles and tips in our Resource Center, including our Delivery and ISP Relations related articles.
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