smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

When you launch an email marketing campaign you are competing against a great number of other emails for attention in the mailbox. As well as legitimate emails you also compete with a huge number of spam email promotions. In fact, studies have shown that around 65 per cent of all emails sent are spam emails.

It’s no surprise then that everybody is fed up with spam and now businesses and individuals are doing something about it. In a lot of cases, they are setting up spam filters to get rid of the junk.

Spam filters can be used straight out of the box or set up to prescribed tolerances.  As a result, an email that gets through one spam filter may not get through another.  
Here are some helpful design tips to consider when you are putting your email campaign together that will help stop your communication being junked by spam filters:

•    A professionally designed email with the correct HTML code throughout will ensure your email looks its best in all browsers and you will avoid high spam scores for bad coding.

•    Make sure your email doesn’t have any missing or redundant code.

•    Don’t miss out the email title.

•    Spell everything correctly.

•    Ensure your email is not created solely as images. This is a well know tool that spammers use to get past content filters.  Try to get a good mix of HTML text and images in your emails for the best results.

•    Always send a plain text version with your HTML email to ensure that if the recipient cannot use HTML or is opening it on a PDA or phone, they will still be able to view it.

•    Always try to ensure the plain text version matches the HTML version as closely as possible.

•    NEVER USE CAPITALS when you don’t have too. It’s even worse when whole lines are in capitals.

•    Avoid using italics and very large fonts.

•    Avoid using non standard colours.

•    Avoid forms in the email itself.

The text that makes up your email copy is also very important. Some words on their own or in conjunction with others can cause serious spam implications. Below are examples of words and phrases to avoid:

•    Dear Friend – either personalise properly or use Sir/Madam.

•    Free – Free offer, Free trial, Free application, Free sample, Free access, Free anything can cause spam problems, especially when used in capitals.

•    No obligation.

•    No risk, low risk, risk free.

•    "Click here" or "click below".

•    Order now.

•    No catch.

•    Money back guarantee.

•    Click to be removed.

•    Have you been turned down?

•    Never mention spam or spam legislation in your emails.

Finally, we recommend running your email through a spam checker that will tell you if your email will be considered spam or not.  You should also set up test accounts at commonly used email sites such as Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL to see if your email comes through into the inbox or the spam box.

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