And did you know that spammers can write emails that get through spam filters resulting in more aggressive spam filters and more legitimate email being rejected?
Did you know that the vast majority of spam is produced by a handful of organised crime syndicates who use it to steal your identity or create huge “Botnet” zombie systems of infected PCs that can covertly infect others they come in contact with?
Put this in the context of the meetings industry - the use of bulk email as an effective marketing tool is now seriously in doubt. Here are some tips that will help your message get through. Ignore them at your peril.
• Be extremely clear about the email content i.e. Information on the Chocolate Dippers Annual conference
• Never use a cute subject line i.e. Chocolate dippers do it better
• Never put any symbols in the subject line @!#$%^&?* or put spaces between letters to obfuscate a word and avoid these in the message body as well.
• Never send bulk mail - send each email individually using a mail merge system
• Never use BCC (blind copy) to send bulk mail
• Never use forbidden words - Dear Friend, Sir or Madam or any other opening salutation that shows you don’t know the recipient
• Any body parts - a bit hard if you are an ear, nose and throat surgeon
• Any pharmaceuticals or medications i.e. viagra, valium, drugs
• Free, guarantee, money back, lottery, offer, win, promotion, etc. Watch out for innocent pairing i.e. free gift or free lunch
• Any swear words or dubious slang words
• Words with a sexual connotation i.e. hot, foxy, young, virgin, teen, love
• Unsubscribe, opt out, opt in
• Never use a transparent or hidden giff (a one pixel image that “phones home” to tell the sender the email has been read).
• Never make the user download images from your server – this works just the same as a hidden giff. Embed the images.
• Never use a receipt request flag, even in normal emails as spammers use this to confirm the address is live.
• Don’t shout i.e. avoid multiple type faces and sizes – stick to one size for headers and one size for text.
• Never use multiple colours, in particular bright red.
• Never use multiple URL links in an email - one or two at most (this is because of the rise in phishing).
• Never use Microsoft Word to design a bulk email as its “code” is littered with enormous amounts of unnecessary HTML - use a proper HTML editor and keep the code clean and simple.
• Keep the message small and to the point. State the purpose of the email in the first paragraph.
• Always clearly identify who you are and include a name, address and phone number.
• Always use the same email sender’s name so it can be white-listed.
• Always clearly identify where the recipient’s name came from i.e. this list was provided by the Chocolate Dippers Association to advise you of their annual conference.
• Always include a way to request a “privacy flag” to avoid receiving future promotional emails (but not administrative ones).
• Always remove bounced emails from your database.
Email filters are largely based on white and black lists (who can or can’t send email) and Bayesian filters which assess the probability that an email is spam. But now so many of the forbidden words and layouts occur in normal email that these filters are becoming too aggressive and knocking out legitimate emails.
Of the 1000+ junk emails that were quarantined (in other words I did not see them) three were from prospective clients who addressed the email to Dear Sir or Madam and had innocently used some forbidden keywords like “breast cancer”, “clinical trials” or size does matter...
The best tip is write emails that are simple, to the point, contain very limited graphics and links - boring I know but why spend a fortune on designing an email that won’t be received or read? Better still, reserve the use of email for important business messages, not low cost marketing. Don’t write-off Australia Post yet as the best way to distribute your marketing message.
Ray Shaw is an accredited meeting manager (AMM), IT journalist and Chairman of Event Planners Australia. To contact him, email ray@im.com.au or visit www.eventplanners.com.au.
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