Have you seen this text often in websites these days?
‘I ABSOLUTELY HATE SPAM and I will NEVER rent or sell your personal
information to anyone anytime. Period’
Why do marketers use this text block at the end of opt-in form? Simple. They are afraid that their subscribers might be come forgetful and might accuse them of spamming, even though they are legitimate email marketers.
How does it affect you?
Spam is one of the most irritating words these days, especially for email marketers. It not only affects those who are at the receiving end but also those who SEND emails. To combat irritating junk spam filters of different Internet Service Providers (ISP) are outdoing each other in evolving out new ways to filter junk email. While this is good in weeding out real junk, even the legitimate email marketers are affected by it, because spam filters sometimes filter out legitimate emails as spam. So what happens is that if you have a large list and a lot of your emails are filtered out chances are that only 1% of your subscribers are reading your message.
The great ‘spam’ triggers!
While there are many words that will trigger spam filters(e.g., sexual phrases, money making opportunity),here are the most common “trigger” words that you may be using in your ezine:
*e-zine
*amazing
*cancel at any time
*check or money order
*click here
*congratulations
*dear friend
*e-mail marketing
*for only ($)
*for free
*great offer
*guarantee
*increase sales
*order now
*promise you
*risk free
*special promotion
*this is not spam
*to be removed
*unsubscribe
*winner
How to BEAT ’em
There are two ways to beat the spam filters. One is the hardest way to avoid all these “trigger” words, which I know is quite impossible.For example, when you are recommending a product to your prospects you might be tempted to use a “trigger” word like ‘great offer” or “amazing” product, both of which can trigger spam filters.
I tell you of an easier way to avoid spam filters. Your second choice is to disguise these words and phrases in clever ways by inserting keyboard symbols within them and/or replacing a letter in them with a symbol. The trick is not to make it too cryptic – you want your readers to be able to understand what you’re saying. For example, in my e-zine, I use “fr*ee” for free.
Some spam filters might penalize you for doing this in order to decrease your spam points, I can tell you that the points this tactic costs you penalize you much less than using the words and phrases themselves.
It’s always a good idea to test out your e-zine before you send it out. The good news is that you can do it for free. Before I send out any article or e-zine to my prospects, I make sure I use Lyris’s free Content Checker at rel=nofollow http://lyris.com/resources/contentchecker/ to check if my e-zine will get filtered out or not. The content checker works based on the criteria on which Spam Assassin filters out email messages. It tells that your message scores a certain number of points. If the number of points is low, then it’s good. If it’s too high, it’s time for some revision, because a high Spam Assassin point of 5 or more means that your message is doomed to be filtered out even before it reaches your subscribers.
The report will tell you exactly which words are costing you points.
Usually you should only be concerned if your score is over 5 points.If so, you can either delete those words or disguise them, as I mentioned above. Now suppose that you have checked out your message through the content checker but have found that your message has a lot of “trigger” words. Use a free tool that I recommend. All you need is just enter your article and not only does the tool format your article but also insert “special characters” within the ‘spam trigger words” so that your e-zine doesn’t get filtered.
I test and check each and every issue of my e-zine with this free content checker and formatter tool before I send out my e-zines. No wonder subscribers get to read most of my articles and promos that I send out. That’s why I’m a happy publisher.
Sidenote: Regardless of whatever tools you use, it’s still pretty important to request your subscribers to whitelist your email address or domain name. If your subscribers care about your emails, they should have no problem doing this small thing. It will ensure that even if sometimes you feel compelled to use those “trigger words” in your e-zine, your e-zine will still reach your subscriber’s inbox. For more information, [adrotate banner=”37″]