Once upon a time, it was easy to email total strangers.  All you needed was their email address.  Most people would give you their email addresses and were excited to hear from you, even if you were sending a marketing letter.   Times have changed.  People are inundated with spam, scams, and more.

If your business relies on sales or leads through the internet, your mailing list is a critical part of your business.  It is common to have thousands of email addresses in your marketing database.  If you are sending emails to your list, you need to know that the people on your mailing list are actually receiving your email.  This affects your newsletters, account notices, and personal emails.   You want to be able to contact your customers.  How do you break through the spam filters and reach your clients?

So what is the problem?

Every spam filter program uses a complex set of rules to filter out spam.   The rules keep getting stricter, so more emails end up in the spam folder than ever.  Users rarely go through their spam folder looking for emails.  If they do, then they can white list your address.

It is more than just convincing your customers to "want" to read your emails.  You have to make sure they will actually receive your email in their inbox.  You cannot count on them to do this on their own.

NOTE:  If you use a spam filter, please go through your spam folder periodically and add any valid senders to your white list or to your address book.  Spam filters will not block anyone from your address book.

The Solution

There are several methods for improving your delivery to your clients.  Choose any, or all, of these strategies based on your own needs.

Use a Newsletter Service - Newsletter services have already taken the necessary steps to comply with the CAN-SPAM act and have already had their mail servers added to the white lists on all the major internet providers.  This helps with newsletters.  You will still want to take extra steps to ensure your other emails are making it all the way into the inbox.

Choose Your Words Carefully - Search engines look for emails with web addresses in the message, the word "free", graphics, and other triggers.  To make sure your email is getting delivered, create a test email account on Yahoo.com, MSN,com, hotmail.com, gmail.com, aol.com, and other major domains.  Enable spam filtering on those accounts.  Send a test email to those accounts and see what happens.  Do not add your sending address to those address books or white lists.  The object is to use that test to determine what words to put in your email so that it gets delivered to your list.

Instruct Your Visitors to White List You - Display a message on your site that tells users how to white list emails.  Basic instructions that simply say, "Add the following address to your white list," will usually do the trick.  Most users will follow that advice.  Send them the same info in your very first email to them.  Be sure the very first email to them has a subject line that encourages them to open that first email.

TAG Your Subject Line - Every email from your newsletters and account management services should include a tag in the subject line.  This makes it easy for them to identify your email.  I like to put square brackets around the tag.  Emails from my newsletter service might say, [AI News].  Then instruct people to watch for that tag in the subject line.

White List Your Own Address - Most people do not know this, but you can actually get white listed at the major email services.  They all have a process.  You can go to each of the major email providers, fill in a form, make a few promises, and they will add you to the list of white listed senders.  You will have to promise to comply with the CAN-SPAM act.  It is important that you learn the requirements and follow them carefully.  It is not difficult.

The bottom line is that email is a permission-based marketing system, but permission is not enough.  You need to educate them so that they actually receive your emails.  You need to know that email is NOT a reliable delivery system.  Never assume your emails get to the recipient.    If you have something important to say, you should put the important message on the web page and then you can programmatically determine who read the message and who did not.