1. Spam ‘STOP’ words and delivery rates. Ok, there’s always someone in the office who says “we shouldn’t use the word ‘performance’ or ‘free’ in the subject line of the email because it will get treated as spam”. Don’t get caught up in such angst, email filters have gotten smarter and  ISPs have moved away from content based spam filtering in favor of reputation based filtering. In other words, the sending IP address and the ‘from’ email address are more important than whether or not your email contains certain words.
   



2. Don’t send too little or too often: You know this from personal experience, if it seems like you’re getting regular email from a vendor or organisation that you are not directly working with you get tired of it – right? Seems like spam and you want it to go away – unsubscribe. On the other hand if you don’t send  regularly enough, maybe once every three months, you can get the same result. The trick is identifying, through testing, unsubscribe rates and identifing the optimal balance between over and under mailing your customers and prospects.
3. White List Prompt: If you want your subscribers to add you to their white list, you need to ask. Not everyone will add you but some will and this will ensure that those who care most about receiving your email get it.
4. Easy Unsubscribe: Make it easy for people to unsubscribe, if someone doesn’t want to receive your emails that’s their right and they will take the time to look for that ‘unsubscribe’ link or button – if you make it difficult for them you will just make them annoyed with you, your company – don’t acrue bad feeling toward your brand – make it easy and hopefully they’ll be back.
5. Keep the Good Stuff on Top: Remember that many email clients will obscure a large portion of your email unless the user scrolls down. Make sure the top 400 pixels grab the attention of your readers.

Part two next week….