IAB Releases Guidelines for Email Deliverability - How to Avoid Looking Like Spam
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Those of you who read Akinola Akintomide's recent two-part article series here on SEO Chat will find much that is familiar here. Interestingly enough, what the IAB advocates sounds very much like what Spamhaus advocates as the right way to send bulk email. The key point is that most of the issues that keep your email from being delivered are things you can fix yourself. These issues center around complaints, content, unknown users, server configuration, and spam traps.
Take spam traps, for instance. If you want to avoid that problem, you need to keep your email lists scrubbed and up to date. While what counts as an "old" email address will vary depending on your field, if an address has not opened or clicked on an email from you in the past 90 days, it should probably be removed from your list. You want to use a double opt-in system anyway, and send welcome messages to new subscribers. If any of those emails bounce, or you get complaints, remove those subscribers immediately.
As for your content, you need to make sure that your prospects really want to see it. You can do that by telling them very clearly what to expect when they sign up for your newsletter, including size, frequency, and what kind of material you'll cover. You also need to make sure that your content is unlikely to trigger a spam filter. Email delivery service providers can test your messages in a spam lab. You can also test them yourself by sending them to emails that use some of the most common filters. Remember, it's not just use of the word "free" that will trigger the filters. They're a lot more sophisticated these days, but that doesn't prevent false positives.
The unknown user issue can get you into trouble with ISPs. If you get a lot of "unknown user" errors when you send out a mass emailing, that's enough to make ISPs block email from your domain. This is another case where keeping your mailing list current and using a double opt-in subscriber sign up will serve you well.
You need to make sure your technical department knows how to configure your servers correctly so that your email doesn't get blocked. You must have a reverse DNS record, for instance. There are other rules covering authentication, relays and proxies; break those and ISPs will ban your email without a second thought.
Finally, the issue of complaints is really the largest because you need to do so much to make sure you have consent from your prospects. Plus, the majority of email users think the "spam" button is for unsubscribing (that's actually a legitimate approach with real spam, because a true spammer treats an "unsubscribe" request as a sign that the email address is active). Make sure your unsubscribe link works, and handle all unsubscribe requests promptly, before the next mailing. Double opt-in lists will get you fewer users who complain or unsubscribe; the approach leaves you with a smaller list, but it's worth it to be sure your email is getting through to users who really want to see it.
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