3 Proven Techniques To Improve E-mail Delivery
The number one issue facing e-mail marketers these days is getting messages delivered. With the prevalence of more sensitive e-mail filtering software, getting more than 1 in 3 emails delivered even to your own customers can be a challenge. Here are 3 proven tactics to improve opt-in e-mail delivery and open rates;
1) Keep your subject lines short and benefit oriented
The US Law requires that subject lines are "non-deceptive" in nature so as not to be misleading in any way. Bearing that in mind, the best subject lines are the shortest and most benefit oriented. Do not include adjectives or adverbs which are too sales oriented. Words such as “free” or “save” or “discount” will often get blocked/filtered as a false-positive. The US Law requires that you display your legal company name as the FROM label (vs a personal name), and this also helps improve your open rate.
Poor subject: "Download our free comprehensive white paper on low cost SAFE and *SECURE* online storage solutions for your business!"
Issues:
- Way too long at 117 characters including spaces – should be not more than 75 characters to avoid getting cut off in e-mail programs
- "free" and even "cost" are SPAM trigger words that may cause filtering
- "comprehensive", "safe" and "secure" are adjectives that are too sales oriented, and not benefit oriented
- ALL CAPS and using extra characters and punctuation such as "*" and "!" will increase the likelihood of SPAM filtering
Good subject: "Complimentary white paper on storage solutions"
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HOT TIP: Shorter subjects get higher responses. Keep subjects under 75 characters – which prevents them from being cut off in the majority of e-mail applications such as Outlook. Subjects as short as 15 to 25 characters work best on mobile devices such as the Blackberry and iPhone. |
2) Use e-mail filter prediction software
Software
such as SPAMAssassin.org open source e-mail filter software to give your HTML e-mail a SPAM rating score of 0 to 5 – with 5 being most likely to be caught in filters. This software offers specific coding tips and modifications to allow you to lower your SPAM rating. Many hosted e-mail marketing solutions such as Savicom.net (I use this service) come loaded with SPAM Assassin software to use to test your HTML e-mails.
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HOT TIP: On average, 80% of people use "Preview Panes" in their e-mail application, so include your main offer copy and call to action in the top 2 inches of each message. Be sure to add descriptive text to the "Alt" tags on each image for those whose e-mail programs disable images as the default setting. |
3) Optimize HTML e-mail code
By keeping image size to a minimum (less than 50Kb, preferably 25Kb), and maximizing visible HTML text you can increase e-mail open rates significantly. Too many large images that contain non-coded text will raise a red flag to e-mail filters. Be sure to add descriptive "ALT Tag" text to each image you do use in case images are blocked. Test text only e-mails when sending to vertical markets who have savvy IT recipients – e.g. I always recommend sending text only e-mails to CIOs or CTOs.
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HOT TIP: Optimizing your HTML e-mail content with short subject lines, few images and over 100 words of visible text in the HTML e-mail will greatly help prevent false positive SPAM filtering. Ignoring this can reduce your response rates by up to 50% or more. |
Contact us for help on promoting your business using opt-in email. |
