Email marketing is becoming an important aspect of businesses today, and along with this comes a very important and necessary task: Spam proofing.  It is already hard enough to grab the attention and retain interest of potential prospects, but making sure your marketing material is actually received by the intended audience is an important aspect of compiling an effective marketing email.  Email receivers are well prepared and protected against spam and fraudulent emails as they should be, but this just means that you need to be extra careful that you aren’t labeled as a spammer and to make sure that your marketing emails enter the inboxes and not the spam folder.  I have listed some ways to make sure you are effectively carrying out your email marketing campaigns, making sure they are reaching the intended audience:

  1. Create Clean Subject Lines – This is what the reader first sees and has the most impact on whether they even open the email or not.  The subject line needs to be professional, and avoiding words that are catchy and “pitchy” are important because they are easily recognized by spam filters.  Avoid using all capital letters as well as words like “free” or “buy.”
  2. Clean Content – Keeping the content clean is just as important as keeping the subject line clean.  The tone and style should be in a professional manner, and avoid using too many images, it is very easy for spam filters to when there are too many images.  Also, plain text is the best option.  Be sure to include your company information at the bottom so that the reader can visit your site.
  3. Make it Visually Appealing – This doesn’t mean add crazy pictures with outrageous font, but this means keep it professional and make sure the content flows, keep it short and sweet, and make sure the call-to-action is easily recognizable.  Just ask yourself, “It is exactly what I had in mind?”
  4. Give a Choice – It is important to always give your readers a choice whether to opt out of your emails.  Be respectful, you don’t want to deal with angry consumers and possible lawsuits.

Author: Michael Whartnaby, Prospectr Marketing