Why not to spam?
The biggest problem with spamming is that no body reads a spam mail. When people see thousands of unwanted mails in their mailbox they just select all and delete them. They don't bother to check even the subject line of the mail. This is probably worst part of email marketing, besides the regular bashing by internet users.
You spent lots time in preparing the perfect content and designing a fabulous structure for your email, but just because of few mistakes your perfect email, that you thought would fetch you more customers, branded you as a spammer and now even your business emails are considered spam. We know that you never want this to happen to you. So what can you do about it? Is their any solution for this problem?
We say yes there is a solution. But first you need to accept the fact that 70% of internet users receiving your email will get irritated, 10% will get angry because they receive tons of such mails everyday, 10% of the internet users will just ignore your mail so you are left with only 10% of the internet users who will open up your mail and give a glance to it. Now you cannot change that 70% irritated users and 10% angry users they will just delete your mail.
HEY THAT IS NOT BAD, you still have got 20% who may read and probably take interest in your mail. So how to make those ignorant receivers read your mail, for this you need to concentrate on subject line of your email becausesubject is first thing that receiver will read. Subject Line of your email should explain the content and motive of your email in a precise and to the point manner, by just reading the subject user should be able to get the whole picture of your email. If you are able to do this you have won 1/4 battle. But there are also some "never to do" things with email subject lines.
Some of them are - do not use these words "FREE", "Adult", "Pleasure", "Cash", "$", "Mortgage", "Act Now", "Adv", "Click Here", "Rich", "Guarantee", "Wealthy", "Satisfaction", "Fast", "100%", "Amazing", "Congratulations", "No Risk", "Foreclosure", "Order now" etc in your subject line.
Avoid an inappropriate, vague or misleading subject line. Be very clear about what’s in your email starting with the subject line. Any subject that does not immediately register in the recipient’s mind is a candidate for instant elimination. Avoid subject lines which do not have any thing to do with the context of email. Such as these subject line - “I was checking you out the other day” “Electronic Funds Transfer – Approval Required” “Order Confirmation 0184923”
And don't be too smart in prefixing "FW:" or "RE:" to you email subject lines. Nowadays spam filter are much more intelligent than you. This may be harsh but its fact.
Ok now lets come to the body part of email. Once your subject line has succeeded in making your receiver to open the mail. The body should be good enough to make him/her read the email and take interest in the opportunity offered by you. There are few rules to be followed while designing email body.
- don't get too personal. Make your email look reasonable, over freindliness will make your reader suspicious about you.
- Always mention your postal address, website URL and your relationship with the website in the email. Reader will feels more confident if the email has got website URL and a contact address.
- Make your offer clear do not disguise any facts. Like offering a 1500$ item for 100$, these thing makes reader loose interest in your mail. We recommend you that rather than writing everything in your mail you should try to make the reader visit your website home or a URL related to the offer. This has got many benefits like you will have a new visitor on your site. May be he/she finds some thing else of interest on the site. So try to make your email reader visit you website.
- You can design an email full of flashy html and images. But emails with too much of HTML are bound to be branded as spam. So make your email plain and simple. Use basic fonts which are available on most the systems.
Ok That's all we have to say. By following some simple rules and by avoiding certain things you can make a success with email marketing.
Ahhhh!!! You remember those 80% irritated and angry receivers of your email. Well they will not do any good things for you but they certainly can do lots of bad things. So always respect their choice to opt out. If they say you, Please do not send any mails to me. Then you should not send mails to them or else you will be in trouble. Also always provide a properly working Opt Out mechanism in your emails. Like "Unsubscribe links" etc.