WATCH THESE FACTS ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA
Welcome to the world of Socialnomics!
How do Spam Filters work?
Avoid having your Email Campaigns Junked If you are sending emails or newsletters often, you will likely come across a spam filter issue. On average, you can expect 10-20% of the sent emails to be lost on the web, and most are due to militant spam filters. Many innocent campaigns, whose lists are subscribed too, can often end up in junk mail, or never be received. You don’t have to be e a spammer to be spam-filtered.
There is no quick fix, but getting to understand how they work is the best way to avoid spam filters in the future.
Spam filters have a long check list from which is used to evaluate your email as junk or safe email. For example, a “spam-like” phrases like "CLICK HERE!" or "FREE! BUY NOW!" can be flagged as spam, where they assign points every time they see one of those phrases. Your email will be evaluated like a report card, based on points. If you fail, you go to jail, and off to the junk folder. Certain criteria get more points than others.
Here's a sample of criteria:Talks about lots of money (.193 points)
Describes some sort of breakthrough (.232 points)
Looks like mortgage pitch (.297 points)
Contains urgent matter (.288 points)
Money back guarantee (2.051 points)
Why Pay More? (1.249 points)
If your email campaign's total "spam report" exceeds a certain quota, your email is directed to the junk folder. So then, what is the spam score you need to stay under? That is not so simple as the threshold is different for every server, and is determined by the individual who installed the spam filter software. If the person is intolerant of spam, and they set the filter very low, then jJust about anything can get spam filtered.
Furthermore, the list of "spammy" criteria is constantly growing and changing because the filters are adapting and learning what “junk mail” is every time someone clicks on the "This is spam" button in their email program. Spam filters also sync-up with other spam filters online, and share what they've learned. This is why there is no magic equation.
Avoid these common mistakes
These are the most common mistakes we see new email marketers make, which result in accidental spam filtering. Using spammy phrases, like "Click here!" or "Once in a lifetime opportunity!"Going crazy with exclamation points!!!!!!USING ALL CAPS, WHICH IS LIKE YELLING IN EMAIL (especially in the subject)
Coloring their fonts bright red, or green. Coding sloppy HTML (usually from converting a Microsoft Word file to HTML) Creating an HTML email that's nothing but one big image, with little or no text (since spam filters can't read images, they assume you're a spammer that's trying to trick 'em).Using the word "Test" in the subject line (agencies run into this all the time, when sending drafts to clients for approval)
Sending a test to multiple recipients within the same company (that company's email firewall can only assume it's a spam attack)Designing HTML email in Microsoft Word, and exporting the code to HTML (that code is sloppy, and spam filters hate it)How can I tell if my emails were spam filtered? In order to understand if your email campaign is ending up in recipients' junk folders look at your open rates. If it suddenly dropped from your average, you likely have a filter problem.
For those who are new to all this,, 20-30% is a rough open rate average.Also, very high bounce rates also indicate spam filters as the source. Just look over your hard bounces, and read the SMTP replies. Spam filters sometimes leave little clues about why they blocked your campaignMost established email marketing services (like Wikads softare) has been accepted into feedback loops with Internet Service Providers like AOL, Netzero, MSN, Hotmail etc.. When a receiver clams or reports an email as spam, the alarm is sent to the sending server as a warning.
Wikads receives these alarms and makes a record of them under your account, so you will know how the number of people reporting your emails as spam.Check your email before you send it! Wikads newsletter software already comes with a spam checker, and since Wikads newsletters are managed by our professional email marketers, you have nothing to worry about behind the scenes. rds, plus all the other "behind the scenes" stuff that spam filters look for (like image weight, and HTML coding errors).Likely the best advice we can offer to new email marketing businesses is test your emails, check the junk folders and see for yourself what is being picked up by the filters by trial and error.
