25 November 2010

Top Tips

Spam Proof Your Sales Patter Now

Spam is to your in-box what its over-processed namesake once was to your sorry school sandwiches.

But if you're preparing for an e-marketing campaign, spam is much more than a minor irritation. If the cyber-gods deem your latest e-marketing communication to fall into this category, the worst case scenario is that you could get blacklisted, never to be seen or heard of again on the World Wide Web.

But as is more likely, if your intended audience assigns you to their junk filter, or their anti-spam software does it as a matter of course, those sales projections you've worked hard to secure simply won't happen.

Want to stay in control and minimise the chances of it happening?

Now we're good, but we can't physically stop people from hitting the Trash key in a fit of frustration. That's a whole different ball game, and one which our copywriter, George, has dealt with in a previous Top Tips entry.

But just while we're on the subject, one way you can avoid getting your messages junked is by giving your readers a sense of power. How?

By posting a clear reminder at the top of the email explaining when and how they asked for this communication. And if you want to be doubly safe, put a reliable Unsubscribe link right next to it, so they see this long before the Junk key becomes a possibility. It's not likely that you'll provoke the magic number of Junk alerts to warrant being banned by your service provider, but by providing your recipient with a way out, there's a far better chance they'll want to do business with you some other time, if not today.

But the good news is, automated spam filters are a lot easier to hoodwink.

Test, test and test again. Your e-marketing software should allow you to test the predicted "spam score" of your e-mail.

And don't worry. One spam word, maybe even two won't be enough to make your words undeliverable. Rather than the quantity, it's all about the arrangement and combinations of certain words and phrases.

Sure, anyone can buy this kind of pre-warning system, but as with any software, the amount you spend isn't always in direct correlation to the results you'll get. It's about knowing how to unlock its potential. We know our way around our particular version like our own back gardens, so we'll get you into more mailboxes than you can shake a stick at.

But just in case you'd rather go it alone, here are the top ten words and phrases to avoid, courtesy of Dr Ralph Wilson, an e-commerce consultant, who examined the most popular spam triggers on SpamAssassin 2.43:

Reverse aging; 'hidden' assets; stop snoring; free investment; dig dirt up on friends; stock disclaimer statement; multi-level marketing; compare rates; cable converter; claims you can be removed from the list.

Others to watch out for include: Introductory; enter; sample; private; leads; stop; cash; search engine; reserved; win; free