Note - 80% of all internet emails are spam.

With such a high amount of emails considered as not relevant, email clients (such as hotmail) always review an email’s content before making it available to view.

Avoid emails going into the spam filter.

A well constructed email will always contain text body content. It is possible to include links and images, but a good mix of all three is preferable. Emails that include only images or links will often find their way into a spam filter, hindering the opportunity to get the message across.

Ideally, to get through all spam filters, an email would have only text. However, in a sales environment, it’s very difficult to get your message across in such a basic format. Pictures give the recipient an idea of what you are about, or what products are being sold, links take them through to areas in your site that convert interest into revenue.

Practise

Don’t be afraid of testing you emails in different email clients (such as gmail or hotmail). For the most part these email clients are free and you can make great use of their spam filters, at no extra cost.

Julian Wilkins

When constructing your advertisement emails, it is important to remember that spam filters examine every part of an email. Additionally, emails should include ‘best practice’ components, such as ‘unsubscribe’ and ‘alt tags’ for the sight impaired.

Spam filters are making it harder and harder to send out successful email broadcasts. They consider content such as ‘free’ and ‘10% OFF’ as spammy words. Images and links can also be considered as spammy and can trigger an email as spam. These things can seriously interfere with a company’s attempt to convey its message.

Starting with the subject line.

In the subject line it’s important to avoid words that can be a spam trigger. Unfortunatly there is no definitive spam list, and common sense is the most useful tool when reviewing your content for spammy words. Avoid sales words such as ‘discounts’ and ‘offers’, which will reduce your chances of sucssessfully navigating email clients spam filters.

Interesting point.

Recently I was talking about ’spammy words’ with Skip Tidar and found his experiences most interesting. Skip gave one example of a movie by Vin Diesel called XXX, which is not a porn movie, where the email broadcaster was able to get the email through spam filters. Skip believes that even the most high risk words can get through a spam filter, if the rest of the content is low risk.

If you have to add a word that may be considered as spammy, it may be best to open some email accounts, such as gmail or hotmail. Then send your email to them, to see if you get through the spam filters.

Julian Wilkins

By our very nature, human beings are inquisitive. In fact, I would go so far as to say, it’s the reason for the success of the human race. From birth, we question almost everything we do in some way or another. How do I do this? How does that work? What will happen if I do this? Where can I find the answer to that?

Without releasing it, the computer has become an extension of our inquisitive nature, with search engines offering rafts of information on innumerable different subjects.

At the click of a button we can attain details that, hither to unknown, can be locked away in our minds & retrieved at a later time. Wiki’s make us knowledgeable, Google points us in the right direction, BBC keeps us up to date with current affairs - all at the click of a button.

Imagining a world without the internet, for many of us, would mean a world with less information. Information that we, as human beings, crave.

The internet has become one of the quickest sources of information (if not the quickest). Long may it continue.

Julian Wilkins