Dear Colleague
A long-ish eTip, but still only grazing the surface of a big subject!
Robin Houghton
|
|
From the Eggblogg ... |
|
Is boasting important for business? |
|
Time to be less backwards in coming forward.
Read the full story...
|
|
Things we've read... |
|
Virgin lands in the rough |
How Virgin turned an email gaffe around, without too many blushes.
Read the full story...
|
|
Social Media isn't a free lunch
|
Unfortunately it all comes down to putting in the effort.
Read the full story...
|
|
Introducing Flock, a social media browser
|
|
Very nice alternative to Internet Explorer.
Read more here ...
|
|
Spam turns 30
|
|
How the first spam message went down.
Read the full story here ...
|
|
Where did our emails go?
If you've been email marketing for more than a year or two you've probably noticed that the percentage of emails not reaching their destination is going up.
Legitimate email marketers need to know a few basic things about spam filters. This is a complex issue, but as with cars you can be a competent driver without knowing what goes on under the bonnet/hood!
'Spam filter' is a general term covering a large number of gateways, both electronic and human. As your mail travels from sender to receiver, there are myriad ways and reasons it might get stopped. For example:
1) lack of authentication - responsible ISPs try to stop email that's not coming from who it says it's coming from. Spammers go to great lengths to make themselves untraceable, but the innocent email marketer who fails to identify him- or herself, even if only out of ignorance, can fall foul of ISP filters. Worth doing: have consistent and genuine 'from' and 'return' addresses, and if you use an email service provider set up an SPF record on your DNS. More about that here.
2) spammy practices - this used to be just about what words you used in the subject line and body of the email, but the algorithms used by ISPs have gained in sophistication in an effort to reduce the number of 'false positives' (genuine mail getting stopped) and to combat the spammers. It's the combination of 'red flag' issues that counts rather than individual practices per se. Nevertheless, worth doing: try not to make the email image-dominated, don't send email with images as attachments, and avoid IP address links in the body (eg http://190.877.211.2/landing_page.html) as they can be flagged up as possible phishing attempts.
3) sender not known to recipient or domain blacklisted - whitelisting or 'trusted sender' status can be the passport through, whether it has been agreed at ISP level or set up by the recipient. For example, reputable email service providers like Sign-Up.To have agreements in place with the major UK ISPs, which give reassurances that mail coming from their servers is 100% opt in.
4) stopped by the firewall. Even if mail has made it this far, many large organisations will have in place stringent rules about what email is or is not allowed through. If you plan to email a large number of people at one domain it may be worth seeking out a whitelisting agreement first. I've had the experience of trying to email schools on behalf of a client, only to have a 96% bounce rate! Several conversations later it was resolved.
5) spam filtering software is very common and it often comes bundled with a security suite or email client programme. In this case it's up to the individual to configure it, so very often it stays on a default setting. Users of webmail clients can also set preferences but many don't. The best thing is to ask to be added to the recipient's address book or trusted senders' list. This means it's unlikely to be delivered to the 'junk' folder.
|
