Chapter Twenty-Eight

Navigating the “Spam Trigger” Minefield

By Ben Hart

I have given you a break from the email delivery challenge to get into the really interesting material – which is marketing strategy and the content of your messages.

Unfortunately, there is still more I must mention about increasing delivery of your emails – because we really cannot develop our marketing messages without one eye, at least, on avoiding the “spam triggers.”

Think of the “spam triggers” as like a minefield that we marketers must learn to navigate.

It’s impossible for an email marketer to completely avoid the spam triggers in your email communications.  But you should be aware of the bigger triggers so your can reduce your spam-alert score.  As in golf, a low score here is good.

Here are some of the triggers spam filters use to identify possible spam.

1) All-caps in your email messages.

The spam filters see all caps in messages as evidence of a commercial offer and screaming at the reader.  Try to minimize ALL CAPS – especially in subject lines.

2) A lot of graphics in your HTML emails.

Graphics signal commercial offer, and not an important personal message from a friend.

3) Commercial or marketing words and phrases.

Words to avoid if possible in your email messages include:

“Free”

“Last Chance”

Discussion of money

dollar signs

“millions of” something

“Discount”

“Value”

“Deadline”

“Expires on”

“% off” or “percent off”

“Bonus”

“Gift”

Exclamation points

“Supplies Limited”

“Toll-Free”

“Call Now”

“Order Now”

“Register”

“Privacy” . . . as in “We respect your privacy”

“Respond”

“Fill Out”

Add to this list all the words and phrases you often see in advertising and marketing copy.

While you certainly want to be aware of these marketing and selling words that trigger the anti-spam police, you also don’t want to so cramp your copywriting that your messages end up having no impact. 

If I am offering an attractive “FREE Bonus Gift” to anyone who opens and answers my email (a tactic I use a lot) I will often put this offer right in the subject line, sometimes with FREE in ALL CAPS.

Now, the spam filters will certainly be on full alert when they see a subject line like this.

But I also find that a no-holds barred subject-line like this delivers tremendous results for me – even if a higher percentage of my emails get blocked or snagged by the spam police.

In other words, a strong offer and powerful attention-getting copy still trumps the spam filters . . . and probably always will.

In addition, if you take all other steps I describe here to increase your email delivery, you can get away with writing just about anything.  If your readers have confirmed their subscription, if they have put you in their email address book and on their list of preferred senders, they should be receiving your emails.

4) Java script and sophisticated coding in your email

Avoid putting forms, recorded messages, video or flash presentations in your emails. Take readers to a web page for that.  Email is not the place for your razzle-dazzle presentations.  In addition to complex coding being a spam trigger, this is just poor marketing because many of your readers are set up to read text-only, or the simplest HTML.  For elaborate presentations, use a link to take your reader to a web page.

5) Tracking code in your emails

If you have code in your HTML emails that track open rates and click-through rates, or your affiliate marketing efforts, that’s evidence of possible spam.  But tracking is so useful and essential to my marketing that I take this risk.  I want to know if people are receiving, opening and clicking through on my emails. 

6) Large Font

Big fonts signal headlines and commercial offer to the spam filters, not personal email. A size three font is considered a normal size for email by the spam filters. Size four is borderline.

7) Font that is very small

Yup, you are also punished if you use a font that is too small.  Small print signals disclaimer language and other legal mumbo jumbo you see in commercial offers.  Uneven font sizes in your email is a trigger and can add a higher spam likelihood to your score.

8) Red Text

Red text is evidence of a commercial offer; also evidence of screaming at your reader.  Red text registers higher on the spam alert meter than big font size.

9) The “unsubscribe” link that you must have in your marketing emails.

Yup, that too is a spam trigger, even though you must include it with your broadcast email communications.  The “unsubscribe” link signals that this is marketing broadcast email – and possible spam.  Nothing you can do about this. 

10) Links in your email.

You can’t avoid having links in your email if you are engaging in ecommerce.  Just know that it’s a trigger.

11) Mentioning CAN-SPAM and spam law compliance.

You might think you are being honest and forthright by boasting of your strict compliance with anti-spam laws and other best email marketing practices.  But this can raise your score on the spam alert meter – a bad thing.

12) Undeliverable email addresses.

If a significant portion of your emails have bad addresses and are not deliverable, this is evidence of spam. This is something AOL and Yahoo pay special attention to.  Keep your email list clean.  A great way to do this is periodically to ask your readers to “confirm” their subscription to your e-newsletter or ezine.    Or, even better, include a link that says “Confirm Your Subscription” at the very top of each issue of your enewsletter.

Further Steps You Can Take

To Increase Delivery of Your Emails

1) Use BlackListMonitor.com to monitor blacklists

The ISPs maintain “blacklists” of suspected spammers and share them with other ISPs.  If you are a big email marketer with tens of thousands of opt-in subscribers, it’s getting easier to find yourself on a “blacklist” even if you are not spamming.

A few complaints from malcontents can land you on a “blacklist.”

For about $89 a year, www.BlackListMonitor.com will send you report alerting you as to whether you are on any ISP “blacklists” so that you can take corrective action to have your emails delivered again.  In this case, “what you don’t know” really can kill you in the email marketing arena.

In the event you find yourself on some blacklists, steps to take include contacting the ISP that’s blacklisted you.  The trouble here is that ISPs share their blacklists with each other.  So once you are blacklisted by one ISP, you’ll be blacklisted by many ISPs.

In that unfortunate circumstance, you might need to change your email identity.  You might need to use a different email address, change the name of your company, use a differerent email broadcast service that originates from a different server and different IP address, and perhaps move your website to a new domain name.

The best path is to take all steps to reduce the likelihood of being blacklisted.

Requiring “double-opt-in” or “subscription confirmation” will not only reduce complaints, but will allow you to prove to the ISPs that you are not a spammer . . . because you’ll be able to show them the IP address of all your subscribers, along with time stamps for when each subscription came in. 

And just make sure you remove every complainer and malcontent from your list. 

Never start fights with the complainers on your list.  Just get them off your list.  And always be respectful and polite, even with the malcontents, no matter how rude they are.  Don’t respond with wisecracks.  Just get them off your list.

But if you are blacklisted by an ISP somewhere, you want to know about it so you can take emergency corrective action.  If you are diagnosed with cancer, you want to learn about it quickly so you can deal with it.  Don’t let a blacklist crisis mushroom out of control.

BlackListMonitor.com will help you spot any blacklist problems you might have out there.

2) Use a Spam Checker

The good email marketing services include a “spam checker” tool, which will run your email through its filter and give your email a spam score.   Use it for every email you send out.  The higher the score, the brighter the red flag your email will wave as it tries to make its way through the ISPs.

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