I know the frustration. You write the email marketing campaign for days and when is the showtime, hundreds of emails end up blocked by spam filters…
Even though email has an inbox placement rate of about 85%, this happens. 85% is pretty darn good!
But it still means that roughly one out of every five emails you send either gets filtered as spam or blocked entirely.
That is a huge loss! But you can push it back by applying some email marketing strategies for making your emails delivered, and your email marketing campaign successful.
And that is exactly what I will show you today. So get ready, take something to take notes, and let’s make it rain!
Always Get Permission To Email
The #1 rule of email marketing is to get permission to email first. Never buy a list of email addresses, or you risk violating the CAN-SPAM Act and may be subject to penalties of up to $16,000.
Buying the email list is stupid in every possible way. The first one is the one I have mentioned above, and the second one is that a purchased email list has email addresses that aren’t relevant…
Meaning, that you will be reported as spam a dozen times more and you will sell sh*t. That is a one-way ticket to marketing hell, and you may never recover from this mistake.
There are plenty of other reasons why you shouldn’t buy an email list, but these are the most important ones.
“But Filip! If I can’t buy an email list, how can I build one effectively?”, you might ask. Well, you have to give them an incentive to opt-in.
The more irresistible the opt-in offer will be, the more subscribers you will have. Just look at my offer…
This is an irresistible opt-in offer. You will get ALL OF THIS VALUE if you will opt into my list. And that is what makes people opt-in!
(By the way, if you want to get this free marketing bundle worth $327.78 click here)
The next thing that matters in the opt-in offer is the sales copy that increases the desire for the reward/s you offer.
In my opt-in it looks like this:
So, that is another important element you must consider when crafting an opt-in offer. Do not neglect it. An opt-in without sales copy can perform incredibly bad!
But the next thing that matters is in direct coalition with the email. And that is an engagement rate.
Increase Your Email Marketing Campaign Engagement Rates
Top webmail providers have stated that they look at how many emails are opened and how many are deleted without being opened as a factor in their spam filtering decisions.
So, if you have low engagement rates in your email marketing campaigns (open rate, CTR, reading time, etc.), you are at a high risk of getting your emails blocked by spam filters.
The average read rate across industries was 24% in 2018. To increase your email engagement rates, you want to do many things.
First, you want to pay close attention to how you write your subject lines so that you can increase your email open rates. (Don’t mislead them…that can be a one-way ticket to spam box.)
You also want to send the emails at the right time. Sending the emails at the right time means that they will be seen by more people and you will have higher open rates and also higher CTR!
Sending the emails at the right time is a simple way to make your email marketing campaigns more effective.
The next thing you want to do is to start segmenting your audience based on their interests, income, company position, education, etc.
Mailchimp’s latest user data showed that segmented campaigns get 14.37% more opens and 64.78% more clicks than non-segmented campaigns. That is a massive increase!
(I talk more about segmentation in email marketing here.)
Also, if you want to make your read rates better…start writing better email copy!
Don’t Trick The Reader In Your Email Marketing Subject Line
As the CAN-SPAM act states, it is actually against the law to intentionally mislead someone with your subject line to induce them to view the message.
Also, tricking the reader in your subject line is one of the most stupid things that you can do from the email marketing view. When people feel tricked, the instinctive thing they will do is to make sure this won’t happen again, and guess what?
You will end up in the spam box.
That will lower your deliverability, hurt your credibility, and lower your conversions.
And straightforwardly, if you will lose the trust of your customers, you are dead. Trust is the foundation of everything.
Just check out this…
In a survey conducted by Litmus and Fluent, 54% of participants stated that they have felt cheated, tricked, or deceived into opening a promotional email by that email’s subject line.
That is insane! Never try to cheat them. Make them excited about opening the marketing email, but always deliver what you have promised.
But you also have to pay attention to how you write the subject line so the recipients will open your emails.
There are many marketing techniques that you can use like, personality, curiosity, emojis, etc.
You want to craft subject lines like these…
The next tip we’re going to take a look at is incredibly important…
Check If Your “From” Information Is Accurate
It’s also against the CAN-SPAM ACT to mislead anyone with your “from,” “to,” “reply-to,” and routing information.
For example, if you made an email look like from a Queen of England, it is illegal. Yes, it is an extreme example, but you get the point.
From my experience, in the “from” field it is best to include something recipients will easily remember. It should be your brand name or your first and last name.
For example, I have in the “from” field my personal name which is also the name of my business.
You can easily remember it. Yours “from” field should look similar
Always Include An “Unsubscribe” Link In Your Email Marketing Campaigns
As you can’t build a house without a door, you can’t send out a marketing email without an unsubscribe link.
It is against the CAN-SPAM act and you might get slapped with thousands of dollars in fines.
No matter how valuable you think your emails are, you always have to include an unsubscribe link.
You must give them the way out. It is better to have them opt-out from your list than to have them throw your emails into their spam messages.
Including an unsubscribe link is necessary for every way. So, if you don’t do that, do it now!
Avoid Using Spam-Triggering Words
Spam filters are designed to remove the junk out of your customers’ inboxes, but they’re sometimes so good that they may sweep away your valuable emails, too.
Some spam filters are triggered by certain words in the subject line or the body of the email. Some spam trigger words are:
- Act now
- Action
- Apply now
- Apply online
- Buy
- Buy direct
- Call
- Call now
- Click here
- Clearance
- Click here
- Do it today
- Don’t delete
- Drastically reduced
- Exclusive deal
- Expire
- Get
- Get it now
- Get started now
- Important information regarding
- Instant
- Limited time
- New customers only
- Now only
- Offer expires
- Once in a lifetime
- Order now
- Please read
- Special promotion
- Take action
Filip Konecny 
Another well written post! Thank you for sharing!
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Thank you so much! I hope it was helpful.
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