Bulk email marketing can be one of the best ways to reach prospects. However, bulk email campaigns can also be one of the worst ways of promoting a company if it is not done properly. Nobody likes to be bombarded with spam, and your company’s reputation will suffer considerably if you are perceived as a spammer sending unwanted emails. Sometimes clients come to me concerned that their campaigns will be perceived as spam- it certainly doesn’t have to be that way.
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So what are some of the reasons that email recipients would perceive your email marketing as spam?
1) No Opt-In Program. It is important to get permission before sending an email campaign.
2) Content Mismatch. Your newsletter content is completely irrelevant and does not interest the contacts on your email list, or you send emails so often that recipients are overwhelmed and lose interest.
3) Use of Spam Words. Your newsletter content features certain words or terms that set off spam filters. Multiple exclamation points, capitalized words, and terms like “free” in the subject line are a surefire way to get sent straight to the junk folder.
4) Unprofessional Look & Feel. The use of a less-than-professional design can get your email campaigns into trouble.
5) Poor CAN-SPAM compliance. MOST importantly, you will likely be perceived as a spammer if you do not comply with CAN-SPAM. CAN-SPAM is a law that establishes the requirements for commercial messages and gives recipients the right to unsubscribe to email campaigns. Read more on CAN-SPAM email regulations. We are seeing the same in Canada with the lec electronic commerce protection act or as it is commonly called CASL (Canadian Anti-SPAM Legislation). Failing to follow these regulations means you will incur some tough penalties.
Failing to follow these regulations means you will incur some tough penalties.