SPAM, The-One-That-Musn’t-Be-Intorduced. Unwanted, Unnecessary and dangerous messages are widely known among senders and addressees of electronic messages.
SPAM – What You Can And What You Can’t Change
First of all, you should know that the factor which decides to classify a given message to this very prominent category is mostly the mail program algorithm. Each operator has their own spam filters – this is why one program may rate your email as spam, and the other will show it in the inbox. Unfortunately, no one except developers who made them knows these algorithms. You should also remember that not every email program will accept your message – we seldom can affect this process.
What you can do and what you can alter is your behavior as a sender. It includes the build-up of your contact base, type of messages you send as well as their number.
Other important factors are the database and the message.
SPAM – Database
Forget the annual database cleaning! Forget the automatic spotting of incorrect addresses! Forget about the nice, warm recommendations and permission marketing practices! If you want to make sure that your message will gain the SPAM label double check that:
- your database comes from uncertain, even suspicious source;
- your database wasn’t updated for a long time, so it’s full of inactive email addresses;
- your database is full of info@ and office@ addresses;
- the majority of database entries comes from the same domain;
- your contacts receive tons of various messages at the very short periods of time;
- your contacts find your emails annoying enough to mark them often as SPAM.
Whew, the receivers are checked, and now for the message itself. Let’s review all its elements one by one and choose those helpful while creating a perfect, trashy creation!
SPAM – Sender
If you’re sending messages from a named account, for example, name.surname@companyname.com, or worse, you’re using a marketing automation platform for database pre-segmentation to set up different accounts for different shipments, depending on their topic and in addition you direct replies to the same address, then you are on a fast track to falling out of the race for the biggest spammer of the year title, and you may permanently improve ORs and CTRs of your emails. However, if you dream about messages that immediately fall into the junk folder, you should create the appropriate sender.
First, make sure that the address of the sender is completely different than the one for replies. It is important to suggest that even if the sender is Nigerian Prince [Company Name] the answers go to the general sack called no-reply@yourcompany.com.
Second, always (ALWAYS!) use the domain that is in as many blacklists as possible!
SPAM – Subject
Creating appropriate titles message is a separate form of art. However, there are a few tricks that significantly increase the chances that the mailer immediately classifies a message as spam. The most popular are:
- CAPITALS ONLY
- b.l.o.c.k.a.d.e.
- $$$$$blockade$$$$
- phrase – popular phrases, often linked to the spam messages
- lots of images <3 🙂 !! :D:D
Example:
$$ FOR FREE!! We’ll e.n.l.a.r.g.e your $$$ assets by 100% !!
SPAM – Message Content
Also, this area requires a solid preparation. It’s not enough to simply and from the bottom of your heart ask for contact’s credit card number, or PIN (although this may help). Genuine SPAM meets the following conditions:
- disproportionate content to graphics ratio – mailer filters really hate those heavy graphics that increase the size of the whole message – use this tip wisely;
- lack of picture alternative descriptions – mailers don’t see images, so the lack of additional description increases the likelihood that the images will be considered as a dangerous content;
- lack of picture titles – see above;
- heavy use of texts identified as characteristic for the garbage messages, for example check, buy, now, see, etc.
- adding attachments – the bigger, the better;
- too heavy messages – adding pictures and videos to messages – absolutely forget about uploading such content on the server and adding a link so the receivers can download the file by themselves! You would not only lighten the creation but also be able to monitor contacts’ interest in your content!
- invisible opt-out – if people will see it, they will all use it.
Got it? Yay you! Only a few last touches left: a signature, reply address (always different than the one in “from:” line) and you’re ready to go. Of course send the message to the whole database, at the same time. Never compromise when someone proposes to pre-sort the database, or worse, to use this devilish p e r s o n a l i z a t i o n! Congratulations, you just became a 24-carat spammer.
However, if you want your messages to be seen by your audience and recognized by them as useful – do everything exactly the opposite! And remember – we don’t always can change the way how mailers see the particular mailing. Nonetheless, you should always create the messages of the highest quality, so that mail programs algorithms be triggered to recognize your messages as valuable and direct them to customers’ inboxes, instead of to the despised spam!
I wish you only cosmic ORs and CTRs in the New Year – SALESmanago Editor!
Follow
