What Not to say if you want to be Heard.

I thought I knew a lot about writing and sending emails. Well, Lesson learned. Yesterday, I was so excited about letting everyone enjoy the Interview with Michelle Schroeder-Gardner, I broke my own rules about Email Subject lines and Content.

Did you know there are certain things that will automatically send your email to a reader’s spam box?

 

Please don’t learn the hard way like I did yesterday!

Let’s face it, we are always being told to create a list of subscribers and why it is so important, but if you don’t follow the basic rules about what email spam filters do and don’t like, you really are wasting your time building that list, to begin with.

This is a great article from Karen Rubin, The Ultimate List of Email SPAM Trigger Words. By following these guidelines you should never get into trouble. Now I want to thank the 10 people that actually found and opened my email. I love you too!

But for the most of you, I’m guessing that email is sitting happily in your spam box just waiting to be automatically emptied in 30 days. Oh Well…

So what do you do if you know the email you sent out to your readers has gone to the spam folder?

Well first thing, like me, learn the lesson. Next, you really need to find a way to re-engage with your subscribers. Remember they actually volunteered their email addresses to you. You have something they want to hear about. That email is out there and a few people might find it but don’t be too attached to a big open rate on that one.

You can resend it with a new subject line, but make sure you check your email content as well. Otherwise, you are just going to end up in that same, unseen place in internet land.

What are you wanting to talk to them about in your email?

Even if it is the most amazing new way to make money online or the best Affiliate program in the world? Or maybe it’s a new course that you know they are going to absolutely love. But if you don’t find the right content and subject line for that email they are just never going to see it!

Some of the most successful online marketers, affiliates, and bloggers will never talk about earning money, working from home, or additional income in their emails. They reserve this for their blogs and websites. They have some amazing things to teach us, but they know the importance of getting the email opened so they can actually share these pearls with you! They find other ways to invite you to open the email and click on the link in it to their website to get the benefit of what they have to share with you.

Haha you know the really funny thing when I sent myself the email yesterday, it even went to my spam box…. oops…

Hey if you can’t laugh at your mistakes, you are going to cry right!

As a lot of you know I encourage a diversified online portfolio so my experience online is Raw Vegan Food, Wedding Dresses, and other (non-related work from home) products. So you can imagine some of my email subject lines. “Our latest recipes”, “look at this stunning wedding dress” etc. I’ve never had to consider Spam Filters before!

These are such easy topics to get through the email spam filters.

If you have a blog teaching people beautiful craft skills, or DIY tips etc. you may never feel the pain of spam filters. But a word of caution, if you want to teach people how to make an income from their craft skills. Be very careful how you word those subject lines and the content of your emails.

Ways to ensure the safe delivery of your emails

Please know there is no foolproof way to get all of your emails opened all the time. But here are some ways to improve your open rate dramatically.

• Ask your new readers to whitelist you. This simply means ask them to save your email addresses to their favorite inbox. You can do this in your automated welcome email they receive when they first subscribe to your mailing list. Remember, they have just opted into your list so they’re excited about what you have to offer. Mention to them that they run the risk of missing your emails if they don’t “whitelist” you. Make sure you outline the emails you will be sending from, don’t make them guess or go up to the top of the email to find that email address. Make it easy for them, we are all busy.

• Keep your subject line and email content away from the phrases and words considered spam these days. As spam filters become more sophisticated you need to take more care. These filters were created to protect us, as the consumer, from our inboxes being swamped with scams. The days of getting excited when you heard the ping and saw the little sign “You’ve Got Mail” are long gone and now the average American receives 35 emails per day and that doesn’t include the busy folk! I personally am incredibly grateful for my spam box when it comes to genuine spam!

• Keep your emails personal and on track. Your email is designed to get your reader to click to your site for the full story, so ask them to do that early on in the email. Don’t be afraid to ask them to click over to read the full story and you can even suggest they save it to Pinterest to read later if they don’t have time now. They may not have time right now but they will at some point in their day, so why not make it easy for them.

So my lesson has been learned, I love my readers, I love the email conversations I have with them and I would miss them if they didn’t read my emails, comment on my blog posts and generally keep in touch. I hope this has been some help to you on what NOT to do and what to do to get your emails read.

If you have any experiences to share with email spam filters or other results, I’d love to hear about it in the comment below.