Those of us who make our living working primarily online know full well how pervasive the scourge of spam has become. Whether you are an online publisher like me, or just dealing with the hoards of junk emails that come your way everyday you know the problem is real.
But did you know marking that email newsletter as spam is probably not the best way to keep it out of your in box?
In fact you could even be causing problems for other folks by doing that.
Unwanted Newsletters
From a marketing perspective the email newsletter is a wonderful way to reach out to potential clients and keep a recurring contact with past customers. Because the costs per message are incredibly low this is a marketing tool of choice for just about everyone from the solo entrepreneur to the major corporation.
Trouble is, it is usually pretty easy to add email addresses to the mailing list. Because of that it’s easy to get on to mailing lists that we really don’t want to be a part of, whether we unwittingly “agreed” to be on the list at one point or not.
Being bombarded with unwanted email can be frustrating. And the temptation is to just “make it go away” by hitting the “mark as spam” or “junk” button. But you might want to think before you do that and here’s why.
How Many Spam Filters Work
Some of the best spam filters out there use a collective system to determine what is spam and what is not. I know it sounds a little borg-like, but basically what happens in these spam filters is that every time someone marks a message as spam that action gets annotated in some central database.
When enough people mark similar emails as spam then the filter “learns” and starts diverting all similar emails for everyone on that email system into their spam boxes.
If you are using one of these systems then what you choose to mark as spam can affect how that newsletter gets delivered for lots of other folks and not just yourself. Trouble is many of those affected people might actually want to get that newsletter, as hard as that might be for you to believe.
Unsubscribe – A Better Way
There is a better way to stop getting that unwanted newsletter that won’t cause problems for other people.
Most reputable email marketers have a link near the bottom of every email they send out that will allow the recipient to unsubscribe from that mailing. By clicking this link you can get your email address removed from that mailing list all together.
When you unsubscribe in this way everyone wins. You win because you don’t get those frustrating emails anymore. The organization marketing wins because they aren’t getting continuing negative exposure with you each time you get frustrated by receiving their emails. And other people on the mailing list win because you aren’t helping to push messages they want to receive into their spam boxes.
Make Easy to Unsubscribe
The smart marketer will make it easy for people to both subscribe and unsubscribe to their newsletters. Why would you want to be annoying people by sending them stuff they don’t want? Which is more effective – sending out 100 emails to people who are passionate about your product or service; or sending out 10000 emails that annoy 9000 people, are ignored by 900 and are received well by 100?
You might find that a 100% positive response is more effective than a than a 90% negative one.
If your organization is sending out newsletters that don’t have an unsubscribe button then you are opening yourself up to big problems. People are even more likely to just mark your newsletter as spam if you don’t have an unsubscribe button, especially if they don’t have any recollection of how they got on your mailing list. They might end up keeping even your passionate followers from receiving their emails and annoying them as well!
Use a Newsletter Service
You might look at purchasing a newsletter service. There are many reputable ones out there that are relatively easy to use. Constant Contact and aWeber are a couple I’m familiar with that have a good reputation. There are many more out there you can find with a little research.
Not only will using a service will probably increase your deliverable rate, but most services will also give you some level of stats about the emails you are sending out. Depending on the service you use you can learn things like how many of your newsletters were opened, what links readers clicked, how many emails bounced back because of bad email addresses , etc.
Blog Comments
A quick note about blog comments. The same principle applies. It is a good idea to keep an eye on your comment spam filter, especially if you are using Akismet or Defensio. These spam filters also learn in the same way.
So take a moment and look through your spam comments to rescue legitimate ones. I’ve known several bloggers who have inadvertently been trapped in “Akismet Hell”. Every blog using Akismet they commented on would shove their comments into the spam filter. And it took a long time and a concentrated effort for them to get that problem resolved.
Don’t be part of the problem by marking items as spam unless they really are.
i wanna say something about blog spammers. your blog’s popularity is good. they use a system like IRC bots. bot searching a popular word on google. if your blog is wp and if you dont use Akismet plugin… automatic messages, comments…etc
I hate spammers. So i grow away forum wp. blogger is good.
I used to be in online business and I always used aweber and I thought it was great. It adheres to all the can spam stuff – double opt in feature and the unsub link on every email sent – not to mention that I loved all of the personalization features
Unfortunately some ppl will still mark your emails as spam and then you get complaint reports sent through aweber. Some find it easier to hit the junk mail button instead of unsubbing. BUT at least with a service like aweber you have proof that they double opted in and therefore the email was not unsolicited.
Marlo, Many folks hesitate to use aWeber because they’re afraid the double opt in requirement will decimate their lists.
But the way I see it, why wouldn’t you want to sort out the folk who don’t want to receive your material?
Exactly Chris – for me, the double opt in feature was the very reason I chose to go with aweber. It is too easy to have other ppl sign you up for stuff you don’t want and never gave permission to receive. I found that only a small handful of subscribers neglected to confirm their subscription.
In the past, whenever I open my mailbox and see emails that aren’t from sources I know, I automatically delete. I even get annoyed at our email service to have allowed the “spam” to go through. Then I came across an email from one local charity asking for help in their fundraising, and that got me thinking to be more careful before deleting every unfamiliar emails as spam.
Anyway you slice it, if you have a brand-new, innovative idea that no one has ever thought of, there might come a time when you have to market it in a manner that some people might call “spam” … you can’t fabricate demand if your idea is that cutting edge.
But as with anything else, it requires know-how and moderation. Thanks to the thousands of abusers, they’ve given the entire process an incredibly negative image from every corner of the internet.
I find that more and more of my clients are turning to HTML emails and newsletter during a recession. I can’t help but think that people are more receptive to them as well.
As with everything on the web – it is all about giving. If your newsletter is all about you or your products, you will end up in the spam box – if you offer value – relevant information – or something free – people will want to learn more.
I couldn’t agree more about easy to find unsubscribe – it should be a big glossy button. If you bury it, you will just frustrate people.