When you send an email, do you ever wonder if the recipient actually got it? What occurs online doesn't always make sense. Theoretically, black holes should be able to devour email.
Occasionally, you will receive a failure notice when an email is not successfully delivered. However, it's also common to hear nothing at all.
Spam filters delete messages.
Your message can be deleted before it reaches its intended inbox because of anti-SPAM software. There are a variety of anti-spam systems available, and they all have slightly different approaches to analyzing the subject line. Using any of those terms in an email's subject line will result in the message being marked as spam. And reasoning out which terms to avoid isn't a surefire bet. To a certain extent, it is possible to tailor applications to the user's preferred set of keywords.
A similar thing happened with my webmaster. I called to make sure she got the latest information I emailed her and to chat a bit. Did You Get Updates? was the topic line. Her anti-spam software flagged the word "get" in the subject line as SPAM and deleted the email without opening it. Just who would have guessed? I was aware that I shouldn't use "Free" or any other price-related terms in the subject line, but "get" never crossed my mind.
Over the past three years, I've been utilizing a mass-mailing application to communicate with the other 350 members of a charity organization I'm involved with. The members' e-mail has always been delivered without a hitch. In the past six months, however, several service providers, like AOL and Earthlink, have begun classifying these communications as SPAM because they identify the software I am using. The only method I've found to get past this obstacle is to make sure every one of our 350 members has my email address saved in their contacts. In that case, the transmission will be rejected.
Verification of Shipping
So, if you don't get an error notice, is there a simple way to determine if your message was received? I guess you could pick up the phone and make sure your message made it. But caution is required. A person may view your eagerness for a response as an indication that you cannot or will not wait for a satisfactory response.
To begin, you could remark "Just checking in as a matter of politeness. I just wanted to double-check that you received the crucial email I just sent. I wanted to make sure you got this knowledge as soon as possible because I know you needed it." They'll think you're attempting to help them out and be efficient at the same time. The other person won't see your tone as demanding and go on the defense in response to you.
Confirm Email Reception
If you're on the receiving end of emails, you can do a world of good by always responding to confirm receipt. Just hit the reply button to let the sender know you saw their message, even if you can't provide an immediate response. Adopt this practice regularly. Just shoot back a brief response like, "Thanks. I received your message but won't be able to respond till tomorrow." Alternatively, something much shorter would suffice, "I received your email. We promise to get back to you as soon as possible."
Start now to get into the practice of responding to emails you receive. Replying to an email to let the recipient know you received it is simple and much appreciated.
In the first and second parts of this series, we looked at various issues related to the delivery of marketing emails. Here are some other features of email filters that may hinder your email marketing efforts.
Frequently Read Email
The volume of spam messages hitting an ISP's servers is another factor that can raise your spam rating. It is recommended that if you have a big number of lists, you do not send them out in the order of ISP. Instead, you should send all emails to subscribers in alphabetical order or by the day they signed up since this will significantly reduce the volume of emails sent to a single ISP in a short period of time.
It is extremely rare for an Internet service provider to begin rejecting mail due to an excessive volume of traffic. Sending your email marketing campaign on slower days may help (i.e. early Monday morning, or Sunday).
In addition to These Methods of Distribution
Signing up for an account with one of the main email providers is one of the greatest ways to see if your email marketing is reaching its intended audience (i.e. AOL, Hotmail, and Yahoo). If your emails were not delivered or went to the bulk folder after sending them, you should get in touch with the relevant email service provider for guidance. It's possible that you won't even need to open individual email accounts if you use a list management provider. You can verify the feature's efficacy by requesting and reviewing any available delivery reports.
In contrast to AOL's bulk sender status, most major ISPs offer white list tools that anyone can utilize. A number of competing list management firms have already earned this level of trust from their clientele.
Various servers and ISPs provide their customers a measure of agency by including a whitelisting feature that lets them exclude certain email addresses from being screened.
Successful and fruitful email marketing campaigns depend on many factors, one of which is a compelling marketing message. One of the largest and most challenging issues many internet marketers confront in eCommerce today is delivering these email marketing campaigns. Even if only one subscriber does not receive your message, your time, money, and potential profit are all lost. Learn how to navigate email filters effectively.
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