Once we have created our strategy for attracting leads and we have a good database with emails from our clients or potential clients, it is time to get down to work with our email marketing strategy to get the conversion, the sale. To do this, in Consultants Academy You will find two very interesting training sessions: Automation and Funnels (developed by Vilma Nuñez) and Marketing Automation with Active Campaign (developed by José Villalobos). both show you the power of automation and email marketingas well as the tools that you can use to get the leads become real customers. However, at this point, and once your automation is up and running, it is likely that you will find yourself with a real problem regarding the deliverability of your emails. Do you want to know how to get your emails to reach the main inbox? In this post we will tell you some practical tricks so that emails do not arrive as SPAM or Promotions!
Prevent users from marking you as SPAM
There are infinite reasons why a user can mark your email as SPAM. Let’s see below which are the most frequent and how to avoid them:
- They don’t remind you: It can happen if you do not clearly enter the name of your company in the “From” or “Subject” fields. It can also happen if you make a name or branding change without adequate notice.
- Purchased lists or collaborations: Obviously this will happen if you send emails to people who have not asked you to. Whether you have purchased a database or are collaborating with another brand, make sure it is very clear who is the sender or database in which the user has signed up.
- Deprecated lists: We often make the mistake of starting to grasp leads and wait a while to start sending emails. Or even, have email lists stopped, and suddenly start sending emails. It is important that when you have an email list it is always active so that it can clean itself and update itself. Otherwise, if you let a lot of time pass, it is likely that users no longer remember you or have changed their email. To avoid that emails do not arrive as SPAM or Promotions, always keep the lists updated.
- Ecommerce lists: When a customer buys in your online store and you are going to take advantage of that contact email for promotional purposes, it is important that you warn them or even put a check so that they confirm and assume that they are going to receive those commercial communications. Otherwise, you may be marked as SPAM.
- Fairs, raffles or business cards: If you sponsor a trade show, run a raffle, or simply collect business card emails, you may be in serious SPAM trouble. In this case, it is important that you send a first email where you clearly indicate where you got their email from and in which the user can confirm whether or not they want to continue receiving information from you in their email. For example, if we are sponsors of a fair and they give us the email list, we must send a message thanking you for attending the fair and indicating that we have been sponsors. We can add some type of information or gift (for example, the promotion that we have taken to the fair) and conclude that if you wish to continue receiving our news and promotions, click to confirm the subscription.
- You don’t clearly show how they can be removed from the shipping list: By law (in some countries) it is essential that in some part of the email users can unsubscribe at any time. But we should not only do it because the law requires it, but also to prevent users from having to resort to marking us as SPAM when they see that there is no other way to stop receiving our emails. It is important to understand the point of view of the users, and not be afraid to include this possibility in the email. A user who wants to remove himself from our list is generally a person who would never have become a customer, even if we peppered him with messages.
- You send too many emails: the periodicity of the emails can also clearly affect the complaints received from users. In this sense, so that emails do not arrive as SPAM or Promotions, it is important to evaluate the use that our buyer persona makes of email, and adapt to it when sending emails. In the event that we have many types of users, we can categorize them by preferences regarding the periodicity of receiving information, or even ask them directly what they want (daily emails, weekly emails with highlights, monthly emails with best sellers…).
It is important that you know that the fact that you are marked as SPAM does not only mean that you reach the SPAM tray of that user, but also when you receive many reports of abuse it is possible that the email sending server is blocked or even that your account is closed if you are using a MailChimp shipping service
Use the double opt-in method
It is the best way to ensure that the user who has entered their email on our website or landing page to capture leads is really interested in receiving our emails. Many think that this can be a waste of time and efficiency, but avoiding being marked as SPAM is much more important than losing a few clueless subscribers along the way.
Whoever is really interested in your company’s information and promotions will have no problem clicking a button to confirm their subscription and thus make sure that the emails do not arrive as SPAM or Promotions.
Always get permission from your subscribers
As I have already told you before, sometimes we make the mistake of thinking: “I have an email list here that I am going to start using…”. Something that can end in a real spam catastrophe if we do not know how to focus it from the beginning properly. As much as we have a million contacts, that does not mean that they are willing or interested in our commercial promotions. It is important to test before.
Sending them an email with total honesty and transparency will be what they are most grateful for. Just tell them something like:
Hi Pepito! From our company Hermanos García we contacted you because some time ago you bought in our online store and now we are beginning to send a series of periodic promotions that we believe may be of interest to you. If you think you are interested, please do not hesitate to confirm your subscription by clicking on the following link: Subscription Confirmation Link.
Trustworthy design so that emails do not arrive as SPAM or Promotions
Always use the same or similar template, with some Corporate colors determined and the Logo Keep in mind, it is good advice to avoid mistrust on the part of the reader, who otherwise could deduce that the person behind that email is really a hacker who wants to implant a virus on your computer and not the company to which it really belongs. .
Therefore, it will be important to take care of design elements such as: colors, typography, messages, links (avoid long and rare visible links, make a better link with a anchor text text or button), photographs and other graphic elements.
Honesty regarding subscription and content
A very common mistake is to create a super interesting content plan to capture leads and start sending the first emails, and then move on to a 100% commercial phase where we only offer what we are interested in selling, without giving any added value. In those cases, the user will see that the company has completely changed what it has promised to sendand will mark it as SPAM or unsubscribe.
This distrust can also arise if you switch from sending weekly emails to daily emails, or if you rent or sell your list, or even if you include third-party advertising on it without clearly indicating that it is. Avoid this practice and you will ensure that your emails do not arrive as SPAM or Promotions.
Welcome and maintain a good rhythm of communication
Don’t keep a shady email list. Although it is important to have many users on your list to start seeing sales results, you cannot wait months to have a large enough list to start your content plan through email. If you do, probably many users, after a few months, will not remember you or that they have subscribed to your list and their reaction will be to mark you as SPAM.
To ensure that emails do not arrive as SPAM or Promotions, make sure you send a welcome email to all the new users of your database, and identify the best periodicity (depending on the sector and your communication resources or promotions) for send your emails
Send emails from an email with your own domain
If you use an email from Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail or some other free provider, it will most likely end up in the SPAM inbox. And not because the user marks it as such, but because ISPs will automatically flag you for their SPAM filtering and management policy.
The good thing is that avoiding this problem is as simple as using an official address of the company (Example: newsletter@dominiodelacompany.com), which will allow users not only to know who sends the email, but also to identify it as the newsletter that they receive with certain periodicity. It is advisable to use this address exclusively for this type of mailing, having other addresses for different uses and thus avoiding conflicts, both in the face of ISPs blocking our mail or users mistakenly identifying a type of email coming from our company.
The importance of a well-written matter
Do not try to “sell the bike” with a subject so striking that later the user feels disappointed when opening the email. That can lead to a direct SPAM report due to the frustration of the expectation. But beyond creating an attractive and clear email subject for the reader, at this point you should take into account a series of tips so that ISPs do not automatically mark your email as SPAM or PROMOTION:
- avoid certain keywords that can be considered as SPAM. Some examples are: free, 100% free, free access, gift, full refund, free calls, free investment, free installation, free hosting, free money, best price, 50% less, save up to, special promotion, for only, discount , sales, offer, compare prices, eliminate your debt, lower price, lower interest rate, save, why pay more?, buy, buy direct, we accept credit cards, click here, click this link, earn money, earn extra money, additional income, buy money, credit, financing, win, earn, income, increase sales, full refund, additional income, cash prizes, big wins, check/transfer…