Email Marketing Genius vs Spam Merchant

Anyone who has ever tried to use email marketing to sell a product or service knows that being sent to the spam folder can be a disaster for your campaign. But how do you avoid that happening? We’re looking at email deliverability best practices.

There’s a fine line in email marketing that exists between legitimate campaigns and the dreaded spam. Often, it can be hard to work out where that line lies, especially when you’re trying to reach as wide an audience as possible. That’s why it’s important to understand exactly what spam is, and why it’s bad.

Spam is defined as unsolicited and/or irrelevant messages, sent by email or other electronic means, to a large number of users, usually for the purposes of advertising, but also for phishing and spreading malware. The important words to note in that definition are “unsolicited”, “irrelevant”, and “large number of users”. In other words, it’s the spray-and-pray approach of email marketing, where advertising is sent to as many people as possible, regardless of whether they are interested in the product or service or not.

Much of the time, we view spam as simply being poorly written, propaganda-esque and from a dubious source. While this is often true, it can also be from a completely legitimate source, selling a legitimate and even a quality product or service. It can be difficult to tell the difference, which is why you want to avoid being spammy if you’re selling something worthwhile.

Thanks to ever-improving spam filters, most people won’t even see your email if it comes across as spammy. It could also negatively affect your SEO if people send your messages to spam, and it can cause your server to get flagged as untrustworthy. Here, then, are our top three tips for making your email more deliverable and being better at email marketing.

1 - Narrow your focus

People are far less likely to send your message to spam if it’s relevant to them. By engaging in targeted email marketing, you are more likely to reach an audience that is interested in your product or service.

Spend some time making sure your email campaign is properly targeted, and segment your mailing list to ensure it’s reaching people who may want the information you are sharing.

2 - Build better email lists

Far too many companies still take the easy route of buying email lists from dubious sources, and using these to market their message. This means that people who have never even heard of your company could end up getting your marketing emails, which is undoubtedly spam.  Don't do it, no matter what!

Put in the effort to build your email lists through permission based subscriptions, content marketing, social media and exclusive offers, and you will have an audience that’s ready and willing to hear what you have to say.

3 - Create worthwhile campaigns

A sure sign that something is spammy is when the creator hasn’t put any real effort into developing their campaign. This can be everything from getting the targeting right, to creating the right kind of message.

Personalization and focused messaging are key to creating campaigns that sell, instead of ending up in the spam folder, so spend the time, effort and even money to make sure your campaign is worth people’s time and attention.

What other methods do you use to avoid being sent to spam? Let us know in the comments below.

Need help creating email campaigns that sell? Get in touch and let us help you.

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