With modern marketing becoming more digital every day, you have the opportunity to communicate with your accountholders and prospects in new and exciting ways. From email promotions to e-newsletters and nurture campaigns, you have the ability to segment and personalize your marketing to these individuals to generate sky-high results. But in a world where we are all constantly tied to our smartphones and bombarded with information across email and social media, how can you ensure your messages make it through and leave a lasting impression?
Whether filtered through an email server’s spam settings or at the hands of a recipient clicking “spam” in the footer of an email, one out of every six emails you send is likely to end up in spam. Here are some tricks to avoid the “spam trap” and make sure your message is received.
Scrub and Curate Your Lists:
Increase your success rate by emailing only those individuals who have a reason to be hearing from you. Use permission marketing techniques or opt-in methods to ensure the recipients of your emails are expecting communication from you and are therefore less likely to mark you as spam. Sending irrelevant content to individuals who are not expecting to hear from you can call your organization’s reputation into question. In a worst-case scenario, your company could even land itself on a “blacklist” (a list of IPs and domain addresses that have been suspected of spamming), making it very difficult to send emails at all.
Create a Personalized Experience:
Keep your recipients top of mind throughout the process of developing an email. Before they even open the message, your readers will be evaluating who the email is from. Use a recognizable email address and a specific contact over a business name to encourage a sense of familiarity and willingness to open the message. A relevant and compelling subject line that relates to your call to action is also important. Using a misleading headline not only builds distrust, but is also against spam laws.
Once your recipient has made the decision to open your message, emails with merge fields like a personalized first name are more likely to entice your accountholders and prospects to keep reading than a generic salutation. Continue with content that is written in an appropriate tone for your relationship with the recipient – the friendlier the better. And follow through with a custom signature. You can even consider including your mug shot to enhance the feeling of interacting with a real person.
Steer Clear of Words that Trigger Spam Filters:
One of the main things spam filters look at is the text content in an email. Writing relevant and honest copy is a starting point, but avoiding words that are commonly linked to spam becomes key in avoiding the spam trap. This becomes especially tricky when marketing financial products, so working with a professional copywriter is encouraged. Here is a list of key words and phrases to avoid.
• Free!
• Earn $
• Discount!
• Eliminate debt
• Opportunity
• Compare
• Cash bonus
• Credit
• Loans
• Serious cash
• Act now!
• Consolidate your debt
• Special promotion
• Easy terms
• Great offer
• No cost/no fees
• Save up to
• Unsecured debt or credit
• Vacation
• Why pay more?
Make a Lasting Impression:
Don’t underestimate the impact of the quality of the design in your messages. If you are not a skilled designer, hire one. It will be worth every penny.
Emails should be designed from the top down, the way readers will view them. Don’t forget your mobile readers, who will likely make up over 40% of your readership. Keep the most important content and call to action near the top and use responsive design techniques.
The email design itself should be simple and clear, avoiding bright, flashy colors. Red and green content is especially susceptible to being marked as spam. Be sure your branding is clear so there is no confusion who the email is from, and organize the content using a clean, web safe typeface with clear headers and a visual hierarchy.
While images can really help enhance the impact of your message, they should not be overused. Email server spam filters will block emails with images that are too large or that contain excessive image files. Further, many email programs will not display images by default to increase speed and efficiency, which means it’s important your message is clear without them.
So there you have it – our top tips for creating emails that capture the attention of readers and avoid spam filters. Contact us today to create your next email campaign!