Carrie Young, Negosentro | While mobile marketing, PPC advertising, SEO practices and social media use may be the top ways to market your company, there is still a lot that email marketing can do for you if you can avoid the biggest barrier to customers receiving it. That barrier is the spam filter on Gmail, one of the most-used email services today. The annoyance of spam cannot be overstated and it’s good that Gmail takes steps to protect their uses from it. But unfortunately their spam filter also moves a lot of legitimate business emails into the spam folder as well. There are steps you can take to minimize this occurrence and make sure your target customers who use Gmail are getting your messages.
Follow Applicable Laws To Make Sure You’re Establishing Your Legitimacy
Did you know there are actually laws on the books about spamming and selling your services the right way? There was a law passed in 2003 known as the CAN-SPAM Act which requires that all businesses sending out soliciting emails provide a real physical address and do not put misleading information about what they’re doing in these emails. Making sure you’re upfront and honest with your target customers about what you’re doing is one of the first steps to building a good reputation with them.
Your Interactive Email Content Is Everything
Probably the biggest spam trigger is having email content that is not professionally organized and has too many unsolicited elements in it. You want to be careful about encouraging customers to click on buttons or links because phishing emails commonly use these tactics to steal personal information. But having well-designed templates as well as interactive menus that are clean and point to legitimate services or products your company offers, you’re more likely to give a legitimate appearance to your emails.
Make Your Email Messages Appealing And Personal
Like with all other business practices, email marketing also includes understanding customers’ needs and tailoring your email messages to meet those needs. As Social Media Today states, personalization is everything and it’s good to have emails related to products your customers buy. Besides having personal details in these emails, the words “thank you” often go a long way because you can never thank a customer enough for their business. You should also focus on having a personal touch in the email’s subject line and the “from” field because spam detectors filter based on those too.
Understand How Gmail’s Spam Filter Works
Every email provider has their own system for filtering spam and protecting their users, but there are always ways you can navigate most spam filters including Gmail’s by making sure your sending reputation is in good standing with Google. Fulcrum Tech, one of the top email marketing companies identifies characteristics of reputable email marketing, one of which is using authentication, or a form of electronic signature that identifies you. But one of the most talked-about characteristics they also mention is just how engaging your emails are, because if most customers are deleting them, the Gmail spam guard may inadvertently think they’re spam.
Have An Unsubscribe Option
Since most of your email marketing will start when customers signup for your services, it’s important that you give them an option to subscribe and unsubscribe to these emails because not doing so will also cause your emails to be marked as spam. You might think your customers will turn down your emails by doing this, but if you create engaging content on your website and deliver high quality service, many of them will probably want to subscribe. You should also mention to them to check their spam box to make sure they mark your emails as not spam, or possibly add your sending address to their contacts list.
