Increasing Email Deliverability

One of the frequent questions we get asked at GetResponse every day is:

"How should I structure my messages to ensure the highest possible email deliverability?"

Most email marketers know that it is important spam-check email messages before sending them out, as this may identify potential issues that cause emails to be marked as spam.

It should be noted however that the results generated by the spam-check feature should act as guidelines only. Spam-check is almost always based on the open source software SpamAssassin, whereas large email services employ their own content filters, created internally.

There is no magic formula to composing messages that don't trigger anti-spam filters, but if you want to maximize the chance that your message goes through to your subscribers, then...

Don't do what spammers do!

This may sound like an obvious truth, but, looking at contents of email messages sent out by legitimate email marketers, apparently it is not.

One example of how you can easily hurt your email deliverability is by using "hashbusters" - using misspellings and/or random punctuation in the attempt to fool content filters.

Examples:

s^pam instead of spam
F'REE instead of FREE
Op-portunities instead of Opportunities
Get R1ch Quik instead of Get Rich Quick
and so on...

Please don't do it.

This technique, very often used by spammers (v^a^l^i^u^m... rings a bell?), may seem slick, but it's not.

Don't try to outsmart the system. Instead, fire up the old classic "You Don't Fool Me" by Queen and hear this:

If you resort to such tricks, your messages will more likely end up in the unforgiving virtual blackhole.

"Hashbusters" are actually pretty easy to detect and many filters consider them a sure-fire sign of spam.

Why?

Because spammers use them, and they send out hundreds of millions of emails, whereas in comparison legitimate marketers send minuscule amounts.

It's all about patterns that anti-spam filters pick up from millions of spam emails they screen.

I will emphasize again:

Unless you want your legitimate mail be blocked left, right and centre...

Don't do what spammers do!

Instead of deleting every spam message on sight, let it accumulate for a few days. Research which strategies spammers are using and then make sure that you don't copy any of them.

• When they use hashbusters, you don't want to use hashbusters.
• When they sell fake Rolex/Viagra/Valium, you don't want to sell fake Rolex/Viagra/Valium.
• When they say "This email is NOT spam", you don't want to say "This email is NOT spam".
• When they say "You have an e-postcard waiting, click on this link...", you definitely don't want to start another electronic postcards website.

Regards,

Simon Grabowski
CEO
GetResponse, An Implix Company

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