Tomicide Solutions November 2007: 13 Mistakes That Can Make A Pig's Ear Of Your Email Marketing

by Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan

Plot Outline While email is definitely a free way of getting messages to prospects and clients, when we make certain mistakes, it can undermine the overall impact the email is expected to make. Messages can get deleted or end up in recipients' spam filters and never to be read. So, in today's issue, we discuss 13 preventive methods we can use to make sure our email messages arrive happy and healthy and get read. Audio MP3 Version Duration: 25 minutes, Size: 2.8 MBytes

Do you know that in the memorable year of 1976 the engineers at Tyrrell invented the P34, also known as the "Six Wheeler", one of the most remarkable and radical cars ever to enter Formula 1 history?

It was chief designer, Derek Gardner's response to some new racing regulations. On this car, Derek used 10-inch front wheels and tyres to increase air penetration and reduce "frontal area" drag. But to compensate for the loss of contact between the tyre and the road and improve grip, Derek designed two extra front wheels onto the car.

It was the definite proverbial sausage dog of the Formula 1 industry. A sort of motorised centipede in the making.

So, what's happened to this drastically radical car?

In spite of winning the Swedish Grand Prix in the P34, driver Jody Scheckter declared the car as "a piece of junk".

You see, chief designer, Derek Gardner's response to changes in racing regulations was to add more of what was already there. In this case two more wheels.

But as we know from Walt Disney, when he was advised to create a sequel to the super successful "Three Little Piglets"...

"You can't topple pigs with more pigs".

Sadly this is exactly what so many technology companies do in their email marketing initiatives. Sending out more and more ill-written messages.

If they send out messages quarterly, they start sending them monthly. Monthly messages become weekly messages. Weekly messages turn into daily messages. And how is the content? It's pretty much the same. Little information and lots of pitching and self-aggrandisement.

There is no doubt that getting email messages to qualified prospects is getting harder and more expensive. While the email part is free, the invested work can be pretty pricey. MarketingSherpa's research indicates that some 17% of subscribers don't receive their subscribed items as a result of the protection they have in place. A few years ago safe sex was the mantra. Today, it's safe surfing and emailing. And while some people may pull condoms on their hard drives, some people take more drastic measures and in doing so keeping your subscribed messages out of their email boxes.

The biggest obstacle is, of course, spam filters. Let's consider some more fiendish numbers...

• 83% of messages reviewed by www.postini.com is regarded as spam


• According to Jupiter Research, for average users 42 unwanted sales pitches land in their inboxes


• Radicati Group predicted a few years ago that by 2007 70% of all email messages will be spam. So far, they're on track with their prediction

In general there are three main reasons why subscribers don't receive their emails...

1. The subscriber's Internet service provider (ISP) blocks your email messages


2. Subscribers manually delete your messages


3. Spam filters catch your messages and then they get deleted

So, the situation looks rather hopeless, and in certain areas there is not a sausage we can do to make matters better, but there are some measures we can take to improve the situation. So, let's look at some...

1. Check Your ISP To Make Sure It's Not Blacklisted

What happens is that the some spammers may have used your list server for their dirty operations and the list server have been blacklisted. And now when you want to use the same list server for your operation, you bump into a bit of a problem. Your subscribers' servers recognise the blacklisted address where the messages comes from and that that's it. Your message is toast. Make sure you check your IP address in the spam database www.DNSstuff.com or www.OpenRBL.org.

2. Send Your Email On Select Days

Some days are better for sending emails than the others. Based on my own testing, data from MarketingSherpa, and other B2B marketers, Tuesdays, Wednesday, Thursday are the best days to send email around noon. On Mondays people are still recovering from the weekend and try to gather enough motivation to get their days started. And on Fridays they're preparing for the weekend, so they scramble to get things done. So, establish your favourite days for sending and stick to them. Also consider that emails are most likely to be opened and read within the first two days of delivery. After that, they become old mail and get deleted.

3. Make Sure You Use The Right Email Distribution Service

This point goes hand-in-hand with the blacklisting stuff. There are certain email distribution services that maintain good relationships with their clients and make sure that spamming scumbags can't use the service or even if they manage to start using the service, they get caught and kicked out. Remember, the email service provider's reputation can rub off on you too, and your future can be impacted by it. So, be careful.

4. Ease Up On Your Sending Frequency

Some list servers limit the number of emails you can send out with one single click. This protects service providers from being regarded as spammers. This is especially a problem if your list is on your server and you use some home-made email system sitting on your server. That's why using Outlook to send out newsletters is a disaster. Well, using Outlook for anything is a disaster as it is.

However, if you use reputable list servers, like Aweber (My absolute favourite), Topica, Constant Contact or GotMarketing Campaigner, there is a good chance that these list servers have stringent measures in place to make sure they don't get blacklisted. So, by sending from one of these servers, half of the email battle is won. There is a good chance your messages actually arrive.

5. Get Your Email Monitored

There are some companies out there, like www.returnpath.net, www.pipersoftware.com, www.deliverability.com, www.deliverymonitor.com that monitor the safe arrival of your emails, and these companies keep a tack of what happens to those emails. Then they comply a report for you with delivery success rates for each ISP. Then based on the report, you can take the appropriate action to make sure that your scores keep improving.

6. If Needed, Hire A Copywriter To Write Email Copy That's Attractive To Readers And Passes Spam Filters

Since copywriters write every day, they are pretty familiar with many of the no-no words that draw the spam filters' attention and shift them into gear. What you may not know is that many normal words trigger spam filters too. Words like "free" or "opportunity". They are innocent words on the surface, but they are still spammy words.

Then after bypassing the spam filters, you want to make certain your emails get open. So, here you have to fiddle with subject lines. But be careful not to imitate the subject lines you see in your inbox. Many of them can upset your readers. Here is a small collection from my inbox...

• Act now and stop being poor (Of course)


• Tom, why are you still broke? (Nice assumption)


• The secret no one has ever told you (How do you know?)


• How to make money without lifting a finger (Naturally. For male prostitutes. Instead of their fingers, they lift something else... for money)

If you're sending a newsletter, identify the newsletter's title. Here are some subject lines I regularly see in my inbox, thus read them...

• Enlightened Marketing (by Juliet Austin)


• Monday Morning Memo from the Wizard (by Roy Williams)


• Balancing Act (by Alan Weiss)


• More Clients (by Robert Middleton)


• Honest Selling (by Gill Wagner)

You see, they are not tricky subject lines. They don't need to be. I subscribed to them so I recognise them and read them.

7. Let Subscribers Edit Their Subscription Profiles

This is just plain practical. Otherwise you may have to employ full-time administrator to fiddle with subscriber details. Besides, people love being in control and editing their own stuff. Let them do it.

8. Get Your Sending Address Whitelisted

Your whitelist is a list of allowed email senders. Being on the whitelist means that your spam filter can't touch those email addresses, and they go into your inbox. Include a sentence on your message, in which you acknowledge the subscription, to ask subscribers to put your email on their whitelists.

9. Keep Your Domain Consistent

Remember, your domain name is part of your brand, so keep it consistent. Any inconsistency can run the risk of mass unsubscribing. Why? Because readers will think there is something fishy. Or as Marcellus eloquently put it in Hamlet...

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

10. Test Your Email For Spam Before Sending Them Out

There are several tools on the web that enable you to check your email messages against well known spam words and phrases. The interesting part of this is that almost all the exciting, interesting words can kick spam filers in the teeth which can create a rather undesirable reaction: Your message ends up on the proverbial e-rubbish heap. You can use tools like http://spamcheck.sitesell.com/, http://www.lyris.com/resources/contentchecker/ or http://www.rensch.com/products/spamcheck.html

11. Send Out An Instant Thank You Message To New Subscribers

This is where many people send out the first sales pitch. I think it's still too early. Just because I meet a woman the first time for tea, it would be rather idiotic of me to drop Austin Powers' famous pick-up line on her...

"Hi baby! Shall we shag now or shag later?"

I believe that would be a rather antishagadelic disaster.

So, if you have 4-6 follow up emails after the subscription, make sure those messages deliver value not pitches. Interested subscribers start digging for details on your stuff on their own volition.

12. Align The Subscription And The Thank You Pages

Make sure the subscription thank you page looks the same as the subscription page. This way they promote the same brand and avoid confusion in the readers' minds. And don't give in to your designer when he insists that you should have a new design for the Thank You page. Just copy and paste the subscription page and change the content.

13. Avoid Multiple Subscriptions

Once I subscribed to a newsletter and received 17 "Thank You For Your Subscription" messages. Yes, in one fell swoop, I got subscribed to 17 different, not even related newsletters. I suppose some joint venture partners were covertly promoting each other stuff. Then I instantly unsubscribed. Well... minus two sites. These emails have "No Page Found" error where I could unsubscribe. Hm. Just a tad scumbaggy. It can lose you lots of subscribers.

So, Now What?

Many high-tech companies have the habit of hiring minimum wage, euphemistically called, "entry level" people to do email marketing. These kids are given the list and with the message, "get this message out to them!" And they do. But it's not only what you send out but also how you send it out.

Both the content of the messages and the process of sending must be correct to make sure that your messages are not only sent from your end but are also received at the other end, and the recipients read them and act on them. This is the key. If there is no action, the message is useful as a fart in a windstorm.

"One Quick Question" Email Mentoring Programme... ...has 1 openings for September and 3 for October 2008. Click here to continue to the fiendish details.

Recommended Tools And Resources...

Strategy And The Fat Smoker

by David Maister

Although a business book, the Strategy And The Fat Smoker is a drastically different book from what you'd expect from an established business authority like David. This book revolves around the lessons he learnt while going through a major change in his personal life and went from a sedentary fat smoker to an active healthy non-smoker. But not with the help of sheer willpower but through internal changes, or as Stephen Covey calls them paradigm shifts, that changed his life and health for the better.

And now he demonstrates how professional service firms can use uses the "fat smoker strategy" to change their futures for the - significantly - better.

My big aha moment from the book is that if we manage our people at work with the same dedication, compassion and care, just as good parents "manage" their children at home, we can't go wrong.

The other is that if we go first and set the expectation what we want to see in others, then most people step up to the plate. And the few just say, "Sorry but I can't do this. Good bye". Either way, they don't remain at the firm as low performers leaching off on others' performance. The approach itself is cleansing to the firm. Only the best remains, and the best are attracted.

The relationship between managers and their people is similar to the relationship between parents. They respect each other and enjoy each other company. And their focus is to raise amazing children by maintaining a culture in which the kids are inspired to do amazing things. Similarly, managers' focus ought to be to "raise" amazing professionals who both love what they do and enjoy fulfilling personal lives.

Maybe because of my military past, I'm big on teamwork. Hence I enjoyed the comparison between the mountain lion, wolf pack, the beaver and the ants (humans).

I believe, David really went first in this book, just as he teaches. I've got all of David's books, and this is the best for me, mainly due to its fairly informal "human" tone. When I'm reading the book (now the fourth time), I feel I'm conversing with a fellow human, as opposed to a celebrated expert, who, just like me, has made his fair share of blunders in life, but his passion and love for the profession have always pushed him back on track, and has an amazing life.

Place your pre-order with Amazon.com for Strategy And The Fat Smoker. You'll be glad you did.

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