Many individuals, in particular internet marketers, don’t seem to understand that a few folks will class the email they send them as spam. We take a lot of precautions ourselves (at any rate we need to do) to secure our laptops/desktops, wifi, online bank accounts, along with other online activities involving passwords etc, that we could very easily ignore that we are doing the same thing to other people that we are hoping to avoid having done to ourselves i.e. having our privacy invaded.

E-mail marketing can be very powerful provided that it is not viewed as spam. This is crucial because when your email marketing is seen as spam, it isn’t going to be read by the recipient and may not even reach them if it is caught up by the Internet service providers spam filter. That is why it’s critical for people who run the business to do their best to be certain the email marketing they use isn’t viewed as spam by either the recipient or the recipient’s Internet service provider.

So, what precisely is spam? Spam is, basically, unrequested email that has found its way into somebody’s inbox. Typically it will be advertising products that most parents wouldn’t like their children accidentally seeing, and that’s why it is seen as a particularly sordid invasion of privacy. For this very reason the majority of the internet service providers will stop a lot of incoming email before it has a chance to make the inbox.

How can we avoid this and make sure that the folks wishing to hear from you actually get a hold of your email?

One of the most important things than has to be checked is the opt-in list being used for the email marketing campaign. Every high-quality email marketing list should have got the people on it to complete a double optin, which means that when they first got in contact with you they would have provided you with their name and address, then they would have been sent a secondary email requiring them to confirm their name and email address - usually by clicking on a hyper link located in the email. This is good business practice and guarantees that there’s no misunderstanding over the simple fact that they actually supplied their name and email address to begin with.

When you send the confirmation email along with your optin link always also include a reminder to add you in their approved list, or any type of white list they probably have for email to be checked with when it arrives.

Something else you can use to make certain that your email isn’t flagged as spam, or wiped straight away because the person you are emailing thinks you may be a spammer,so when you send out your next email to them you should include a name in the subject that they’re going to recognise as coming from you - with the amount of emails that folks receive these days you’ll want to ensure you don’t turn into one of the crowd.

When you have a list of subscribers that definitely want to get your emails, you have to ensure that you only give them what they’ve actually asked to be sent, or a product that may be related to the list they’ve signed up for. Just in case they are not happy with these emails, and again, as good business practice, you must incorporate an ‘unsubscribe’ link at the end of all of your emails. Most people will tend to believe in you more if they know that they can get shot of you at the press of a button, but don’t forget, if you give them the option to unsubscribe you need to respect their choice, or you will be listed as a spammer.

Just make sure to treat the people you email in exactly the same way you’d like folks to email you, then you will be far less likely to invade their privacy with spammy emails.

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