Emailing Around Spam Filters

Emailing Around Spam Filters

Ivan Levison - Direct Response Copywriting

January 8th, 2002

Mill Valley, CA, US -

Marketing With E-mail? Watch Out For Spam Filters!

My friend Mac McIntosh, an expert in lead generation, was fed up with
all the spam he was getting. So he decided to do something about it.

Mac activated the junk e-mail filter (default setting) on Outlook and
set up a folder to which all the spam would automatically be sent. Two
weeks later he checked out the messages that had accumulated.

Sure enough, there was all the usual garbage . . . money-making plots
from Nigerians, news about valuable prizes waiting to be claimed, etc.

What troubled Mac, however, was that among all the junk were two letters
from clients -- letters that he wanted to receive and never got!

How had they wound up in the junk folder? Simple. Mac's clients had
inadvertently used " trigger words " in their e-mails that
the junk filter spotted. The software then automatically shunted the
e-mails containing the trigger words to Mac's junk folder.

Bad news for my friend and bad news for you. You see, if you're sending
e-mail to large numbers of people, and they have their junk filters turned
on, your e- mails may be getting deleted automatically.

What can you do to avoid junk filters? Don't use the trigger words that
get you trashed.

For example, if you use the Outlook Express spam filter in default mode,
you'll be trashed if:

From: is 'blank'

Subject contains " advertisement "

Body contains " money back "

Body contains " cards accepted "

Body contains " removal instructions "

Body contains " extra income "

Subject contains " ! " AND Subject contains " $ "

Subject contains " ! " AND Subject contains " free "

Body contains " ,000 " AND Body contains " !! " AND
Body

contains " $ "

Body contains " for free? "

Body contains " for free! "

Body contains " Guarantee " AND (Body contains

"
satisfaction " OR Body contains " absolute ")

Body contains " more info " AND Body contains " visit "

AND Body contains " $ "

Body contains " SPECIAL PROMOTION "

Body contains " one-time mail "

Subject contains " $$ "

Body contains " $$$ "

Body contains " order today "

Body contains " order now! "

Body contains " money-back guarantee "

Body contains " 100% satisfied "

To contains " friend@ "

To contains " public@ "

To contains " success@ "

>
From contains " sales@ "

>
From contains " success. "

>
From contains " success@ "

>
From contains " mail@ "

>
From contains " @public "

>
From contains " @savvy "

>
From contains " profits@ "

>
From contains " hello@ "

Body contains " mlm "

Body contains " @mlm "

Body contains " /////////////// "

Body contains " check or money order "

And that's just for starters!

The moral here? You have to be very careful. For example, you'll notice
that if you use an exclamation point (" ! ") and the word " free " in
the subject line, you're message is filtered out. I pay close attention
to this and urge you to do the same!

By the way, Outlook isn't the only product that contains a junk mail
filter. Yahoo offers spam filters for its e-mail accounts. So does Eudora.
Then there are all the other screeners like Spam Motel and Spam Cop.

What's a poor e-mail marketer to do? Here are three suggestions for
you to consider:

1. Start a testing program. I recently asked Jeff Wilkins, the CEO of
MarketModels and an expert on all aspects of e-mail marketing, his thoughts
about filtering. Jeff told me:

" Client-side filtering is a giant wildcard for e-mail marketers.
No one really knows exactly how widespread the filtering problem is.
However if someone does have a filter on, and your message contains trigger
words, you're history.

I think this issue would best be addressed by doing some good old-fashioned
cell testing. For example, if an e-mail with "order today" in
the body performs significantly worse than a toned-down version, then
you'll naturally need to make changes. "

I think Jeff's absolutely right. As so often, testing will give you
answers you can count on. One of the great things about e-mail is that
it can give you answers fast.

2. Start researching the subject. If you're a heavy e-mailer, start
checking out spam filters and avoid trigger words that will get you in
trouble. This may take some effort but it is well worth the work.

3. Stay tuned right here. I will pass along additional information on
the subject just as soon as I pull more data together. (And if you have
thoughts or information on the subject, I'd sure love to hear from you!)

The take-away message this month? Spam filtering is an important issue
that's worth paying attention to.

A little research on your part can help keep your e-mails where they
belong.

Right in front of your prospects.

=====================================

How To Get In Touch

=====================================

Ivan Levison

Direct Response Copywriting

14 Los Cerros Drive

Greenbrae, CA 94904

Phone: (415) 461-0672

Fax: (415) 461-7738

E-mail: ivan@levison.com

Web Site: http://www.levison.com

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