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Dear friend; I'm sure you already know that your opt-in lists (of customers, subscribers, etc) are some of the most valuable assets of your business. You've probably also heard there are some Spam Filter programs and scripts that may stop recipients from receiving certain email messages sent out. Spam Filters Are Blocking Your Non-Spam Emails What you probably don't know is how insanely broad-based and indiscriminately these filters identify messages as spam and delete them automatically. It's one thing to talk about this in vague terms; It's another to see the facts. This article is not intended to debate the merits of spam filters or the nuisance of spam. I've never had much interest in debating how things "should be" in business... I simply work at having the most accurate understanding of how things actually are to best serve my marketing clients and customers. Here's The Reality Of The Situation |
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As spam email continues to increase and become more problematic, more and more attempts will be made - at both individual and group levels - to filter unwanted messages. Unfortunately, in order for these filters to block out a good percentage of spam, they are also deleting non-spam messages as well. The filters look for certain words like "XXX, porn, Bizop, $$$, things like that, and delete them on the (probably valid) assumption that they're spam. However, They Don't Stop There... Below are the actual "Spam Filter" terms built in to McAfee Spam Killer. To see it in action (and to watch a lot of email you wanted to receive get "zapped and deleted"), you can download it at www.download.com
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That's right, the words listed above in blue triggered the Spam Filter, which would then delete that email. ...So apparently, it's now considered Spam to tell your Grandma that you won something, to thank a potential employer for meeting with you... Or even to tell your husband you're going to look sexy for him when he gets back from his trip. (smile) Business Email Now let's look at what McAfee Spam Filter (as an example) will zap in responsible opt-in subscriber/customer email correspondence:
Uh... So you can't help people avoid heart attacks, keep them from preventing suicide, or send them a 100% free gift as a personal thank-you. What's the world coming to? (smile) Are You Starting To Get The Picture? Unless you actually have a list of "spam triggers" in front of you to use as a reference, it can be fairly hard to get a message through to someone who has a spam filter in place, whether the filter has been installed voluntarily by the end-user, or whether their ISP or Email Provider has one in place for all their users which functions automatically. A more comprehensive list of "trigger words" is listed below. First, let's talk about how this affects you - and what you can do about it.
How many emails of yours are "missing in action" due to Spam Filter deletion? It's hard to say. But what's obvious is that spam filters will become more prevalent and aggressive in the future. If you can avoid the problem by following the simple steps I've listed above, there's no reason not to, and it can only help. A more complete list of Spam Filter triggers is below. There are different ones for email subject lines, "To:" field, and body text. I've omitted the obvious ones that you shouldn't have to worry about, like "free porn" and obnoxious things of that nature. Here is a sampling of the filters for the "Header" field. If ANY of the following words/phrases are found by McAfee Spam Killer in your subject line, your email is history.
Here is a sampling of the filters for the "body" of an email message. If any of the following words/phrases are found by McAfee Spam Killer in the body of your message, your email will be deleted. |
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The following are filter words for the "To:" address of an email. If you have a subscription list of just email addresses and you arbitrarily set the name of the receiver as "friend" or "everyone", some Spam Filters will block your mail. In other words don't do a mailing like this: "Friend" <subscriber1@iprofitsystems.com
Do with this information what you will. I don't want to make you paranoid, and it may be that Spam Filters aren't affecting your business... yet. But it makes sense that they'll become more common and more aggressive in the future, and when something as simple (and important) as an email to your new customer saying,
...gets deleted (because the 1-800 triggered a Spam Filter), you have the potential for angry customers who think you're ignoring them. At least now if it happens, you'll know to consider the possibility that maybe a Spam Filter deleted your email.
To
your success, Tim Gross - President, Internet Profit
Systems
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