But, unfortunately, there are many problems.
Why are your emails missing their inboxes?
At this point in 2019, I’m sure most of you are aware of SPAM and SPAM filters. Depending on your email solution, you may be using a variety of different algorithms that automatically filter through your mail and determine whether something looks “spammy”.
Spam filters search and flag a variety of words and language, pictures, subjects, IP addresses, among other data encapsulated in your email, to determine whether it ends up in your inbox or in your junk or filtered-out mail.
Your email gets a spam score.
Before sending your email through to an inbox or in the junk pile, your mail service’s filtering algorithm assigns a spam score to the email. If the score is low enough, it will be passed through to your recipient’s inbox. But if it is high, it’s never going to make it to that desired inbox—dumped instead into a spam filter folder or junk box (depending on how your organization or email provider filters emails out of personal inboxes).
A score evaluation has been around for decades at this point. The algorithms have changed—they’ve become sophisticated pieces of software that learn how to actually detect what is spam, based on current scams, user open rates and response to email, among other factors.
If your email gets sent to a spam folder, the likelihood of it being seen at all is nil. Better move on and let that email rest in peace. (Users do have the ability to sort through their spam folder and click “not spam” to assign emails like yours into your inbox, but most people do not go through this process ever—have you counted the number of emails on average you get in a day or week?).
Before you keep plowing through mass emails, I want you to consider a few things first.
Get Permission To Send Emails—the golden rule—if there ever was one—is to get permission to email first. That means, don’t buy that list of emails and start blasting your way through all of those contacts. According to the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, if you are emailing people without their permission, you may be penalized (think thousands of dollars in fines).
To get permission, you will need an opt-in form on your website, signup sheets, or other methods to make it clear that people are actually subscribing or willingly want to receive your email content. Even sending mass emails to folks you received business cards from violate the CAN-SPAM Act (because those contacts never directly granted you permission to send email).
To start engaging new contacts, send them a follow up email or campaign, giving them the chance to opt-in to your emails or newsletters.
Your IP Address Flagged As ‘Spammy’—if your IP addressed was used to send spam email somewhere else or from some other time, you may have an uphill battle getting your emails to your contact’s inbox. If someone else in your company or on your IP sent spammy emails, it could affect your deliverability.
Most companies involved with mass email vigilantly monitor and prevent things like this from happening, which is one reason why email marketing is much more effective through an email service than from your private company email address.
Engagement Isn’t What It Should Be—if you keep sending emails that do not get opened or are deleted with no activity, mail filtering services eventually may classify your emails as spam. If your open rates are low (across-industry open rates are typically 24%), you may be digging your way into junk mail.
Someone May Flag You—most email services give users the ability to flag email as spam. As soon as a number of complaints have come in about your content, you may be automatically flagged. One way to avoid becoming spam is by keeping in contact with your target base so that they recognize who you are. As soon as they forget about you and simply are getting emails they perceive as being from someone they don’t know, the sooner your emails may be flagged by those users as spam.
Your Subject Line Is Misleading—part of the CAN-SPAM Act is to ensure that emails don’t contain misleading subject lines. If you are trying to pry opens out of your targets through slightly deceptive subject lines, realize that this tactic may eventually end up putting your messages into a spam folder.
Your From Information Isn’t Really You—if you are sending mass emails from some generic account, realize that spam filters are taking note. If you are misrepresenting who you are or masking your email, pretending to be someone else, you may be deceiving people (another no-no form CAN-SPAM).
You Don’t Have An Opt-Out—even if your targets originally opted in, you need to make sure they can easily opt out if they no longer want to hear from you. This is where having an email service makes a ton of difference! If you are using your personal account, you may struggle to effectively remove people that don’t want your emails (this violate CAN-SPAM as well and may lead to fines!).
At the bottom of your emails, make sure you have an opt-out link.
You Are Talking Like Spam—there are a variety of words that automatically trigger spam classifications, like “cancel anytime”, congratulations, “click here”, amazing. Be conscious of how you are phrasing things. If it matches emails in your spam folder already, in all likelihood, your email will end up in that spam folder as well.
Your Emails Contain Too Many Pretty Pictures—if you are emailing just plain text, you probably don’t have to worry as much (although, you still need to make sure your messaging and branding are memorable!). But if you are attaching image, you might want to reevaluate what you are doing.
For images, use a maximum width of 600-800 pixels to make them look good in client emails. Keep any HTML or embedded code clean as possible (consider using templates from your email service provider than simply creating your own if you don’t know too much about this). And most importantly, don’t inundate your emails with images.
There are a ton of things to consider when sending mass emails. The bottom line: if you’re considering using your personal email for this, you probably should think twice. Unless you are taking a lot of things into consideration (including those listed above, you may be generating spam emails OR in the running for some pretty hefty fines). Word to the wise—think twice before blasting those emails!
