A recent Direct Marketing Association (DMA) study showed that “Email’s ROI in 2008 was $45.06 for every dollar spent on it.” This is outstanding news for permission-based email marketers but you have to get into the Inbox to realize this level of ROI. Here are some tips on how to improve your Inbox delivery.

  1. Unless you really have made a breakthrough such as cold fusion or a flying car, avoid claiming you have made an important “breakthrough!” Spam filters love that.
  2. Do not talk too much about cash on the barrel head. Excessive discussion of money is like manna from heaven to many filters. If your topic is money, well, you have to talk about it but try to be discreet and not directly mention money too much. You know what the “get rich quick scheme” emails look like. Avoid the “get rich quick” look and feel at all cost.
  3. Sorry Mortgage brokers but if the email looks like a mortgage pitch, the filters are likely to latch onto it. There are many legitimate mortgage broker marketers out there, of course, but the ones who abused email in the past have hurt your current opportunity to get into the Inbox. Make your pitch in more subtle ways, when possible.
  4. Urgent! Well, if the sky is not falling do not claim urgency. All hucksters claim urgency, hence the filters are suspicious when an email marketer does this.
  5. A “money back guarantee” is sort of like the “check is in the mail.” Nobody believes it in any context including email and the filters don’t believe it either.
  6. If you ask someone “why pay more!” you are likely to be asking only cyberspace this question because the junk folder is where your email is likely to end up.
  7. Too much hype. We all know excessive hype when we see it. It often includes exclamation marks!!! and ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. Ideally, you would avoid all caps and exclamation marks in the subject line and the content or use in moderation.
  8. Avoid spammy sounding phrases that are too good to be true. Yes, there really are “once in a life time opportunities” but, let me tell you, they never arrive in your Inbox.
  9. Try to avoid sloppy HTML in your emails and never send an email out that is basically one giant image. The filters often assume spammers are sloppy with their HTML and legitimate email marketers are likely to be more careful. Second, a legitimate email marketer is very unlikely to send an email that is one giant image.
  10. I think all of us have seen an email all in red type, fancy flashing objects, etc. If the email is hard on your eyes, it is probably hard on the eyes of your subscribers. Well, if your subscribers ever get to see the email as the filters have first crack at it.

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