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Content Guidelines for Spam Filters
There are hundreds of filters and thousands upon thousands of rule combinations. This list of tips is by no means exhaustive nor, unfortunately, would any list of "to do's" or "not to do's" adequately represent the myriad ways these filters work. That being said, if you are not in a position to use our eContent Scorer solution or a similar tool that allows you to actually process your content through filters, these are some general guidelines that can help. Most of these are things you should avoid. Avoiding them is absolutely not a guarantee your mail will be delivered but breaking too many of them will significantly increase the chances your mail will not be delivered.
1) Subject Lines
Be careful what you say in your subject line; almost all content filters include direct analysis of the subject line. The words and/or phrases to avoid in the subject line: bill consolidation, cash, credit, hello, free , instant winner, investment report, interest rates, register to win, save $, seen on tv, stock alert, life insurance.
2) Capitalization of words or phrases
Normal capitalization does not hurt an overall email spam score. However, capitalizing entire words, phrases or paragraphs will count against the email score.
3) Message Text
Tens of thousands of emails are analyzed to determine which words and phrases appear most often in spam. These probability-weighted words and phrases are often what are used to establish spam scores. Example of words and phrases which may seem innocuous but which have higher relative scores for spam include:
*Note: try to avoid using the words "unsubscribe", "remove", or "delete" in the same sentence as "email" "mail", "list", or "reply-to" or any derivations thereof (e.g. removed, mailing) – see full tips for unsubscribe language for more information.
4) Wording Regarding Anti-Spam Legislation Compliance
When an email states it is in compliance with anti-spam legislation (e.g. H.R. 3113 or U.C.E–Mail Act), it negatively affects an email score. The theory is that only true spammers include these types of statements. The same holds true for phrases such as "is not spam". Unfortunately, blatant assertions that your mail is legal, not spam, not unsolicited, etc. count against you and, thus, you should avoid making them.
5) Email Size
Several anti-spam filters score unfavorably based upon the weight of the email. Spam messages tend to be less than 20k and, therefore, filter programs count this size against an email score. However, an email whose size is between 20k-40k scores favorably towards your overall score.
6) Email Format Issues : Text, HTML, MIME, Images
Emails that contain images with little or no text will count against an email score. Message text in HTML without a specified character set; containing thick borders, or font colors with missing hashes work against the email overall score. MIME - Emails which are a mixture of plain text and HTML are more likely to be marked as spam than a message that is pure HTML or pure text.
7) Colors & Fonts
Most colors have little impact on an email's overall score but green and blue generally score worse than any other colors.
Generally fonts do not count against an email; however fonts that are rarely used score a little worse than typical everyday fonts. Additionally, a larger font size can trigger a slightly higher spam score.
8) Hyperlinks & Tags
In some anti-spam filters a hyperlink without an http:// will count against the overall score of the email.
Use of a "tracker-id" embedded in the URL is used by some filters as a spam indicator. If you are tagging the URLs with customer numbers or other tracking numbers, avoid labeling them as such.
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Improve Deliverability with Proper Unsubscribe Text
There are three important tips to keep in mind when it comes to drafting unsubscribe provisions for your emails: 1.) Always provide a method for subscribers to unsubscribe to your mailing list.
2.) If possible do not require your subscribers to reply to an email in order to unsubscribe. Requesting that a subscriber send an email with unsubscribe or remove in the subject line, is a common technique used by spammers and many anti-spam filters now apply a very high spam score reply-to or email unsubscribe method is provided.
3.) Pay a great deal of attention to how you word the unsubscribe copy. The specific terms and phrases you use can dictate whether you mail is flagged as spam.
Writing the Unsubscribe
Below are two lists representing the best and worst ways to word your unsubscribe. With the exception of simple key-word match filters, most content scoring filters apply individual scores to various elements of the email and then add those scores up to arrive at a total email score. We've included relative scores below to give you an idea of how much or little the language contributes to the total spam score. For an individual rule or piece of content, a score of .001 is "good"; a score of 1.00 is not so good. The scores below are representative of a scoring system where your chances of being blocked begin to go up significantly at 15. Remember, the unsubscribe language is just one element in the email. So a score of 1 or 2 on just your unsubscribe is not helpful and should be avoided if at all possible.
Best Ways to Write an Unsubscribe request
Any of the unsubscribe language below will receive a negligible spam score of .001.
To be removed from mailing list To be removed from email list To be removed from opt-in list If you would like to be removed If you wish to be removed If you want to be removed If you desire to be removed
If you can, try to couple the above phrases with something other than "click here". "Click here" coupled with remove language, results in a higher spam score in some filter programs.
The two sets of unsubscribe links below will receive a .0001 spam score – making them the better format to use for the link to your unsubscribe page. As a general rule, anti-spam filters favorably score emails that use dynamic html or asp scripts to redirect subscribers to a page on the web site informing the subscriber they have now been successfully removed from the mailing list.
http://www.example.com/cgi-bin/unsubscribe.pl
http://www.example.com/website/content/remove.asp
Worst ways to write an unsubscribe request:
Any of the unsubscribed language below will receive a very high spam score - up to 2.8.
To be removed from our future mailings
(Using the words to be removed and mailings in the same sentence will result in a 2.8 spam score)
To be removed from our future offers
(Using the words to be removed and offers in the same sentence will result in a 2.2 spam score)
Send me an email with the word remove in the subject line
(A request to send an email with the words remove in the subject line will result in a 1.6 spam score)
Reply to this message with a subject line of "Remove me please"
(A request to reply to this message with Remove me please in the subject line will result in a 1.1 spam score)
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Actively Managing Recipient Expectations Yields Higher ISP Deliverability
What if we were to tell you opt-in doesn't matter? Or even go one step further; double-confirmed opt-in doesn't matter. If you're familiar with what ISPs care about, and it isn't permission. After all, how would they know each and every members' subscription list? Just as e-mailers rely on recipients to read their mail, ISPs now rely on recipients to tell them what they don't want to read.
We all see and know brand-name e-mailers get listed in the junk or bulk e-mail folders on AOL, Yahoo!, and Hotmail. What you may not know is many of these brand e-mailers have large e-mail service bureaus sending e-mail on their behalf, and these senders are on these ISPs' whitelists. Even more interesting is these large e-mail service bureaus have full-time staff dedicated to ISP relations, but they're still unable to completely stop e-mail from being blocked or filtered out of the inbox.
ISPs have decided user control is more important than e-mailer deliverability. If ISPs are turning to users, then it's time for e-mailers to do the same. Here are a series of tactics to put the user in charge of the e-mail relationship.
Managing Recipient Expectations
During the acquisition process, consider the why, who, what, where, and how of the e-mail relationship.
Why?
This is the first question e-mailers should ask themselves: Why are we e-mailing these people? For users the question is always, What's in it for me? Let a user know he is going to receive e-mail because he's a valued customer, he's an interested party, he's a loyalty rewards member, he needs this information, he may think it's cool, or simply you'd like to keep in touch.
Who? Make certain it's clear from whom and what address the e-mail is coming. Brand names often don't come across easily in the sender field of an e-mail message. Consider informing users during the acquisition process. Tell them which e-mail address messages will be sent from and what the brand listing in the sender field will be. If you aren't sending to an individual e-mail address or name in the receiver field, also let them know what will be listed in that space. Never send an e-mail to "undisclosed recipients" or leave the receiver field blank.
On a side note, you may be thinking of the common technique to request recipients to add senders' e-mail addresses to personal address books. It's important to note this is not a guarantee their e-mail will be delivered. In fact, AOL representative went on the record to state it would be virtually impossible for someone to upload its entire user address book and ensure delivery for these senders.
What? The second issue is related to the type of messaging users are going to receive. There are so many options: exclusive promotions, occasional discounts, loyalty rewards, regular updates, relevant content. This factor is perhaps the most critical, because your brand and content type will be well established in people's minds by the time they receive the first few e-mails. We'll analyze consistent branding and content in another segment.
Where? The average e-mail user is said to have 1.5 e-mail addresses. Do you know where and how your recipients are receiving your e-mail? It's time to consider optimizing delivery for addresses, including personal primary, personal secondary, work, and mobile (and soon enough, TV). Of course, with mobile users, you may also need to change the format from HTML to text. Perhaps you can develop a preferences page, where you can offer users the option to switch between addresses depending on their e-mail management and usage patterns.
How? Finally we can talk about an area most advanced e-mailers have addressed: asking users whether they would like to receive the messages as text or HTML. This may seem like a trivial option, but it bears some ramifications. Most e-mailers default to HTML for good reason. If users receive text, they may not enjoy an optimal experience (not to mention open rates can't be tracked with text). However, if users want text, that's what's optimal for them.
Continual Confirmations
That you've been e-mailing a recipient for a year does not mean she recognizes your brand and its value. The most important e-mail is the first confirmation, which should be clearly branded and include an unsubscribe option.
The latest reconfirmation trend is to implement user surveys and continually ask recipients about the e-mail relationship. In addition to surveying, make sure you get your brand message across through graphics, corporate letterhead, letters from the CEO, and other tactics to reinforce the strength of the brand and relationship. If you are sending multiple types of e-mail, mentioning these other e-mail opportunities is another way to optimize the relationship.
The final step in the continual confirmation process is important. Monitor your user behavioral data, and consider segmenting groups of users who have not responded to your messaging or perhaps not opened your messaging over a selected period. You should then send these recipients an exclusive offer message or even a message reconfirming the relationship by asking them to opt in again or opt out.
Frequency Management
One of the most frequent question customers ask is: How often should we e-mail recipients? According to an Association for Interactive Marketing study, most e-mailers send messages every three weeks, on average. However, you need only send messages as often as your users want to receive them. The moment they think it's too much, guess what button they might press?
To effectively manage frequency, carefully watch open and response rates. Look for a decline over a long period, and consider scaling back your frequency when open rates drop below a reported 15% percent (the other half of "opens" go unreported due to graphics filtering).
Most important, carefully monitor your unsubscribe rates. If you ever reach a 1 percent threshold per campaign, you know something is wrong with your content, brand, or frequency.
The BridgeMail System has tools to analyze the impact of frequency on your results a
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