 Avoiding Filters – 11 Tips for E-Newsletter Success I have a problem. Perhaps you do too. Ever since the major virus attacks of recent months, I've had difficulty getting Getting Attention through to readers' email boxes. Overeager spam (unsolicited bulk email) filters are now drop kicking legitimate email that includes elements that the filter thinks signal spam. My e-news service provider reports more bounces (readers' email addresses returned to me after five delivery attempts) than ever before. Even worse, subscribers have complained that they aren't receiving my e-newsletter and wonder if I'm still publishing. Now that's a problem. You use your e-news and email campaigns to spearhead fundraising campaigns or drive recipients to register for an upcoming program, and you count on reaching those readers. But beware. Filters are having an adverse impact on your organization's e-newsletter and email campaign distribution, whether you know it or not. Since your use of e-news and email plays a key role in your fundraising, advocacy and other campaigns, getting email delivery right is critical. HOW MUCH GOOD EMAIL IS FILTERED AND WHY? Recent research by EmailSherpa concludes that at least 4% of opt-in permission email (to readers who have consented to receive that e-newsletter) is filtered, even if it's in relatively trouble-free text format. Assurance Systems reports that 17% of all opt-in email is not delivered -- that's one out of six emails. My own experience is that 13% of Getting Attention readers were bounced in the last year. Moreover, Assurance Systems claims that up to 75% of emailers identified as spammers are incorrectly targeted as such. Every spam filter company, as well as AOL, acknowledges that some of the email they block as junk is actually legitimate email that's been stopped by mistake. Particularly challenging is the fact that a filter can be put into place in any or all of three places in your e-newsletter's or email campaign's path to readers' in-boxes -- by the ISP (Internet Service Provider), the reader's organization or company, or the reader himself. In many cases, the reader is unaware of the filter. If you don't take the steps below, filters may block your organization's emails from reaching a huge portion of your list. Despite these challenges, e-newsletters and email campaigns remain essential tools for nonprofit communicators. These tools enable you to reach your audiences (or selected segments) in a timely and cost-effective way. You can also track results to some degree. Although filtering is a hurdle at the moment, I am hopeful that this problem will subside. In the interim, take the steps outlined below to increase your delivery success rate. 11 TIPS TO AVOID EMAIL FILTERS DO:
© 2002-2008 Nancy E. Schwartz. All rights reserved. About the Author Nancy E. Schwartz helps nonprofits succeed through effective marketing and communications. As President of Nancy Schwartz & Company (www.nancyschwartz.com), Nancy and her team provide marketing planning and implementation services to organizations as varied as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Center for Asian American Media, and Wake County (NC) Health Services. Subscribe to her free e-newsletter "Getting Attention", (http://www.nancyschwartz.com/getting_attention.html) and read her blog at http://www.gettingattention.org for more insights, ideas and great tips on attracting the attention your organization deserves. NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the copyright and "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint. Print this article Back to article archive Contact us today. © 2002-2008, Nancy Schwartz & Company Revised April 12, 2008 |
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