In the B2B world, your email marketing is still seen as innocent until proven guilty of spam. But, like the B2C world, we’re email marketing so often with the same techniques that we are slowly morphing into guilty into proven innocent.
If you want to buck that trend (trust me, the consequences aren’t pretty), here’s what you need to do.
When writing your email….
Avoid spam and phishing phrases. Unfortunately, there’s no complete list of spam words. However, we can tell you gimmicky lines such as Buy Now, Click Here, Free…etc. will all qualify. This is particularly important in your subject line. While you have to catch their attention, make sure your subject line is not misleading, in all caps, has spaces between each letter or has too many symbols. All of those are red flags to spam filters.
The easiest way to avoid being spam with your writing, though? Write each email as if it was an individual, personal one-to-one email. That’s what email was designed for and no spam trap can punish you for that.
When designing your email….
Keep a high text to image ratio. After B2C slaughtered the HTML graphic heavy email, it’s now become associated with spam. For email filters to know your email is relevant, they need to know that there is a lot of text in there, explaining themselves to the email recipient. In fact, plain text email designs have proven to perform much better recently. Whatever design you decide on, if you are sending HTML emails, you will always need a text version too.
When sending your email….
Use spam checkers before sending your email. Inbox checks can be done by your email software provider, so make sure this is in place and done routinely. Especially if you are using purchased data lists. Speaking of lists, make sure the IP address you are sending your email from is not on a blacklist. One email from the same IP address that’s been blacklisted means all email addresses from that IP address could face the same fate…
If you stick to these three techniques, your email marketing will continue to run alive and well away from the spam pack. But if you’re worried, look at getting an email provider who can do all the necessary checks and keep you in email protocol for you.
To apply this into your campaigns download our guide on how to create highly effective email marketing campaigns.
For further advice on email marketing and spam, feel free to check out our Performance Marketing Guide.