"It Don't
Mean A Thing If."
Even though you may have the perfect marketing plan, along
with the perfect email sales letter, you still have to overcome
the obstacle of the dreaded spam filters. Spam filters are
automatic and unrelenting, and what they do is irreversible.
When your message is snatched up before it reaches your
prospect's inbox, it's gone for good.
What an unfortunate fate for of all that beautiful sales
copy! To keep from having your messages go down the drain,
you need to know the words, phrases, and characters that
will cause your email to be treated like it has The Plague
-- isolated and left to die alone.
In today's "Internet Marketing that Empower Success,"
lesson you're going to learn certain words and numeric characters
that activate spam filters. If your email or subject line
contains these "hot button" words, it's good-bye consumer
and hello trash bin.
Trigger Words & Characters That May Cause Email Filters
To Delete Your Email -or- How To Avoid Shooting Yourself
in the Foot on the Internet
Foolish, short-sighted marketers have created a "crisis"
in email in much the same way unscrupulous telemarketers
gave that business a bad name. (There's nothing wrong
with telemarketing, per se, just with shady telemarketers
and the ones who interrupt dinner!)
By sending millions upon millions of unsolicited messages,
"bulk marketers" have turned consumers into enemies and
their email boxes into barricaded fortresses with fortified
perimeters. Utter the wrong word -- one of the "dreaded"
trigger words that email filters know and hate --
and you're wasting your time.
Your message will be deleted instantly and your carefully
crafted offer -- with all those brilliant headlines and
benefits, the terrific bonuses, the zero-risk guarantee,
and the irresistible post-script...none of it will ever
be read! What a waste.
The Halls
Of Justice
The U.S. Congress
has even gotten in on the act (pardon the pun) of trying
to cut down on the garbage truckloads of unsolicited email
that's flying through cyberspace. In 2003, the CAN SPAM
Act became official, with laws that supersede state spam
laws and fairly clearly spell out what is and is not acceptable
and required when it comes to sending email. Janet Wilson,
owner of Empowerism, has written a user-friendly summary
and article about the CAN SPAM act, which is available
in the latest issue of Empowerism's Excellence magazine.
So how can you ensure that your emails make "safe harbor"
in a cold, cruel, and unwelcoming cyber-world? Good question.
The best way to help your message reach the eyes that you
want to see them is to familiarize yourself with the
trigger words and characters that activate filters and
get your message a one-way ticket to the trash. Get to know
them and then never use them.
Here's the trick: Junk and adult content filters
work by looking for specific keywords, key phrases,
and key characters (like the dollar symbol, for example).
Filters check the To and From addresses for these keywords.
Then they go hunting for those words in the subject line
and the body of the message, or in a combination of the
two to see what's being used and over-used.
Use With
Care
"Over-used" is an important part of the trigger word
equation. A single use of the word "free" (as an example),
probably won't "raise an eyebrow" on a common filter. But
use the word a dozen times and it's "Goodbye Charlie."
The Empowerism
"Z" List (as opposed to the "A" list)
To serve you better, Empowerism has compiled an up-to-the-minute
list of common "trigger" words and combinations that when
used - or overused - activate spam filters. Use this information
to wrap your messages in a protective "force field" that
even the most powerful filters will pass right over.
Triggers That May Cause Email Filters To Delete Your
Email AKA: The Empowerism "Z" List
-
First
8 characters of the From address are digits
-
Subject
contains "advertisement" or "adv"
-
Body contains
"money back"
-
Body contains
"cards accepted"
-
Body contains
"spam removal instructions"
-
Body contains
"extra income"
-
Subject
contains "!" AND Subject contains "$"
-
Subject
contains "!" AND Subject contains "free"
-
Body contains
",000" AND Body contains "!!" AND Body contains "$"
-
Body contains
"Dear friend"
-
Body contains
"for free?"
-
Body contains
"for free!"
-
Body contains
"Guarantee" AND Body contains "satisfaction" OR "absolute"
-
Body contains
"more info" AND Body contains "visit " AND Body contains
"$"
-
Body contains
"SPECIAL PROMOTION"
-
Body contains
"one-time mail"
-
Subject
contains "$$"
-
Body contains
"$$$"
-
Body contains
"order today"
-
Body contains
"order now!"
-
Body contains
"money-back guarantee"
-
Body contains
"100% satisfied"
-
To address
contains "friend@"
-
To address
contains "public@"
-
To address
contains "success@"
-
From address
contains "sales@"
-
From address
contains "success."
-
From address
contains "success@"
-
From address
contains "mail@"
-
From address
contains "@public"
-
From address
contains "@savvy"
-
From address
contains "profits@"
-
From address
contains "hello@"
-
Body address
contains " mlm"
-
Body address
contains "@mlm"
-
Body address
contains "///////////////"
-
Body contains
"check or money order"
-
Body contains
"click here" or "click below" (try using "visit here"
instead)
Thinking
CAP Time
It's going to take a little more creativity on your part
to write emails that won't be deleted by filters. You'll
need to replace trigger words with equally effective non-trigger
words. But don't worry -- that's why the Thesaurus was born!
Today, you've learned how to protect your messages from
being deleted by spam filters. Next time, we're going to
talk about how to make sure your messages are hitting the
right target audience to ensure a "bullseye" for selling.
That's it for Lesson #7, to proceed with Lesson #8
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