This is a guest post from Ajay Goel, CEO of JangoMail, a company that offers a powerful email marketing platform that helps entrepreneurs and small businesses send emails that reach their customers and prospects in a highly reliable and personalised way
While entrepreneurial activity was down last year, banks are beginning to respond to governmental pressure to increase small business lending. (Wells Fargo for one vowed to increase small business lending by 25 percent this year.)
This could mean more people striking out on their own in 2010. But when it comes to email marketing, how many will be simply striking out?
For instance, did you know that:
- 247+ billion emails are sent worldwide each day (Radicati Group)
- Spam accounts for nearly 90 percent of all email (Symantec)
- People are being bombarded with 4,500+ marketing emails annually (Forrester)
The simple truth is, most people want less email, not more of it. And so most of the emails small business owners send out will be perceived as junk by ISPs, anti-spam programs and the people who delete them. So what can the aspiring do to reel in new customers and communicate with those they already have?
While there is much one can do to ensure the deliverability and acceptance of an email, it’s even more imperative for new digital marketers to know what NOT to do in order to prevent permanent blacklisting.
1. Do NOT buy email lists. You will waste time, money and—even worse—damage your online reputation which could severely limit the success of any future campaigns.
2. Do NOT send emails to people who have not opted in to receive them. This too will hurt your online reputation over time.
3. Do NOT send emails with misleading subject lines or sender information. Cute and catchy subject lines may get the recipient’s attention, but if the sender and subject are not from a recognized source, and if they don’t relate back to the email’s message, you could be forever blacklisted by the user.
4. Do NOT send emails that include words such as ‘free’, ‘increase sales’, ‘!!!!’, and other trigger words you can easily find on the Internet to know what to avoid.
5. Do NOT overwhelm recipients with too many emails. This too will find you a permanent spot in the deleted items folder.
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