Getting Past the ISP “Engagement” Police

April 03, 2011

The future of your bulk email campaign could be in jeopardy if you don’t keep your readers engaged. This warning comes as a result of ISPs starting to take a closer look at what emails their customers open, and which ones they don’t. And by virtue of the fact that a recipient might not open your email messages within a specified timeframe or according to certain metrics, your future messages could end up being automatically filtered out.

This disturbing morsel of information comes as the result of a push by the ISPs to implement certain “user engagement” metrics to tighten the noose around all-too-crafty spammers who have figured out ways around existing filters. What this could mean for you is that if you don’t keep your readers engaged, you could start to see diminishing returns from your opt-in email marketing subscribers. So what should you do? Here are a few ideas.

  • Get your recipients engaged by giving them a reason to read your email. Infuse your bulk email campaign with quality and value.
  • Offer vouchers and coupon codes with significant savings that can only be accessed by opening your email.
  • Broadcast these savings by designing your email subject lines to reflect the contents of the email. Stay away from spam-like buzzwords like “FREE!” and opt for something a little milder like “Coupon inside” to get your message across.

When in doubt, consult a third party company that provides email marketing services to test the success rate of your campaigns, or use email marketing software to do the same. You should never go about your efforts with a shoot-and-pray mentality if you want to achieve maximum benefit. As in everything else, your success depends on a solid, well thought out plan.


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