The problem with tricking the spam filters has been a growing problem since the beginning of spam blocking software. There are a few things you can do to bypass the filters, however, it all boils down to whether your domain is intercepted by a whitelist or blacklist. Most web hosts have spam filtering capabilities, which may dump your newsletters in the junk box to safeguard their system.

Of course, bounced emails are also the case why users can’t receive email, or the sender clogs up the queue with undeliverable email messages.

I’m going to give two examples; bounces and headlines. Writing email subject lines is just like writing a headline for any advertisement. But with email, it is different. Whereas the utilization of spam blocking, there’s wording that must be broken to avoid being blocked.

a) work at home = wo.rk at ho.me
b) work from home = wo.rk fro.m ho.me
c) free = f.r.e.e.
d) marketing = mar.keting

The email is scored from 1 – 5.0 and when checking for spam, the lower the number, the better chance of getting through spam filters. Using its rule base, it uses a wide range of heuristic tests on mail headers and body text to identify spam also known as unsolicited commercial email.

Curse of the Hard Bounce

A bounced email is just an email which is generated if the mail box you’re trying to reach isn’t available. There are quite a few reasons why a mail box might be undeliverable:

a) Mail box is full – meaning over quota.

b) Server not found – might be from DNS problems.

c) Server under too much load at time of delivery attempt.

d) Server has black listed your server, usually because they think you are spamming them.

Reason #D would be possibly false, since you don’t tolerate spam, the majority of ISPs will black list a server from somebody reporting only one or two complaints.

This is completely typical, but unprofessional on their part, because their system doesn’t verify if you are sending legitimate email messages or not. If your email is bounced back because your servers are black listed, or black holed, then you may want to consider contacting these providers to explain your position.

The concept of email hosts must be explained in order to get off the black listing. It doesn’t matter what size mailbox you have, servers that place undeliverable email back in its mail queue will attempt an extended length of time to wait before trying to mail again. This eventually will send out the email, but email found to be compromised will be deleted after a certain time.

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It is extremely important to keep accurate records in any form of email marketing. It is only through these records that you can determine which ads pull the best, which advertising lead is the most enticing, and how well your product or service is selling.

Good records are the follow-up of good testing!

Keep copies of all ads and conversion material in a spreadsheet or a reliable file. You may also include in that file, or a separate folder, a record of all of the addresses you have used. The separate records per addresses or publication will help you to compare which ads are bringing in the profits.

You may have your own way of filing these ad campaigns. You’ll need a separate document for each ad you place. At the top of the document, place the name of the publication the ad appeared in, the issue number or date, the date the issue was placed on sale, the address, the size and cost of the ad, which ad you used, and the price of the product or service. This will be needed to calculate your profits later.

The main body of the document has two main categories – inquiries and sales.

First, the number of days should be listed in a column at the left. These don’t necessarily coincide with the days of the month, rather, start with the first days responses came in.

The subheads under “inquiries” should be:

- Date Received
- Number Received
- Running Total

The subheads under “sales” should be:

- Number of orders received
- Running total
- Cash sales
- Running total for cash sales

These records will help you figure out the responses to ads, orders from sales copy, and how much money you’re making.

To calculate the cost per inquiry, divide the cost of the ad into the number of inquiries received.

To find the cost per order, add the total of sending the sales copy to the cost of the ad and divide that by the number of orders received.

The ratio of conversion is the number of orders compared to the number of inquiries. For example, if you get twenty orders from one hundred inquiries, the conversion is twenty percent.

How To Calculate Profit

This is total the amount of cash sales. That is your gross profit. Subtract the cost of the product or service, mailing, conversion of the ad. That is your net profit, the one that counts. Just stick with it and you can watch your profits grow larger with each ad – each conversion – each sale.

How To Segment Your List

Building a email list for your business should be a top priority. It is the most important marketing tool where you can build a mailing list and segment them according to your geographic, demographics, psychographics and product benefits for your target market.

No email list is ever going to pull as effectively as your own email list created from thousands of prospects that your business will have the opportunity to market to, as well as the hundreds of customers who have tasted or selected or used one or more of your products or services.

Just names and addresses aren’t enough. You need to segment your prospective client email list like the big mailing houses do.

The way you do this is ask your clients and prospects their preferences. Why they purchased? Their reading habits? Their spending habits? You could ask them where they heard about you? TV? News? Interent? Radio? Paper? Other?

As soon as they become a customer, you record their purchase whether it was this particular product or that product, this service or that service. Track every purchase, every phone call you make to them, and everything else you’ve ever talked to them about on your computer.

You need to know how long they’ve been a customer. Whether they’re current on their payments. Whether they respond to an advertisement. What other subsequent purchases they’ve
made? What caused them to make those purchases? Was it a letter you sent, a follow-up? The list goes on, and on.

You want to be able to improve and offer them more things based on the pieces of information you know about them. You can segment your customer file as:

- Calculate the value of your customers. This is the value of every lost name that you don’t capture.

- Capture names through registrations, drawings, coupons, free subscriptions, consultations, charge card verifications, and photocopy their checks.

- Design surveys, registrations, etc. to solicit personal information from your customers regarding those variable, important pieces of information for your business.

Of course, testing your campaigns will allow you to clarify and organize many of the foundational procedures and processes of any business. These concepts and processes, though basic and often lost in routine are ones that, if mastered, could potentially bring you immense wealth very quickly.

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If you’re operating any kind of online business, then you’re one of the 90% who have problems getting qualified subscribers to your email list. Whether it’s an ezine, newsletter, or report, the following techniques can help you attract more subscribers.

First, you’ll want to make your website attractive, functional with content that is an attention gabber. With 5 billion web pages to search through, a web site visitor landing on your site is something you shouldn’t take for granted.

How can you expect your visitor to return tomorrow, or next week? If you do not have a sign-up form on your site now, you are throwing away your greatest marketing opportunity. This is the most important marketing tool you can have to build your own database of eager prospects. But, placing the opt-in form on your home page is not the answer. Make it part of your entire site. Build navigation tools that will guide your visitor to fill out your form.

Today’s task of getting people to fill out an email form is like pulling teeth from a Bear’s mouth. However, when you give web users more options to subscribe, they experience greater wonders.

This technique may require a little programming on your part, but it’s well worth the effort. Put your subscription box on other web sites. Look around and find a site that will complement yours. Contact a friend that his/her “niche” is the same as yours. Call or email them and ask if they would be willing to exchange subscription form space with you.

This works best when you ask your partner to put your sign-up form on their site in exchange you putting theirs on your site. Make sure the page on their site is available for the space, because this will require space (depending on the size) to accomplish this. Placing your opt-in form can be done on the left, on the right, or in the middle of any page as long as your partner agrees to it. The same will apply to you when placing their opt-in form on your page.

If you are not familiar with the programming, which is required, ask a webmaster you know to build one that will fit your partner’s page. By doing such an exchange puts your subscribe box in front of people who ordinarily doesn’t visit sites like yours, and definitely grabs their attention to want to subscribe.

This method works extremely well. It will also depend on the site your subscription box is located on. More traffic means more potential subscribers. If you were having trouble getting more subscribers, this proven method will open another door for additional sign-ups.

If you’re starting out to build your email list, you might consider teaming up with other email marketers. There are hundreds, even thousands out there who already own a email database. Contact them to see if your newsletter or ezine can complement theirs. Check and see if they offer ad space of any kind and negotiate a deal for a simple ad exchange. It never hurts to request ad swaps, article inclusions, or even banners.

Viral marketing practices can make a huge impact to your sign-ups. If you only have a small amount of people you send email to, include a forward to a friend link in each message along with a sign-up link for new readers. In the past, you’ve more than likely received a newsletter or promotion from a friend – right? You read it over and want to subscribe, but discover there’s no sign-up link.

Always include your sign-up offer at the bottom of your everyday email. Make sure you have a link to your sign-up form in order to keep the momentum going. Always remember, your email may get forwarded to someone else, so it’s wise to promote your sign-up offer at all times.

If you operate a newsletter or ezine, make every effort to get listed in directories, search engines, and social bookmark sites.

Building your list using offline methods are no different than online, except when it requires a little more ingenuity. You will want to make it a part of your brand identity for starters. Every piece of paper that leaves your office should have a link to your site and/or your email subscription information.

Post your subscription information in your lobby or reception area, at your front desk, or self-standing signs with carry out cards. Place a basket full of business cards next to it, and better yet, let people sign-up right there on the spot. You may even want to include a computer that’s already logged onto your web page sign-up form. The same applies to trade show booths. If you rent a lead retrieval machine from the show vendor, be sure to customize it so you can capture email and permission information.

If you sell in-store items, ask your customers if they would like to receive email notifications from you. When you ring up a purchase, simply let them know what they will be getting and how often. You’ll be amazed how many might say – YES!

Create special business cards with your email subscription information. Like any event, pass out the cards, get to know people you meet. Even if you don’t sponsor any exhibits or have a trade show booth, talk with them face to face and let them know you have valuable information to share.

Promote after the sale. Let’s say your customer didn’t want to get on your email form when given the chance at checkout. They still go home with printed packaging of some form, whether it’s a shopping bag, gift-wrap, or the product packaging itself. Promote a subscription there, too, because (1) they might change their mind and (2) if they’re giving it to someone else, you’ve gained another opportunity.

Send a post card to a rented, permission based list of people. It doesn’t have to be fancy with bright colors. Sometimes that is all it takes to get people on your list. Let them know about your offer and they can start receiving it by email. If you have trouble finding a list, look in the yellow pages in your phone book to find potential subscribers.

Did you know that placing an ad can be as difficult as renting an email database? I’m not talking about placing an ad in Times Magazine. Your local newspaper, your neighborhood newsletter, your Laundromat’s bulletin board. start looking into promoting your offer in everything you read and everywhere you go. The point is – be innovative about your promotion.

When using the telephone, ask everyone who calls if they would like to sign-up to receive further information from you. You will be surprised to find what their response is when they are told what you have to offer. If they call you first, then you have the right to inform them of your sign-up offers.

Use an existing contact database you already have. You probably have one, you just don’t know it. Dig deep into your address book or database to find anyone you ever had a relationship with – anyone who ever bought from you For example; send them a one-time mailing (via email or mail, use whatever contact information you have) explaining that you are starting a newsletter or periodic emailing and ask if they’d like to sign up. Assure them that this is a one-time mailing, and then keep mailing only if they give you permission.

You will want to make sure your email list contains well-targeted, opt-in, permission-based, low bounce/low unsubscribe names. Only use an opt-in or double opt-in subscription method. Double opt-ins are made of the highest quality, since you are guaranteed direct permission from the subscriber and a valid email address.

In conclusion, and most importantly, you will want to offer your subscribers value and relevancy in exchange for their contact information. Tell people up front what they are going to receive. In fact, when you do this, only the interested ones will end up in your database.

The key to successfully building a high quality, opt-in, Permission based email contact list is to realize it’s a continual process. Don’t expect 20,000 names to appear from your opt-in form overnight. But the sooner you start, the sooner you can start building rewarding relationships for years to come.

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Sending an email or a series of emails to your opt-in list is one of the best marketing tools you have at your finger tips. It’s without a doubt one of the quickest ways to earn income online – often lots of it!

In fact, email is so successful, when used properly and ethically, there’s nothing more powerful than using email to market your product or service.

I can tell you from personal, first-hand experience, email is the driving force behind communicating over the Internet. The deliverability of your email is of paramount importance.

Allow me to share something that may seem shocking…

All major ISPs implement a form of content filters and personal response systems that has resulted in creating a “brick-wall” effect on any sizable amount of incoming email from a single source.

Email has become a complex creature with today’s filtering programs. All the major ISPs now require perfect SPF, DNS, and Domain Keys installed before email is receivable. You see, filters only block YOU from seeing it. The email  still gets delivered, but is classified as a soft bounce.

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