- So you're sending out emails
for your business,
but how do you make sure,
they actually get opened
and don't end up in the spam folder?
That's what we're covering today on "The Journey."
If you are a business owner or an entrepreneur,
emailing is probably pretty important to you,
Whether you just need,
to communicate with customers,
or prospects or email marketing,
you wanna make sure
that all of your time
and effort isn't going to waste.
- Yeah, spammy emails
can sideline your business
and if you're sending out
email marketing campaigns,
it's just a ton of time wasted.
- So first, it's important to realize
What causes spammy emails?
We've all been there before
where a legitimate message,
gets delivered to the spam folder,
that's so frustrating.
But typically, if it's going to the spam folder,
that means something in that email,
is triggering that spam filter.
- Yeah, and there's a range of things
that can be causing that,
and it starts with,
having a really bad spam score.
So there's different things like,
spammy subject lines,
maybe there is a link,
that might not go to a reputable site,
it is the content in the message itself.
Maybe how many people you're sending to bounce,
there's tons of different things
that can impact that spam score,
and ultimately make your email
go into the spam folder.
- Every email provider,
has their own list of rules and processes,
but here are a couple
of universally accepted ones,
that you can follow to help
increase that email open rate.
- Yeah, starting with using a domain-based email.
As a business,
you wanna be credible and professional,
so you shouldn't be sending
from Gmail or Yahoo,
or any of those other free email providers,
but sent from your domain,
it makes you real,
and those spam filters understand that.
So as a business of "Awesome Austin t-shirts"
you wanna send from that domain name,
so your audience knows,
it's coming from you.
- Yeah and then you have that brand consistency,
it's easy to remember,
but it also makes it look a lot more credible.
- The second tip is to have your name
and a physical address,
inside the actual email.
I know it's scary to have your actual address,
which is why some people use like a PO Box,
for their commercial business,
but you have to have this,
in accordance to the CAN-SPAM Act.
- CAN-SPAM, that's fun to say
- Can of spam.
- Yeah, not that but the other type.
So it's all about regulations
that you have to follow,
so that from subject for an email
can be misleading,
it's gotta be accurate
and then again,
have that physical address in there,
so that they actually know that
this is a credible business.
- Yeah, and you have to use these on
all of your email marketing campaigns,
or something that's commercially sent.
- Spam filters are checking for these things,
so if you don't include them,
it can end up in that spam folder.
Our third tip is craft an appropriate
and accurate subject line.
This is basically your introduction to your readers
whenever you're sending that email.
So make sure,
it's not only catchy, short,
but also accurate.
That's whenever it can go to the spam folder.
So if it's misleading,
or talking about something else
that's not accurate.
Not only is that gonna turn off the people
who are reading the email,
it also looks bad to those filters.
- Right like if you put,
"You've just won a million dollars"
as your subject line,
you're probably gonna have
like 100% open rate,
but 100% spam filter rate.
If you're trying to sell your product,
you're doing something else,
that isn't about winning a million dollars.
- As a consumer,
I would be really mad
I'm gonna go unsubscribe. - So bummed
What a bummer.
- Number four is to monitor your email metrics.
These are things like open rate,
bounce rate, engagement clicks, forwards,
all those good things
that go behind the scenes,
during the marketing campaigns.
The thing you wanna look at
is the actual bounce rate.
The more your emails are being bounced,
the higher your spam score is gonna be,
which is ultimately gonna make you end up,
in those spam folders.
Now, what I recommend
is about every six months or so,
go into your actual email list
and see who hasn't opened your emails at all,
and remove them from the list altogether.
That way they don't end up
on that bounce list eventually.
- Yeah, especially if someone's
instantly deleting your emails,
that can actually negatively
impact your spam score.
So go through, weed out those people
it may seem like a great thing,
to have all these people,
subscribe to your email list,
but ultimately it can hurt you
if people aren't interested in opening your emails.
- Yeah, the quality of your subscribers
matter not the quantity.
And with that,
make sure the bottom of your emails,
again going back to like that CAN-SPAM Act,
you have to have an unsubscribe option.
Make it easy for people that,
don't wanna see your emails to unsubscribe,
'cause if they don't wanna see your emails,
probably they don't wanna do business with you,
and they're just taking up space
of you email marketing program.
- Our fifth tip is send valuable email content.
So think about it from their perspective.
If you're gonna open an email and read it,
make sure it's actually something
that they wanna read.
I know I've got about 10 seconds
before work every day,
where I'm looking at emails,
and if it's not interesting
I'm deleting it,
I don't care to read it,
no one has time for that,
So make sure it's actual valuable content,
that they're gonna find useful.
- Yeah, and go into your own inbox too,
like literally right now,
and see the content that you're consuming
on a daily basis,
and try to understand why you like it,
is it the person's story?
Is the visuals they're using?
Is just the deals?
Take those things
and take those learnings,
and then apply them to your own business.
- Yeah, and don't forget to get to the point.
I mean, if there's a call to action like,
"Hey, 50% off" or whatever,
put it at the top of the email,
so that you get their, you know,
attention right away
and you capture that attention,
so that it actually turns
into something valuable for your business.
- Yeah, and one thing I really, really like to do,
especially when I'm coaching my clients,
is to make sure they've set up
their own sort of introductory email series.
So as soon as somebody subscribes,
they're gonna get a first message
and then a couple days later,
another message, another message.
And then those emails,
you get to really tell your story,
and deepen the connection
of you as the business owner,
with that new subscriber
and really tell them
what they're all about,
add a couple tips,
add value there,
so they actually trust your content,
and then when you do send off things later,
they've already known what you're about,
they're more up to actually open those,
than to send you the spam filter.
- Tip number six is pretty self explanatory,
but still very important.
Make sure you're using
correct grammar and capitalization.
So that is the first red flag,
when they're looking for an email,
that may be spammy,
make sure you're using that
through every single part of your email,
from the subject line
all the way to the very end.
- Yeah, and if you're not a English major
and that's kind of a struggle to you,
there's a free tool called Grammarly.
It's a browser extension
you get add on,
that will help you
with some of those corrections.
So helps you,
makes you sound legible.
Tip number seven is to avoid using terms
that are commonly used by spammers, right?
So those email filters are on the lookout,
all day, every day,
trying to block those
and if you're using some of those same terms,
that they're using,
you're gonna get lumped in
with the wrong crowd.
- Yeah, think about your own inbox.
If you are going through,
what are some red flags,
where automatically those words,
make you realize,
"Hey, this is a spam email"
you're automatically deleting it.
Think about words like bonus,
you know winner.
- Cheap!
- Deal!
- Order now!
Things like that. - Click here .
- Exactly.
- Really anything that you just look at
and you're just like,
"No, it's not for me"
- "You're the winner of a million bucks"
like you said earlier,
automatically gonna delete that,
'cause I know
I didn't win a million dollars unfortunately.
There are a ton of different words
that you should look out for,
but the bottom line is,
make sure it's authentic
and you're not just throwing in
those random words,
to try and grab their attention.
- Tip number eight is to avoid
embedding excessive files.
These are things like
images, videos, attachments.
These are basically used commonly by spammers
and people that are being malicious,
to send viruses out
and you again might be lumped up,
in that wrong crowd
and be categorized as spam,
when you're sending actual content.
- Yeah, and don't get us wrong,
I mean using images in your emails, that's great,
but just don't go crazy with that,
use them sparingly.
Our ninth and final tip,
is including unsubscribe link.
Not only is it part of that CAN-SPAM Act,
you've got to include that,
but it also is good practice,
I mean, if you don't have
an unsubscribe link at the bottom,
then people can't unsubscribe
and you just seem shady.
- Yeah and honestly,
those people that are wanting to unsubscribe,
chances are they're not gonna be doing
business with you anyway,
so it's better to have,
those quality subscribers
in your email list,
than quantity that don't wanna see your content.
- Yeah, you don't need them anyway.
By keeping those tips in mind,
it will not only help you
increase communication,
it's also gonna help increase
that email open rate for you,
which is a win win for everybody.
- So those are our nine tips,
to help increase your email open rates.
Make sure you smash that like button,
if you got some value out of this video.
Let us know your tips
down below in the comments.
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Thanks for watching.
This is "The Journey"