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Getting Through the Spam Filters

So how do we get through the spam filters? Well the first thing to say is DON'T SPAM! Hopefully at this point the people that are left reading this are legitimate companies who are honestly trying to contact their customers. The fact that you're a legitimate company already has you off to a good start and if you just adopt the principles I outlined in my previous blog "The Checklist Before your Campaign", you'll already have the foundations in place for a successful campaign.

The basics are in place, so now you have to understand how the spam filters work. This way you can keep to the rules set by the filters and get your email into those inboxes. For a basis of this explanation I'm going to dissect the hotmail filter to see how it works.

Hotmail has a multi-level spam filter in place to ensure it provides a high level of security against spammers. The first level is the Blacklist check. Hotmail will check against its own and 3rd party blacklists to see if your IP and sender domain have been labelled as blacklisted.

How do I make sure I don't end up on the Blacklist? Well the first thing to do is check and make sure you're not on there already. DNS Stuff can be checked to see if your IP has been blacklisted. If though, you're signed up to a mailing program like mailingmanager, you need to check for their name on the blacklist. We personally check to see if we have been blacklisted on a daily basis.

Okay, so you're not on the blacklist. Now it is time to implement prevention of going onto the blacklist. As I already mentioned in my previous blog "The Checklist Before your Campaign" you need to have an unsubscribe link in there. Another handy thing is to set up feedback loops with the main providers. Hotmails' feedback loop information is here. The feedback loop allows you to receive complaints about spam from the recipients on your list. The best course of action is to delete these users from your mailing list, which in turn will lower your complaint rate and should eventually make you eligible for the whitelist program (we'll come across that later). Once again, if you're signed up to a mailing program you won't have to worry about this as the system should have one set up for you and will delete subscribers accordingly.

Hotmail also runs a volume filter at the same time. Basically, like every major email provider, if you send too many emails at one time, the filter will be triggered and you run the risk of having your email junked or rejected.

How do I stop my email being caught in the volume filter? The best thing you can do is limit the amount of emails you send out per hour/day. Best thing to do is stagger your email per hour to an acceptable level. I know this means you won't get as instant results as you previously did but at least you're increasing your chances of deliverability and ultimately, higher open rates. At mailingmanager we stagger the high volume customers send-out on their behalf already and is probably common practice with mailing program providers.

Once it has passed through these filters it will then check against the IP whitelist to see if the sender is on it whilst the sender domain is checked against Sender Score and safe-lists. If it is accepted as a part of the whitelist for the email provider it will be allowed to go to the inbox.

How do I get on the whitelist? To get on the whitelist of an email provider you must adhere to the rules that it lays down to the sender. Hotmails whitelist rules are here. Basically, you are judged on sender history, email reputation and complaint levels. As long as you have followed my previous instructions you should be in a position to apply to whitelists.

If you are not on a whitelist or safelist another filter will then check against verifying filters that assess the validity of the email. This is becoming an ever more determining factor in whether your email will get delivered into the inbox.

How do I verify my IP and Sender Domain? As a legitimate company this isn't a problem. Just make sure your email has SPF, Domain Key and Sender ID records in your email. These records allow the email providers to verify that you are who you say you are and protect you from MTA's who could send out emails using your domain and damaging your email reputation. So not only does it help your deliverability but can also protect your companies reputation. Once again, if you're already a mailingmanager customer, you will already have these in place as part of our service (and to keep our reputation in check!).

Then comes the final part of the check. The spam filters will check your message for common spammy words and phrases, poor html coding, over-use of images (see my blog "Design vs The Spam Filters" for more details). How much this filter matters is utterly dependant on previous filters and how your email reputation has been rated.

So to Quickly summarise?. Make sure you have sufficient maintenance of your bounce handling. Make sure you have sufficient maintenance of your feedback loop. Manage a consistent email campaign, that if has a large list, is staggered in its sending. Apply to SPF, Sender ID and Domain Keys for email verification. Providing all the above are upheld, apply for email providers whitelist/safelist.

And finally?.

Send me a thank you email and money for helping you.

www.mailingmanager.co.uk mailingmanager is a full e-marketing solutions company that also offers spam filter analysis on its customers email campaigns. Visit the website or contact the company on info@mailingmanager.co.uk

Alex Fenwick works for a company called mailingmanager (www.mailingmanager.co.uk) and assists customers in creating a successful email marketing campaign; specialising in deliverability and newsletter content.

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