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I had the pleasure of being on the SocialChats Internet radio show yesterday to talk about email marketing.  This show airs Monday to Friday at 1PM EST.  As a reminder, this is permission based email, not spam.

Tonya Scholz and her co-host Dana Lawrence were a pleasure.

Here are some points we talked about.

Permission based email is not spam.  These are emails sent to people who ask for them.  They are typically group or club members, existing customers or some other group of individuals that have a reason to want the information.

The idea of permission is based on the recipients definition, not the sender.  If in the course of business you collect email addresses, and assume that these individuals want to receive regular updates, you might be surprised when some of them get upset.

Graphics in emails should be kept to a minimum.  Fully graphic emails are mostly viewed as being advertising.  It conveys the message that the sender only has his own interests at heart, not the recipient.

Many email programs are initially set up not to show graphics.  This means your email will look crappy if it is composed largely of graphics.

One of the challenges with any use of email for business promotion is getting into the inbox.  This can sometimes be difficult because of spam filters. Spam filters use many techniques to detect spam.  The email is scanned looking for certain patterns.  Each time an offending pattern shows up, the score for that email is increased.  If the score exceeds a threshold then the email is considered spam.  Therefore, violating one of these rules won't get you marked as spam.  Violating several rules will.

These vary over time so don't take this as a hard and fast list.  Here are some tips:

• Don't use ALL CAPS in the email subject.
• Don't add exclaimation points to email subject.
• Avoid using certain keywords in the email body.  This is only a small sample.  The actual list varies daily and is much larger.
  • Viagra
  • Buy now
  • Limited time offer
  • This isn't spam
  • Work at home
• Do not add attachments. They may be viewed as viruses.

Always use an email service provider like Constant Contact.  Here are the reasons.

• They are inexpensive.
• They track who opens the emails.
• Allow you to manage subscription lists, providing ways to subscribe and unsubscribe.
• Provide tools to create quality emails.
• Handle removing emails when they bounce.
• Their servers are known for not being spammers and have a better chance of getting into the inbox.

In addition, Constant Contact offers event marketing and survey tools.  These can be bundled together for a low price.

Always make sure that recipients have a way to unsubscribe from the email list.

Always have a physical address in the email.  The valid permission based email marketers will have this at the very bottom of the email.

You can try Constant Contact for 60 days for free. The only restriction is that you can only have 100 subscribers in the free account.

If you have questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.