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A Very Monty Python Guide to Email Spam Filters and Blacklists
Email spam has to be one of the most irritating things online. For me, email spam is up there with bloody annoying pop-ups and website sliders.
On the other hand…
As someone who should use email marketing more (I know – practice what you preach Jan!), getting your email to actually land in the recipients inbox can prove challenging. If you’re not careful, your email is locked outside the castle inbox and someone with a very bad French accent is farting in your general direction.
I did get the giggles seeing this Monty Python inspired infographic fly through one of my many feeds and just had to share it here. I do like a bit of Monty Python silliness from time-to-time. Just ask my daughter, she hasn’t forgiven me for skipping around Tescos in Leeds pretending I was riding a horse humming, “Bravely Bold Sir Robin, rode from Camelot” years ago…
Onwards and upwards!
While this infographic is a bit wordy, it is worth a read. Thanks Novastor for the chuckle this morning with my coffee.
How to avoid the Spamish Inquisition, email filters and blacklists (in brief)
No single action is likely to trigger a spam flag or block. It’s often a mix of actions. Every spam filter is different and have different trigger scores.
1. Watch your language! Some words are more likely to be seen as spammy than others, for example:
- money
- cash
- buy
- free
- offer
2. Avoid excessive urgency. Act now!!!!!!! (should have fingers chopped off for excessive punctuation too!)
3. Get permission. (Giving you my card at a network meeting is NOT permission!)
4. Change your template regularly. Or better still…
5. Use default formatting. Plain text is just fine…
6. Don’t buy bulk email lists. (Don’t start me on the number of mails I get PER DAY that I haven’t asked for, don’t want and really am not interested in… Yes, I’m looking at you franking machines, photocopiers, utility suppliers and the rest. I don’t even bother unsubscribing these days, just marked as spam.)
7. You need words! An email with just images or video is asking for trouble.
8. Slow down... A wall of emails all in one day does you no favours!
Email Spam and the Law
You’ll notice the infographic talks about CAN-SPAM and the FTC – very American. Over here in the UK we also have laws about spam:
Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations – E-Marketing Guide
And now for something completely different…
For your viewing pleasure, why not have a sing-a-long with Brave Sir Robin too.
Over to you…
Does your email spam filter work overtime? Are you a Monty Python fan? Most importantly did you sing a long to Brave Sir Robin? I’d love to know in the comments!
Don’t forget, if you found this post useful to share it with your network too 🙂
No-one Expects The Spamish Inquisition! (Email Spam Infographic Guide) by Jan Kearney
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Hi Jan,
Nice and useful infographic. But that tip to change the email template often must be a joke. No serious company does it. Using the same templates for the same type of emails is part of branding. Changing the templates frequently may only confuse the subscribers.
Adrian
P.S. It seems that your CL plugin doesn’t work. If you cannot fix it, why don’t you disable it and speed the loading of the page?
Hi Adrian, I’ll be honest the template one surprised me.
But then I thought about it and read it as those annoying ones that have the same info (usually large images and links) at the top, down 2 sides, in the middle and again at the end. If you look hard enough you might find what they’re actually emailing about in 2 lines somewhere!
For me, those are spam (I guess it’s subjective!)
It’s been a while since I tested – emailing is not my strong point and I need to do better. What I found was plain emails worked better for clicks. The online landscape changes quickly, so I should dig out my mails and test again 🙂
Thank for popping in – and letting me know about commentluv. I was playing with plugins and there appeared to be a conflict.
Hi Jan,
being a massive Monty Python fan, i loved this post, some really good points put across with some humour, just my sort of post