Here’s a quick tip if you want to minimize your chances of having your emails ignored or dumped in the spam folder: use the SAME email address whenever sending your emails to a specific list. Here’s why…

A portion of your list is likely to use ‘rules’ in their email program/reader so that emails sent by various senders automatically go into various folders. In my case I have rules and folders for EVERY individual and list I have given my email address to, so that rather than clog up my inbox, emails from those senders are automatically directed into their respective folders.

There are many good reasons for setting up rules and folders. For one thing, it’s a huge productivity boost, enabling me to quickly scan my email each morning to see who has sent me an email so I can prioritize my review of those emails. For another, it allows me to de-prioritize anything that arrives in my ‘inbox’.

But here’s the problem: some email marketers seem to use different email addresses to send me emails, even though I’ve signed up to ONE of their lists.

It’s not really my problem – it’s their problem, because I tend to hit ‘delete’ on most stuff that comes through my inbox. And I’m guessing others do the same.

I understand there are reasons for using different email addresses to send messages to the same list. Admittedly, we do this in specific circumstances in our business too. Nor is simply using one email address any guarantee that your emails will always get through and never get diverted to, say, someone’s spam folder (I know this only too well!).

But, if you can do so, try to consistently use ONE email address for each list. After all, if you’ve gone to the trouble of asking your subscribers to ‘whitelist’ and/or create a folder for a particular email address, you owe it to yourself to use THAT email address when sending them emails. In turn, you boost your chances of ensuring your emails do, indeed, arrive whitelisted and in that folder.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 10:18 pm and is filed under Email Marketing, Kikabink Lab, List Building. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.