Nobody likes to receive spam and worse still, you don’t want to be accused of sending spam email to your list. Many of you have surely been the recipient of spam in your inbox. This can be really annoying but take heart because there are ways to be on the safe side.
As a business person, it is imperative to avoid spamming your clients. Period. Anyone who has visited your website and shown you the courtesy of sharing their information with you needs to be respected for placing their trust in you. Do not abuse the privilege.
Likewise, meeting someone, exchanging a business card or, worse still, attending an event and collecting all the cards off a marketing table and adding them to your database without permission is a definite no no. If you do this, you are a spammer. You must ask their permission first.
A major way you can avoid spam is to use an anti-virus software to protect your computer. For those who do business mainly on the internet, your computer is your most valuable asset and therefore, you should prioritise protecting it from viruses. It can be viruses and Trojans that send spam to you and your list. Some even scan your hard disk for email addresses to harvest for spamming purposes.
Next, be cautious of the words you use in the emails you send out. This is vital especially if you use email marketing to sell and promote your products and services to your target audience. The most important tool you can use to avoid spam is the spam filter of your email service or internet service provider (ISP). By utilising this tool, you can block most spam emails meant for you. To achieve this, many ISPs utilise special routers that look inside emails going to your inbox. Addresses detected that are on the blacklist of spammers are then automatically filtered out.
There are also commonly used words that trigger spam. You should be very careful if you send emails to a large database. These trigger words include fre e, click here, subscribe, dsco unt, collect, cash bonus, credi t, loans, multilevel marketing, you’re a winner, lose we ight, eliminate debt, serious cash and search engine listings among numerous others .
There are also phrases that you have to cautious with when using in your emails. These are buy direct, casino, get paid, online marketing, save up to, time limited, while supplies last, work at home, join millions, special promotion, no cost, no fees and visit our website and so on.
Finally, develop the habit of updating your list on a regular basis and include an automatic facility in each email that lets people unsubscribe easily when they choose to. You can do this automatically through various software programs. If you have a subscriber, for instance, who has emailed you and would like to unsubscribe, remove him or her from the list right away so you won’t be accused of spamming later on.
By Wendy Moore, Founder, www.savvywebwomen.com
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