I had just written and was testing my latest online newsletter. Every test I received resulted in the same thing. Outlook sending my little masterpiece directly into my own Junk Mail Folder.

Now I should know about spam filters and what to write in newsletters, after all I’ve written two books about it. However no matter how I tweaked and removed words that might catch a spam filter’s ever watchful eye or the most discerning corporate filter, the same result. Straight into my Junk Mail Folder. This issue had an article about marketing, so there was no way to pick a synonym for the words marketing and sales (each in separate paragraphs mind you). How could I not say the words give away in the contest I was running? As there was nothing I could do – I finally gave up and with bated breath pushed the SEND button, shooting out over 18,000 of my little children. Dejected and thinking what does it matter, I mean anyone that has been doing an online newsletter for a number of years will tell you how depressing it is – the  significantly decreasing email delivery, open and click through rates. Then I had what I thought was a brilliant idea. Why not send a follow up email immediately after telling my readers to look in their junk mail folder for the newsletter? This email went out 15 minutes after the first finished. One paragraph. Plain text. The subject line read: Check your junk folder. The email was personable and said they should have just received my business quick tip newsletter and as my copy went in my junk folder, theirs might too. I suggested they right click it and select safe sender to prevent it from occurring again. I also promised them there were 6 interesting short articles in it, so to please take a look. The newsletter was out by 12:55. The follow up email at 1:15. By 5 that afternoon I had over 800 emails personally replying to me. In total over 1200 responses to the check your junk mail folder email. Lessons Learnt:

1. Most responses were from those having received it.
2. Few had it in their junk folder. Rather they had not received it at all.
3. Many wrote of xtra pulling non-spam emails into it’s spam folder
4. Some individuals received the second email first – by up to one day! This is because when email servers are busy, they softly reject emails which are then presented again at a later time.
5. What a lesson in goodwill -  while people rarely comment about the newsletter, this seemed to give them an opportunity to send well wishes.
6. What about the thousands that did not write? Did they ever receive either of the emails?

Email delivery is, has and will be a key problem for anyone using email. What you might not realize is the depth of the problem. By now you would know Microsoft – back in 2003 I might add, changed the rules for email marketing forever. They were the first to introduce the blockage of images, not allowing them to download and show. Gmail does this too. This means anyone receiving an email with an image in it has to either pre-approve the sender or right click the blank box where the image goes to allow the download. In this busy world we live in – unless someone is a raving fan, they’re not going to take the time for the right click. This is old news. Astonishingly , be it the egotism or sheer stupidity or bad advice – I promise you if you look and count your incoming marketing emails,  99 out of 100 still have the top or the top left of the email splattered with graphics. Rendering them unreadable or blank. But wait. There’s more. Email deliverability and obstructed images are not the only key issues you face today. Two more important factors should concern you. Problem three. I bet my bottom dollar that many businesses will certainly pump up their volume of marketing emails trying to catch a sale. Leading to what? Even more email overload. Here’s the final issue and you probably haven’t even though about this. With all the redundancies occurring around the world, what do you think is going to happen to your email list? You’re going to lose a good chunk of it. Depending on the industries in which you operate, some lists might be hit harder than others. Here are three ideas to help you try to maintain your list from devastation.

1. Have your newsletter sign up request on every webpage, every piece of marketing material – even your business card.
2. Have two email addresses on your sign up form. Primary and secondary. With the rate of downsizing – you’re going to lose a lot of subscribers.
3. If your unsubscribes are automatically removed, if possible take it over and do them manually. You’ll keep a closer watch on your list and be able to follow up personally on VIP’s that are now mail delivery errors.