Inbox Ideas | Email Marketing Tips by AWeber
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List-Unsubscribe Header Makes Unsubscribing Easier and More Trustworthy

by Justin Premick on August 22nd, 2008

Some people don’t trust unsubscribe links, even from legitimate email senders.

Others don’t want to be bothered locating the unsubscribe link in your email.

In both cases, recipients may click the “spam” button in order to unsubscribe – raising your spam complaint rates and possibly reducing deliverability.

Wouldn’t it be nice if ISPs made unsubscribing easier and more trustworthy for users (at the same time reducing your complaint rate)?

One major ISP is already doing so.

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AOL Clarifies Its Requirements and Recommendations

by Marc Kline on April 29th, 2008

It really does make sense for ISPs to want to help email senders to get messages through to users who want them.

But “who wants them” is more complex than “anyone who filled out my sign up form” in an age where message relevancy, bounces, complaints, and authentication increasingly way in.

Just today, AOL announced two new or revised documents they’ve published that should give a firm understanding of both what they suggest strongly as well as what they require.

Your ESP should help you take care of most of the requirements they list, since most are technical or procedural in nature. A quick read of the suggestions validates recommendations you’ll find being expressed in the permission only email community over and over again.

It’s also nice to see where we’re on the same page with those who decide what happens with our email. This type of transparency helps everyone but those who don’t adhere to the standards.

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Comcast Added to Feedback Loop System

by Marc Kline on April 23rd, 2008

Flying EnvelopesSince our messages’ relevance to subscribers is crucial to the deliverability of our messages, knowing how they respond to them is important.

Opens and clicks tell us some things, like the rate at which our subscribers positively respond to messages. But at best, that’s only half of the story.

That’s why we’re glad to be a part of Comcast’s new feedback loop system.

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Improve Your HTML Email for Gmail Subscribers

by Marc Kline on April 16th, 2008

This has been bugging me for a while.

Before sending, I test our blog newsletters to Gmail, along with other popular clients (generally a smart thing to do).

By and large, the messages tend to look fine, outside of one detail that might seem minor to some but meaningful others who spend some time thinking about optimizing emails for best results.

Take a look at a few of the recent tests in my inbox and see if you notice what I’m seeing:

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Sending to Yahoo? Confirmed Opt-In Is The Way To Go

by Justin Premick on December 7th, 2007

If you’ve ever spoken with anyone here at AWeber about what you can do to maximize your email deliverability, you’ve probably heard us say “use Confirmed Opt-In.”

While it’s certainly not the only thing you can and should do (check out our Email Deliverability Guide for more tips), it’s a best practice that clearly correlates to more email getting to the inbox.

And as time goes on, it’s become less of a suggested best practice, and more of an ISP requirement.

Just ask Yahoo!

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How Gmail Fights Spam

by Justin Premick on October 31st, 2007

Stumbled across this yesterday: Google Blog: It’s Not About The Spam.

The video they included with their post gives a basic — and amusing — overview of what they do to filter out spam while delivering wanted email to the inbox. (Bonus: the lab costumes add a nice Halloween touch!)

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Email Authentication Bites Into Phishing Problem

by Justin Premick on October 5th, 2007

“Awesome!”

Not especially eloquent, but the first word that leapt from my mouth when I read about Yahoo! blocking PayPal & eBay phishers using DomainKeys.

Just the other day we blogged about phishing and a great game from CMU that teaches people how to recognize phishing sites.

Now. according to Yahoo’s Yodel Anecdotal blog, whenever you get an email that looks like it’s coming from eBay or PayPal:

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Spam Buttons and Complaints

by Justin Premick on December 14th, 2006

Ever gotten a spam complaint?

At AWeber email deliverability is serious business. We and our customers take great care to manage their lists well so they can enjoy the best possible deliverability.

Even so, occasionally subscribers lodge spam complaints.

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Guide to Personal Email Filters

by Justin Premick on November 30th, 2006

Most email clients have a way for users to “whitelist” a sender so that messages from that sender aren’t filtered to the junk folder.

We want your subscribers to see your messages in their inboxes. So, I investigated major email programs to find out what subscribers should do, step by step, to ensure they see your messages. (more…)

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ISP Content Filtering, Part 2: Addressing False Positives

by Justin Premick on September 26th, 2006

In my last post, I brought up the topic of content filters and discussed what can be done to minimize the chance of such filters affecting your messages.

Even when you do take those steps, however, it is still possible that a message may be filtered.

Today, let’s look at some guidelines for contacting an ISP about a content filtering issue so that filter doesn’t continue to disrupt your mailings.

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