Special Considerations for Webmail Services

So now you know how a lot of anti-spam systems work. You really have to “think like a
spam filter” when you design your emails. Just like you “think like a search engine” when
you design web pages. Spam filters read your emails, and look for similarities with
known spam. You don’t want to do things that’ll get you accidentally thrown into the
junk folder.
And the best way to learn what not to do is:
1. Open up your junk email folder.
2. Look through all that spam you got. Really read it. Look at how they design
things, and look at how they write their copy. Notice all the similarities?
3. Now, don’t do what they do.
Okay, okay, to be more specific, here’s some stuff to avoid:
**Using bright red fonts, or going crazy with colors, styles, and formatting. Check
out the article, “Let’s dissect some spam!” at our MonkeyBrains blog to see what I
mean.
**Yelling with lots of exclamation points!!!!!!!
**YELLING WITH ALL CAPS!!!!
**Using spammy words, like “mortgage, viagra, etc.”
**Saying, “free” or “click here!” or “click here now!” or “act now!” or “limited time!”
(be especially careful of your unsubscibe link, where you might say something
like, “click here to unsubscribe.”
**If you use a WYSIWYG to code your HTML email, make sure the HTML code is
“clean.” WYSIWYGs often throw in lots of useless code that’s invisible to the user,
but spam filters look at it, and think you’re a sloppy spammer who doesn’t know
HTML.
**Don’t use “dummy text” in your message, even if you’re sending a test
campaign. Spam filters get suspicious of all that “lorem ipsum” stuff. When
sending test campaigns, use content that’s as real as possible. Don’t type in one paragraph, then copy-paste it ten times. Spam filters can see all the duplicate
content, and they think it’s spam.
**Don’t use the word “test” in your subject line.
**Don’t get too creative with your spelling, because the spammers do that all the
time (how many m0rtg4g3 ref1nanc3 spam messages are in your inbox right
now?).
**Don’t make an HTML email that’s just a bunch of pretty graphics. You need some
text in your message, too. Otherwise, the spam filters will have nothing to read,
and will think your message is junk.
**Don’t send the HTML email by itself. Always include that plain-text alternative
message.