Email Deliverability: Is Your Message Falling on Deaf Ears?

    Sep 16, 02:55 PM in Internet

    Are your clients getting your marketing emails? If your messages are getting eaten up by over ambitious S*P*A*M filters, would you even know?

    Notice I can’t even spell the word (S*P*A*M) correctly without tripping them and reducing my deliverability…

    From new listing announcements to your monthly e-newsletter you send to past clients, getting your email delivered is important to you if you are marketing online. If no one reads your messages, there can be no results.

    So the first step is to find out what percentage of your emails are currently being read. In order to find out, the emails you send need to be trackable.

    The debate rages on about whether you can market more effectively using plain text emails (which are nothing but black and white text, no images, no color) or HTML emails (which look just like a webpage, complete with images and color, when you open up the message).

    The results aren’t exactly conclusive and many people have strong opinions about which method works for THEM in THEIR market. Just remember, nothing is set in stone on the internet. What generates a response today might not tomorrow. Email marketing is a moving target. You’ve got to test, test, test.

    In the past, my recommendation was to choose plain text emails to maximize readability AND deliverability. But the problem with using only plain text email is that it isn’t trackable, so it is very hard to judge the response. You don’t know how many people really read your message.

    And although HTML email IS completely trackable in that you can see who is opening your message and who is not, it does have drawbacks as well.

    For starters, HTML emails tend to get caught up in S*P*A*M filters a bit more easily. But the bigger issue is whether or not your reader’s email program displays the different parts of an HTML email (like the pictures and links) by default – without having to click on something to read the message.

    Some current email programs, by default, do not display images in HTML emails. So when your clients receive your message, there will be blank boxes in place of the images, until your client clicks to view them.

    Email marketing is not perfect, but when it comes to trackable emailing (which is an absolute MUST), you have two options: HTML email or a plain text “teaser” (“I’ve just posted a new issue of my newsletter. Follow the link to read it.”) leading to a “webified” version of your message.

    The smart thing to do is to test both and see which generates a higher response in your market.