In this day and age, most people have heard of e-blast newsletters. The pros of this popular marketing tool include being cost-effective, having a targeted audience, overall flexibility and an outlet to get creative. But as with everything in life, where there’s an up—there’s most certainly a down. The cons of this electronic medium all revolve around the message actually getting through to the intended audience. The over usage and abuse by spammers and overly aggressive marketers have sprung a variety of smart, protective and effective email spam blockers. Some a little too over protective—blocking perfectly legitimate and harmles emails from YOU, the sender. Here are some quick and dirty tips to help you have an effective e-blast campaign. Are these 100% proven to get your email where it needs to go? Of course not! But it certainly does raise your chances.

Tip #1. Don’t do it alone. Email marketing service providers are your friend. They can help you maintain and segment your lists, provide you with nifty design templates, connect to social media,  track performance and much more. We’re big fans of MailChimp here. They even offer an absolutely free (no joke) level of service. What’s better than free?

Tip #2. Back to basics. When you get into the design portion of your eblasts, make sure you stick to old school tables to get the best cross platform compatibility. CSS is great for web sites, but don’t you dare use it for your eblast. After your programming is done, don’t think you’re done. Test it. Then test it again. And then test it some more. You’ll want to test on the major online email readers like Yahoo and Gmail, not to mention the very stinky desktop readers such PC platform Microsoft Outlook and the very awesome Mac platform Entourage. (What bias?!)

Tip #3. Don’t be sketchy. Always make sure to include a one-click “unsubscribe” link to give your readers the options of opting out. Ideally, your e-blasts will be so awesome and helpful that no one will want to unsubscribe—but let people make their own decisions. Also, if your company has a private policy online, go ahead and provide that link to your readers.

Tip #4. The bold and the beautiful. You’re sending an email, not building a fancy pants website. At most, you’ll have text and images. No javascript, no flash, no embedded videos. You’ll want to keep images to a minimum if possible. Keep in mind that email programs and mobile devices have a tendency of stripping out images. And when you do use images, make sure you have your alt tags setup. Make sure your emails make sense—even without the pretty pictures.

Tip #5. Don’t be annoying. Make sure before you send out an e-blast you actually have something to say that people want to listen to. Be concise with your words, get to the point and again, keep it simple. And remember—the only person who wants a daily e-blast from you is your mother.

Tip #6. Only bad people buy lists. If the people you’re emailing didn’t ask to get an email from you, don’t send one. You’re just setting yourself up for failure at that point, and even worse, you risk losing your email marketing service provider if you get one too many unsubscribes or complaints. And if that happens, people will point, laugh and make fun of you. Rightly so.

Tip #7. Viagra! While it gets your attention, it will not reach any inbox. Stay away from spammy words or phrases that might raise an electronic eyebrow—especially in your subject line. Words to avoid include viagra, free, limited time, click here, sales, sample, trial, quote…well, you get the point. Also, ALL CAPS is a no-no. (That and it reads like you’re yelling at your reader—SO STOP IT!)

Still confused? Have questions? Or would rather let someone else worry about tables, alt tags and getting everything right? Give Bullpen a call today at 713.652.2030.