Guest Blogger | How to get past the Spam filter and into readers’ minds: Part II

Whitney Free-Bakula | Creative Assistant Hopefully, everyone had a great Fourth of July celebration! Last week we offered some tips on how to ensure your emails get past the spam filter and really resonate with your readers.  Today we’re taking it to the next level and offering up some advice on email design, content and overall logistics with sending.  Enjoy! 1. The easiest mistake to avoid is yelling at your reader by USING ALL CAPS and exclamation points!!!!! Annoying, isn’t it? MailChimp recommends avoiding the use of red or green text – this seems to send messages right to spam. 2. Because of the different email providers your audience may use (Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, Outlook, etc.), keep your design to 500-600 pixels wide and keep it simple. 3. Don’t use a giant image or mostly images with little or no text – those kinds of messages are almost always classified as spam and will be treated as such by both filters and readers. 4. Consider the time of day you email them. If your email is going to elicit replies, orders, phone calls or visitors, you need to be available to handle them. 5. Certain words and phrases immediately trigger a spam filter to catch your email. Here are a few of the most common ones to avoid: all new, buy now, cannot be combined with any other offer, cash, click, congratulations, discount, expires, free, guarantee, limited time offer, money, opportunity, pre-approved, prices, print, save, special, test, urgent, win.