I get a plethora of joke emails from friends, but I don’t have time to read them all. I find myself opening the ones that have “very funny”, or “lol” in the subject line because that is what I am looking for. If the subject line was “just another joke” or not clear, chances are I would delete it just as fast as I got it. Companies are taking advantage of things that sell in order to reach new customers.
If the subject line said “did your first time feel like this?” you might think this is a sexy email. However, when you open it you see that it talks about someone’s recent experience with the tech support department. While a company should be happy because more people opened their email, they need to understand the rules involved in this very effective marketing tactic.
One thing you want to keep in mind, because the CAN-SPAM act clearly states “don’t use deceptive subject lines” it is possible to get reported to the FTC as a spammer. The Federal Trade Commission can report your Domain as spam. This obviously is not good as you could lose all of your email traffic and your domain will be blocked off of servers and search engines. The CAN-SPAM act contains a few basic rules you need to follow to avoid this from happening, and can be found at the link below.
http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus61-can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business
Here are a few of the basic rules:
- Identify the message as an ad. The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.
- Opt out. You must let your recipients opt out of receiving your emails. Put it in a place they can find it, such as the bottom of the email.
- Respect the Opt Out. If someone clicks on this option, respect it and take them off your emailing list.
- Use a relevant subject line. It must be relevant to the content within the email.
There are many companies out there that provide the service of marketing emails. This service is great as they can give you statistics such as how many people are opening your emails and who they are, what is working for you, and how much traffic you really have. Knowing what was interesting to the customer gives you valuable insight for your business. I highly recommend utilizing one of these companies and not using your own IP address.
