Are Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL Blocking Your Marketing Message?

If you run an e-mail marketing campaign or newsletter, chances are the majority of your subscribers are likely using Hotmail, Yahoo or AOL e-mail addresses.  But did you know that these “Big Three” free e-mail providers could also not be delivering your mails to subscribers?  Here’s how to find out and make sure your message gets through.

All major ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and free e-mail services like Hotmail use a set of criteria to check if you’re sending spam (junk) mail – or if your message is legitimate.  While the criteria differs between them, you can be sure that each one checks for the following:

1. A Recognizable “From” Name:  This is the number one way your readers determine if they should even open your e-mail. 

In this day and age, with viruses, spyware and other nasty programs being sent by e-mail, if someone doesn’t recognize the sender’s name, they’ll delete it without even thinking. 

The ISPs realize this and check to make sure the sender’s name (or company name) appears on the outgoing newsletter.

2. Is it Relevant to the Audience?  You can help ensure your readers don’t mistakenly click the “This is Junk Mail” button when they download your message by writing a relevant and interesting subject line. 

Yes, even though they’ve signed up to receive your message, a subscriber may consider your message spam and let their ISP or email provider know about it. 

Hotmail, AOL and Yahoo all track how many times your subscribers have alerted them that your message is spam – so make sure your message is real and relevant – and not just a sales pitch every time.

3. Is the List Clean and Up-to-Date?  If you don’t clean your list often – removing e-mail addresses that no longer exist and removing subscribers that have chosen to unsubscribe – the ISPs know about it.  The good news is that you can do this automatically – see below for details.

4. Are You Whitelisted?  Many of the main internet providers offer a program that lets you notify them that you want to be “whitelisted” or known as a legitimate sender. 

This kind of authentication helps you get on the internet providers “Good” list.  To ensure your mails are authenticated, contact your mailing list management company or keep reading for the one we recommend – which will take care of this for you automatically.

5. Are Your Subscribers Verified?  This is done through a process known as a double opt-in.  What happens is that once a subscriber signs up for your e-mail list, they are sent a message with a link that they must click in order to “verify” that they want to receive your mails.  They can still unsubscribe at any time.

Not going through this seemingly innocent “extra step” could put you in violation of the (ironically-named) U.S. CAN-SPAM Act.

To have most of these features automatically handled for you, we recommend signing up for aWeber at http://freeinfo.aweber.com. 

Using aWeber’s e-mail marketing list service, you can be certain that your subscribers are fully verified and that your e-mails are completely authenticated with all major internet providers.

Sign up at http://freeinfo.aweber.com and save $60 when you order for a year.

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