There was a time when the word “Spam” was associated only with a potted meat product.
Today, however, “spam” also refers to junk messages sent by people with potentially nefarious means. Spam email is the bane of many email inboxes, and spam can even be sent by text message these days.
One way of thwarting spam messages has been the trusty spam filter, but do these resources work or hurt?
Spam Filters for Consumers
When it comes to the consumer side of things, spam filters work to weed out solicitations, “junk mail”, and other unrequested messages.
However, the Internet is not perfect, and in some cases, important messages get automatically transferred to the spam folder because of the keywords included.
An example of this might be where a marketer includes the words “sale” or “buy” in a promotional email. The email client then recognizes these words as being associated with unsolicited spam email and makes the switch on its own.
In fact, people have nearly missed job opportunities or important information as a result of this problem.
Spam Filters for Business owners
In the article, “Walking the fine line of spam filters” the author explains how business owners are affected by spam filters.
Anything from the keyword issue mentioned above to the nature of a message’s content can lead to a spam filter picking something out. For each message that is filtered, that’s one less potential customer or lead.
As a result, you and your team need to spend the time to determine best practices for sending out messages, whether via email or some other digital pathway.
How to Avoid Spam Filters as a Business Owner
One way to avoid being caught by spam filters is to ensure that you address each recipient by name.
There are a variety of programming scripts for this, and in utilizing them, you not only potentially avoid spam filters, but you also build trust, confidence, and a personal connection with the customer or potential customer.
Also, you have to provide a way to unsubscribe from emails per the Can Spam Act.
This has been put into place in order to avoid consumers being abused by spammers, and failing to include the option to unsubscribe can not only hurt your business, but it can also land your small business in legal trouble.
Finally, encourage readers to add your email address to their “white lists” so that you can avoid running into spam filters in the future.
About the Author: Andrew Rusnak is an author writes on topics that include Internet spam filters and marketing.