Several months ago, I shared with members of The Internet
Marketing Inner Circle what I considered THE key to a
top-selling Internet marketing product. That key is to
make sure that the product solves a HUGE, painful problem.
I also shared that one massive problem that I considered
WORTH tackling is the dismal email deliverability rates
that many email marketers are experiencing.
After all, what good does it do to build a list in the
hundreds of thousand (which is where my database is at), if
much of the email doesn't get through.
This is a problem that I have discussed with numerous top
online marketers. Many of these marketers, with lists in
the hundreds of thousands, and even millions, long for "the
good old days" when a much higher percentage of their email
was delivered.
Many ezine publishers confide that they sometimes send out
a mailing and then wonder if ANYONE received it. Responses
can often be that low, and if it's a well-written email,
the problem HAS to be that it didn't get through.
Many marketers have started doctoring up individual words
used in their emails, thinking that this will partly solve
the problem. I find that words broken up with strange
punctuation, or deliberately misspelled, hurts overall
response rates more than it helps!
Many marketers have grown so frustrated that they've
started simply publishing their newsletters on their blogs,
giving up on the notion of delivering their full message
right to subscribers inboxes. They just send out a very
short email inviting the reader to the latest blog post. I
don't consider that the best solution.
However, setting up your email system so that more of your
email gets through isn't beyond the capability of the
average email marketer.
This is a topic that even those who don't use email
marketing need to understand because then they'll know
exactly why they often don't get emails that they WANT to
receive.
The step-by-step instruction on how to remedy this problem
are beyond the scope of this article. It would take a book
to explain ALL of the intricacies. In-fact, there is an
excellent primer on the topic entitled, "Email Delivery
Secret - EXPOSED." This primer is brief yet thorough, and
very inexpensive. You can get it at:
http://IncreasedEmailDelivery.org
Both this ebook, and experts that I've talked with on the
topic, explain that the key is how the server that the
email is sent from is configured.
Things that kill email deliverability, but are easy to
correct are:
1) Having open DNS server settings... allowing spammers to
send email through your server, and also causing many ISP's
to block all email from your server. I once had a host
that had ALL email from ALL customers blocked for this very
reason. Hundreds of screaming customers forced them to fix
that oversight!
2) Having an improper DNS server configuration. This may
be beyond your control, but may also indicate that you need
different hosting. 3) Missing Sender Policy Framework
(SPF) records, which other servers use in deciding whether
or not to accept email from you. The SPF record is used to
prevent or detect forged "from" email addresses.
4) Missing key mailboxes on your server, such as
abuse@yourdomain.com, and others.
On the other side of the coin you need to understand that
ISP's such as Yahoo.com, Hotmail.com, and AOL, have fairly
strict guidelines on what email is allowed onto their
servers.... and into their customers' inboxes.
The thing is, conditions that cause these ISP's, used by
million of your potential customers, to block your emails
are all published polices and procedures.
To get more of your email through to customers who receive
email at those ISP's, you really only need to make a few
changes in your email setup. These are things that make
for logical, secure email practices in the first place.
The bottom-line is that you CAN get a much higher
percentage of your emails delivered if you'll just set
aside a little time to discover why it's actually not
getting through. Those reasons aren't secrets that the
ISP's hide from you! You just need to learn them and then
start working WITH the ISP's.
As previously pointed out, a good starting point is the
ebook, "Email Delivery Secret - EXPOSED." It will point
you to a lot of tools and resources to check things such as
whether your domain (or IP address) is blacklisted, and how
to get it unblocked. That inexpensive ebook, with some
excellent screenshots for the various server control panel
setups, is at:
http://IncreasedEmailDelivery.org
Here's another thing... just taking the time to learn these
few good email practices will put you light-years ahead of
your competitors. Many of them just seem to prefer
"sticking their heads in the sand" and pretending that the
problem doesn't exist.
Low email deliverability rates are a real problem. Now, you
know how to do something about it.
----------------------------------------------------
Willie Crawford has been teaching others uncomplicated
methods of building successful online businesses since
1996. Today, he does most of his teaching inside an
exclusive membership site filled with other experts
dedicated to uncovering the truth about how to succeed
online. Join Willie and dozens of other "old-timers" at:
http://TheInternetMarketingInnerCircle.com
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