First let me say, I’m not a spammer. We are a legitimate business offering a legitimate service to people. We offer training about internet marketing issues like seo, blogging, adwords, video etc. Recently I got wind that some of our email was ending up the in spam box of some people. This could be a big problem for a company that relies heavily on email communication.
I sent out and email or two today to people, but got no response. I thought I would go with the old fashion method and pick up the phone. So I called our client’s office and said… “Hey did you get my email? I’ve been having some trouble with email lately and wanted to double check.”
To which the client responded, “No, but let me check the spam filter maybe it is in there.” I held my breathe and waited hoping that it was not in the spam box. She came back online, and said, “Yes I just checked spam arrest and it is in there.”
My heart sort of sank.. “Oh no - all my email are getting ignored!” “No one is listening to me!” “What can I do?”
The client I spoke to gave me a clue. They use spam arrest, so I went to spam arrest’s website to check it out and see if there was anything I could do to solve the problem.
Here’s the funny part.. Spam Arrest uses a system which sends an automatic reply to anyone that emails you who is not on your contact list.
The email looks like this…
So if I email mary@marysmith.com for the first time and she is using spam arrest, I would get an email that looks something like the one above.
Here is the kicker.. Guess where the email from Spam Arrest sent to me to “verify” my email address ended up? You guessed it. In my spam box. Nice. So their spam box was having a conversation with my spam box!
Why is this a problem? Okay lets say someone wants to buy something from you or is interested in your service, but they have never contacted you before. Their email address is not in your “contact list” so they email and go in your spam box and then their spam filter emails out a verification email which ends up in the spam box again. Definitely not a good scenario.
What could you do to fix this?
One Idea - rather than relying on email for people to contact you - invite them to comment on your blog. This provides multiple channels for communication and if the email does not get through, they could at least contact you via your blog.
Of course the phone works as well, but at midnight, I would rather someone comment on my blog or submit a form on my website rather than calling me.
I am continuing to dig into the email spam issue and would welcome your comments. If you think your site is blacklisted and you are not too ashamed to let the world know, then lets talk about it here. Maybe we can help each other get back into the good graces of the ISP’s of the world.
