Newsletters that end up in junk mail- how do you fix that?

[esavvymom]

I've sent out two newsletters in the last month. I use i-Contact, so I can track them. Out of 80, I've had less than 5 bounce back on the last email. But my "Open" percentage is still about 25%.. I'm not complaining mind you...that's good. But there are more than 50 that have not been opened at all.

Now, I read somewhere that if their email client doesn't use HTML and the email is text (goodness, I hope not many are like that- they'd look horrible probably!), that it won't return the open-status to i-contact.

But I have one of my email addresses as a recipient so I can make sure I get the newsletters OK, and I it gets dumped into my junk mail/ spam folder- every time. Is there a way to avoid this?


Just curious what others have done to improve your stats with the newsletter.

[pamperedlinda]

...... it gets dumped into my junk mail/ spam folder- every time. Is there a way to avoid this? .....
Really? I thought using iContact or Constant Contact was supposed to alleviate the junk mail status? Dang! I was going to try it out too - that was my main motive :(

[esavvymom]

Well, I don't think any one can eliminate it completely - it depends on the email service provider they use. I can send an email to someone and just because it has my PWS link in it, it gets dumped in that folder...at least that happens with my own accounts- I have Road Runner and Gmail...both can get dumped into the spam folder.

But I know I've seen folks include things either in their email (which seems silly to me to put it IN the email itself) or somewhere else about adding the email address to their safe sender list in their email program. So I'd say "Add "cookingwithbobbi@<hidden email>" to your safe sender list to insure you receive my email newsletter" or something. I'm just not sure if that is something I should do, or if anyone had any other advice on this.

[CMe4PC]

That line is already at the bottom of Mike's designs. It does help to have the email address in your address book or 'safe sender list'. You might also need to 'train' your email program. I know in gmail you can click on something that says this is not SPAM. All future emails from that address should then go into your inbox instead of your junk box.

[chefann]

Some email systems don't return read statistics to systems like Constant Contact or iContact. So your read counts might be higher than you think. And sometimes people delete them without opening because they just don't feel like reading it. I've heard that it's better to send email newsletters on Tuesday than on Monday (or the weekend) because many people only access their email from work. And when they get in to work on Monday morning, the first thing they do is to clean out the inbox, often without reading things. Your message may be caught up in that.