Avoiding The Spam Flag

Email marketing can generate excellent revenue but one of the most important considerations, whether you've purchased a list or built your own is to ensure that you don't get labelled as a spammer. All email addresses should be collected ethically, and list members should have been given the option to opt in. All correspondence to list members should also include the option to quickly and easily opt out of future communication.

Buying or renting a list can be a good way of quickly adding names to an email marketing campaign. Pay particular care to how the list owner acquired the names and details on that list and always use ethical services that maintain a thorough database of contacts.

A list needs to be a database rather than a list. When a recipient chooses to opt out of email communication you should not only delete their name from the list but ensure that their name isn't added again in the future. If you purchase lists on very specific topics or from the same people this is especially important because you run the risk of adding somebody to your own list after they have unsubscribed from your emails.

While it may be tempting to make the unsubscribe option a difficult one to follow, regulations regarding the keeping and contacting of lists means that the process should be as transparent and as simple as possible. A single click should either redirect a list member to the unsubscribe page or should automatically do the work for them.