"The Banter" A Quarterly Newsletter: Vol. 3, 2nd Quarter :: May 2007

You Have Your Email Campaign, Now How Do You Avoid Those Spam Filters? A Case Study: Kowit & Passov Real Estate Group Tech Tips: The Most Important Part Of Backing Up Our Clients in the Spotlight: Zeisler Morgan Intersoft Jobs: Sales Positions Wanted You Have Your Email Campaign, Now How Do You Avoid Those Spam Filters? By: Lisa Hackle You did it. You built your email list, you planned your message and designed the email. Your email campaign is ready and your audience is waiting. Out it goes. You sit back and relax, knowing that it'll now be safely delivered to each email box and read by all who've subscribed to your list. Or will it? Spam filters are constantly improving to block the ever-growing flood of unwanted emails that find their way into your email box. Having an effective spam filter saves you the trouble of going through tons of email to find that one legitimate email. But they can also determine the fate of the email message you send to your subscribers, tossing it into the endless pit of junk email. Content, my friend, is the key to avoiding spam filters and here are some basic tips to show you how. Email Subject Lines Email subject lines are a part of email headers. This makes it easier for spam filters to parse and evaluate the body of email messages. Because of this, spam filters give words in the subject line more value when evaluating the email. There are certain words that trigger spam filters and should be avoided when you decide what your subject line should be. Any words that describe pharmaceutical products, mortgages, refinancing, debt reduction, investment, male "enhancement", and of course adult-related topics and pornography should clearly be avoided. Here are some examples of words to avoid in your subject lines as published in AOL's 'Top 10 Spam Email Subject Lines' of 2003:* Viagra online (also: xanax, valium, xenical, phentermine, soma, celebrex, valtrex, zyban, fioricet, adipex, etc.) Online pharmacy (also: 'online prescriptions'; 'meds online') Get out of debt (also: 'special offer') Get bigger (also: 'satisfy your partner'; 'improve your sex life') Online degree (also: 'online diploma') Lowest mortgage rates (also: 'lower your mortgage rates'; 'refinance'; 'refi') Lowest insurance rates (also: 'lower your insurance now') Work from home (also: 'be your own boss') Hot XXX action (also: 'teens'; 'porn') As seen on Oprah *Source: AOL. This list is unscientific, and is not in any specific order. The cited email subject headers are not ranked by volume. So, let's say you want to send a coupon to your customers for 25% off all your products in the month of May. Using "25% Discount on All Products" in the subject line can cause certain spam filters to send that email right to the junk folder. Your customer will never even see your email, let alone open it. Try subject lines like "ABC Company's May Sale" or "May Sale for Our Customers". Email Message Body As a rule of thumb, the body of your email should be written with the characteristics of an informational newsletter, making sure to use proper HTML syntax. Keeping away from copy that simply gives offers or describes discounts will greatly reduce the possibility that your message will be filtered. Some other points to consider that may keep filters from considering your message to be "junk" are as follows: Stay away from the words and phrases commonly referred to be spam (see the list above). Double check your copy for misspellings. Try not to overuse capitalization, dollar signs and explanation points. Don't use a single large image as your body with little or no text. Send your HTML syntax through HTML validation software. Incorrect HTML syntax can be associated with spam. Never link to URL's that are associated with spam. Stay away from links that use "https://". They are usually filtered to prevent phishing (see our Tech Tip in the October 2005 issue to learn more about phishing). With these suggestions and a little creative thinking, your emails will become more filter resistant and you'll have a more effective campaign with better response rates. Happy Campaigning! Back to Top A Case Study: Kowit & Passov Real Estate Group KowitPassov.Com Kowit & Passov Real Estate Group, a retail brokerage firm in Northeast Ohio, has become the largest and most productive "retail only" firm in the market. They provide clients with customized solutions, consistent high quality service, and the most comprehensive real estate services. Some of their clients include Kinko's, Red Robin, Pier 1, and Whole Foods. Challenge: Kowit came to us wanting to redesign their current web site. They needed the site to have easy navigation, updatability and interactivity and a more intuitive procedure to finding property information. Solution: Intersoft met their challenge with a Commercial Real Estate Broker System. Kowit & Passov's new site gave them the ability to update their brokers, press releases and their property information. They were able to sort their properties into two categories, Retail & Office, and then into multiple sub categories after that. The updateable press release page lists the press releases from the newest to oldest date, in turn acting like an online archive. One of the most notable updateable features that Intersoft implemented was their updateable property animation. This allowed them to highlight certain properties in a rotating block throughout their site. Each of the properties linked to their own individual property page. In addition, a very powerful search feature was built into the site that allows site visitors to locate properties by property type, property location and property size. Finally, Intersoft designed the Broker Alert System. This allows a broker to register online for immediate email alerts whenever a new property is added to the online database that satisfies their criteria. The new design & functionality of the web site brought the interactive experience of the Kowit & Passov client, the broker, to the next level. Back to Top Tech Tips: The Most Important Part Of Backing Up So, you're backing up your company's data nightly. You even create tape backups at an offsite location. Your thinking you have everything under control in case of a system crash. Now answer this, are you performing restore tests of your backups on a regular basis? What is a restore test you ask? The most important part of backing up is to make sure you perform a regular scheduled restore test. Sometimes, files that are being backed up are corrupt. Corrupt files can actually cause your entire backup set to become corrupt. This means that you will not be able to restore your backed up data. Restore tests can be run monthly, quarterly or even sooner, if your data is constantly changing and extremely critical. Your restore test could be just restoring a few files to rebuilding your entire system from your backups. By performing the restore test on a regular scheduled basis you will know whether your backup has been corrupted. This of course will save you tons of time and money in the long run. So, make sure you implement restore tests for your backups. What good is having backups if you're not able to retrieve your backed up files. If you have tech question that you would like us to write about email us at techtips@intersoftgroup.com. Back to Top Our Clients in the Spotlight: Zeisler Morgan Website: www.zeislermorgan.com Developing over 2,000,000 square feet of shopping centers, Zeisler Morgan Properties Ltd. is a full service retail shopping center development company. They service four critical areas - development, investment, leasing and management. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Zeisler Morgan has developed shopping centers across 4 states: Ohio, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and North Carolina. Back to Top Intersoft Jobs: Sales Positions Wanted Intersoft is looking for qualified Sales Applicants to join our Group! If you know of anyone looking for a Sales position that you feel would be a good fit with our company please have them check out our job description at: http://www.intersoftgroup.com/jobs/jobs.aspx All qualified sales applicants can email their resume to: jobs@intersoftgroup.com Back to Top