This article outlines key best practices for creating email campaigns and managing email subscriptions effectively to minimize the likelihood of recipients marking messages as spam.
Avoid Spammy Content:
Craft relevant and interesting content without excessive capitalization, exclamation points, or gimmicky language to bypass spam filters.
Understand the distinction between transactional emails (individual notifications) and marketing campaigns (bulk emails requiring opt-in).
Avoid combining different types of content in the same email, such as mixing promotions with sales receipts.
Divide your audience based on traits like demographics or purchasing behavior and tailor campaigns accordingly for better engagement.
Do not impersonate other domains or senders without permission (spoofing), as this may lead to messages being marked as spam.
Permission-Based Marketing
Avoid sending emails to individuals who have not explicitly signed up to receive messages from you.
Confirm email addresses before adding individuals to your subscriber list or email campaign.
Do not purchase email lists from other companies; build your list organically.
Re-engage or unsubscribe inactive subscribers to keep your audience engaged and responsive.
Be cautious with opt-in forms that are pre-checked or automatically subscribe users, as some regions have restrictions on this practice.
Unsubscribe Practices
Provide an easy and straightforward method for recipients to unsubscribe from your emails, which can improve overall sending efficiency and engagement metrics. Allowing individuals to opt out can improve open rates and click-through rates as well.
Why We Require an Unsubscribe Link
Whenever you send an email campaign through Method, an unsubscribe link is automatically appended in the footer of the email.
Method is required to enforce anti-spam laws. Compliance with these regulations isn’t just a requirement of our Terms of Service and the CAN-SPAM Act; it also impacts your reputation as an email sender. A spotty unsubscribe process can impact deliverability rates, and we want to make sure your emails reach their recipients.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) mandate specific audience management practices for bulk delivery services like Method, so we have to be able to:
Handle unsubscribes automatically.
Process bounce records.
Report abuse and other information to ISP feedback loops. ISPs closely monitor how many unsubscribes occur. If an ISP sees too many, it can lead to deliverability issues for your account and other Method users’ accounts.
We have to do all of this automatically and accurately. Since sending an email to someone who has previously unsubscribed is a violation of CAN-SPAM, we have to make sure the unsubscribe process is being handled automatically for all of our users. Because of this, our Terms of Service require that our link be used in all Method email campaigns.
Following these guidelines can ensure compliance with Method’s Terms of Service and help maintain a positive relationship with subscribers, reducing the risk of emails being marked as spam, and improving overall email engagement metrics.