A pioneer of e-mail marketing and chair of the IAB’s Email Committee will provide e-mail marketing advice monthly. Today, he provides counter tactics to those of spammers.

According to a recent Brightmail study, 40% of all e-mail is Spam. I won’t use this space to go into detail about what’s being done to combat Spam, that’s well covered. However, there seems to be a lack of constructive advice on how to market through spam.

As I see it, legitimate e-mail marketers have two choices in today’s challenging environment: 1) Wait out the Spam storm until it blows over or, 2) Realize that Spam (or at least some level of it) is the new norm and react accordingly. It’s no surprise to you I’m sure, but I choose #2. So let me drill down on how responsible e-mail marketers can “react accordingly”.

Thankfully spammers make for extremely bad direct marketers. Most of the deceptive techniques they use are abundantly apparent to anyone who can read. The key for the guys in white hats is to not only avoid employing the same questionable tactics as them, but to go completely in the other direction.

To illustrate my point, here are six common Spam tactics and what you should do to breakthrough their clutter:

The List – OK, this is an obvious point but it needs to be said.
Spam tactic – Mail big, mail cheap and mail often.
Counter tactic – First confirm the opt-in process of the list you wish to use. Then test a small quantity.

The From Line – The From name is critical because it’s the first thing recipients will see and it will likely determine whether your e-mail gets opened or not.
Spam tactic - A “plain vanilla” department name (such as Customer Service) or a fictitious person’s name.
Counter tactic – Proudly display your company name or product brand in the From line. However, it’s sometimes best to use the list owners name if that’s their standard procedure.

Subject Line – The second critical item if your e-mail is to be read.
Spam tactic: The use of “Re:”, “Fw” to imply they have interacted with you before.
Counter tactic: Honestly stating the value in hearing about your offer

Content
Spam tactic: Most Spam is now html
Counter tactic: Don’t underestimate the value of text. Further, don’t write off rich media either. Always test the various types of creatives against each other.

Best Time to Mail
Spam Tactic: It seems that overnight is the preferred send time of Spammers. As a result, most people go into extreme delete mode when they logon in the morning.
Counter tactic: Test mailing during the day.

Frequency
Spam tactic: Repeated mailings of the same creative
Counter tactic: Never re-mail the same creative. Secondly, it’s best to only re-mail an offer that is event related such as a seminar (with a reminder a week later).

Don’t get me wrong -- the war on Spam is a critical one that we all must support. However, it’s unlikely we’ll be claiming victory anytime soon. In the meantime, most marketers agree we cannot afford to simply abandon e-mail. Rather, we need to market through spam and that means being better marketers. Fortunately for us, it’s not that difficult.

Michael Mayor is an 18-year veteran of direct marketing and a recognized pioneer of e-mail marketing. Michael joined NetCreation's as one of the company's first employees in 1998 and played a key role in helping to build the largest and most successful e-mail list management company in the industry today. He has also pioneered many of the e-mail marketing industry's standards and best practices. Mayor is a leading advocate of privacy and is a frequent speaker at industry functions. Mayor is also the Chairman for the Interactive Advertising Bureau's Email Committee.