It's not Spam if you're Interested.

I get SPAM everyday. I also get emails from companies that I actually look forward too. Last minute flights to Mexico from United - Yes! Two for one dining at my favorite restaurant - Give it to me! I've signed up for these emails and I'm interested in having a dialogue with the company that is sending them. Here are some tips so you can be one of those companies.

Subject Line

• Include brand or product name.
• Avoid SPAM filters, image blocking & Blacklists
• Keep subject lines under 35 characters

Links

• Have either one link or 6-10 links
• Have both text and image links (and put near each other)

Offers

• Free gifts & dollar amount off are beating free shipping!
• Always put offer & links above the fold

Programming

• Use tables, not CSS.
• Get authenticated (via email provider)

From Line

• From a person, not a brand
• Design for Preview Pane
• Put company logo in upper left corner
• Put offer and click at top

Content

• Keep copy short & scanable, Use bullets not long paragraphs
• Run through spam check at http://www.spamassassin.org/
• B2C – Emails should be mostly images
• B2B – Emails should be mostly text
• Be sure it’s CAN-SPAM compliant (opt out and physical address at bottom of email)
• Don’t say "remove me" or "unsubscribe", say "To no longer receive this email"

Examples

Here are some example emails we created for Intuit's Quicken product. We were trying to get their customers to upgrade to the newest version of Quicken. Notice how many of the tips we used - not all of them of course, sometimes, you gotta break the rules (or clients ask you to).