SPAM FILTER WORDS & PHRASES
Most spam filters work on a point system, so that the occurrence of just one
“spam phrase” probably won’t trigger rejection – except some of which the
filter considers notorious. The following phrases are considered notorious
Spam Triggers:
• Reverses Aging
• Hidden Assets
• Stop Snoring
• Free Investment
• Dig up dirt on friends
• Stock Disclaimer Statement
• Multi-Level Marketing
• Compare Rates
• Cable Converter
• The email claims you can be
removed from list
• Removes wrinkles
• Compete for your business
• Free Installation
• Free Grant Money
• Collect Child Support
• Free Leads
• Amazing Stuff
• Cash Bonus
• Promise You!...
• Claims to be in accordance with
“some” law
• Search Engine Listings
• Credit Bureaus
• No Investment
• Serious Cash
Even if you don’t use the previous notorious phrases, other spam words can add
up. Here are some to be aware of in your e-mail messages or newsletters:
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4U
Accept Credit Cards
Act Now!
Don’t Hesitate!
Additional Income
Addresses on CD
All Natural
Amazing
Apply Online
As seen on
Billing Address
Auto Email Removal
Avoid Bankruptcy
Be amazed
Be your own boss
Being a member
Big Bucks
Bill 1618
Billion Dollars
Brand New Pager
Bulk Email
Buy Direct
Buying Judgments
Cable Converter
Call Free
Call Now
Calling Creditors
Cannot be Combined with any other offer
Cancel at any time
Can’t live without
Cash bonus
Cashcashcash
Casino
Cell Phone Cancer
Cents on the dollar
Check or money order
Claims not to be selling anything
Claims to be legal
Claims you are a winner
Click below
Click to remove
Compare rates
Compete for your business
Congratulations
Consolidate debt
Stop snoring
Get it now
Special promotion
Copy accurately
Copy dvd’s
Credit card offers
Dig up dirt on friends
Free hosting
Free installation
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Free investment
Free leads
Free membership
Free money
Free offer
Free preview
Free priority mail
Free quote
Free sample
Free trial
Free website
Full refund
Get paid
Get started now
Gift certificate
Great offer
Guarantee
Have you been turned down
Hidden assets
Home employment
Human growth hormone
If only it were that easy
In accordance with laws
Increase sales
Increase traffic
Insurance
Investment decision
It’s effective
Join millions of Americans
Limited time only
Lose weight
Lower interest rates
Lower monthly payment
Lowest price
Mail in order form
Marketing solution
Mass email
Meet singles
Money back
Money making
Month trial offer
More internet traffic
Mortgage rates
Multilevel marketing
New customers only
Nigerian
No age restriction
No catch
No forms
No credit check
Online pharmacy
Only $
Opportunity
Opt In
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Order Now
Order Status Outstanding
Values Pennies a day
People just leave money laying around
Please read
Potential earnings
Print out and fax
Produced and sent out
Profits
Promise you!..
Pure profit
Real Thing
Refinance Home
Removes wrinkles
Requires initial investment
Reserves the right
Reverses aging
Risk free
Satisfaction guaranteed
Save $
Save big money
Save up to
Score with babes
See for yourself
Serious cash
Serious only
Shopping spree
Social security number
Stock alert
Stock disclaimer statement
Stock pick
Strong buy
Stuff on sale
Subject to credit
Supplies are limited
Take action now
Talks about hidden charges
Talks about prizes
The best rates
The following form
The keep your money – no refund!
They’re just giving it away
This isn’t junkDirect Mail
Direct Marketing
Discusses search engine listings
Do it today
Don’t delete
Drastically reduced
Earn per week
Easy terms
Eliminate bad credit
Email harvest
Expect to earn
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Fantastic deal
Fast Viagra delivery
Financial freedom
Find out anything For free
For instant access
For just $ (some amount)
Free access
Free cell phone
Free consultation
Free DVD
Free grant money
No fees
No gimmick
No inventory
No investment
No medical exams
No middleman
No obligation
No purchase necessary
No questions asked
No selling
No strings attached
Not intended
Off shore
Offer expires
Offers extra cash
Offers free passwords
Once in a lifetime
One hundred percent free
One time mailing
Online biz opportunity
This isn’t spam
University diplomas
Unlimited
Unsecured credit/debt
Urgent
US Dollars
Vacation
Viagra and other drugs
Wants credit card
We hate spam
We honor all
Weekend getaway
What are you waiting for
While supplies last
While you sleep
Who really wins
Why pay more?
Will not believe your eyes
Winner
Work at home
You have been selected
Your income
AVOID THE FOLLOWING TERMS IF POSSIBLE:
Subject Line Terms:
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Contains $$$
“100% Free”
Contains the word “ad”
Apply now
Earn $
Earn extra cash
Explode your business
Double your income
Eliminate debt
Extra income
Free
Fast cash
Financial freedom
Financially independent
Free gift
Free info
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Free membership
Free offer
Home based
Home based business Income from home Increase
sales
Increase your sales
Incredible deal
Info you requested
Internet market
Limited time offer
Make $
Opportunity
Web traffic
Weight loss
Online marketing
Save $
All of our clients are brick and mortar businesses reaching out to their surrounding neighborhoods as an effort to drive more foot
traffic into their stores. Most of the previously listed spam words are for online schemes. However, it is important for you to read
them so the content in your messages is not to be confused by a spam filter as an fishy internet marketing instead of the
legitimate business that you are.
5 Easy Steps
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Step 1 – Use our easy targeting tool to zero-in on exactly who you want to market to. This could be males, females, a certain
age group, a certain geographic location, etc. It’s a really useful tool for reaching the correct customer for your business!
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Step 2 – Choose a beautiful pre-designed HTML template based on what industry you are in. Don’t see your industry? Not to
worry! We have created an “Other Category” that allows all businesses to use!
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Step 3 – Customize your HTML email with our “What You See Is What You Get” editor, which is just as simple as working in
Microsoft Word. Here you can add images, your own content, your logo, coupon offers and links to your website into the
email!
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Step 4 – Here you will have a final review of your email campaign. You will also supply a “From” name, which could be
something like “ABC Dealership” or “Mike’s Pizza” which will show up as who the email is from. You will also supply a
“subject line” and have the ability to send this email to yourself so you can see how it looks in your inbox!
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Step 5 – Choose your quantity that you wish to send this email campaign out to. You will have the ability to choose up to the
amount available in our email database after you used our targeting tool in Step 1. The minimum order is 1,000 emails
which is only $50. Now you are ready to Check out! Here you can enter in your payment information as well as any
applicable Promo Codes.
*Not all gas tanks qualify. Ex: My vehicle runs on garbage and old, unusable email addresses that we remove from our database so
you don’t market to them!
Pricing Per Thousand Emails
Consumer Database:
Automotive Database:
Business to Business Database:
$50 per thousand
$100 per thousand
$130 per thousand
EMAIL MARKETING GLOSSARY
Below are common terms you will encounter in the process of designing and executing email marketing campaigns.
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Above The Fold: The part of an email message or webpage that is visible without scrolling. Material in this area is
considered more valuable because a reader will see this first. Refers to a printing term for the top half of a newspaper above
the fold. Unlike a newspaper, email and Web page fold locations aren’t predictable. Your fold may be affected by the users’
preview pane, monitor size, monitor resolution any headers placed by email programs such as Yahoo!, Gmail, etc.
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Alt Tags: These tags are the text that describes the image before it renders. Marketers find that replacing the functional
description or file name of the image with a carefully chose description helps tell the story with images suppressed. For
people with access issues such as the blind the tags are read aloud.
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Authentication: An automated process that verifies an email sender’s identity.
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Bounce: A message that doesn’t get delivered promptly is said to have bounced. Emails can bounce for more than 30
reasons: the email address is incorrect or has been closed; the recipients’ mailbox is full, the mail server is down, or the
system detects spam or offensive content. See hard bounce and soft bounce.
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Bounce Rate: Number of hard/soft bounces divided by the number of emails sent. This is an inexact number because some
systems do not report back to the sender clearly or accurately.
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Broadcast: The process of sending the same email message to multiple recipients.
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CAN-SPAM: Popular name for the U.S. Law, which became effective 1/1/04, regulating commercial email (Full Name:
Controlling the Assault of Non-‐Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003). The law establishes requirements for
those who send email with primary purpose of advertising or promoting.
EMAIL MARKETING GLOSSARY (CONTD)
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Click-Through: When a hotlink is included in an email, a click-through occurs when a recipient clicks on the link.
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Click Through Rate: The number of times all links in an email were clicked compared to the total list size,
represented as a percentage. To determine the click-through rate, divide the number of clicks by the number of
emails delivered and multiply this number by 100 to display as a percentage.
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Click to Open Rate: The number of times all links in an email were clicked compared to the number of people
who opened the email, represented as a percentage. To determine the click to open rate, divide the number of
clicks by the number of emails opened and multiply this number by 100 to display as a percentage.
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Confirmed Opt-in: Inexact term that may refer to a double-opt-in subscription process or may refer to email
addresses which do not hard bounce back a welcome message.
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CPA: Cost Per Action. A method of paying for advertising, or calculating results from non-CPA marketing.
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CPM: Cost per thousand. Creative (Email Marketing): Terminology used for copy and content of an email. Email
creative can be in many different formats including HTML, Text, Images, etc.
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Delivered Email: Number of emails sent minus the number of bounces and filtered messages. A highly inexact
number because not all receiving ISP’s report accurately on which email didn’t go through and why not.
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Delivery Tracking: The process of measuring delivery rates by format, ISP or other factors and delivery
EMAIL MARKETING GLOSSARY (CONTD)
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Demographics: Data about the size and characteristics or an audience.
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ECOA: Email Change of Address. A service that tracks email address changes and updates.
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Email Address: The combination of a unique username and a sender domain. The email address requires both the user
name and domain name.
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Email Authentication: Practice of validating that an email sender is legitimate to cut down on spam and phishing scams.
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Email Client: The software recipients use to read email, such as Outlook Express, Mac Mail or Lotus Notes.
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Email Filter: A software tool that categorizes, sorts or blocks incoming email, based either on the sender, the email header
or message content. Filters may be applied at the recipient’s level, at the email client, the ISP or a combination.
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Email Frequency: The intervals at which email marketing efforts are repeated: Weekly, Bi-Weekly, Monthly, Bi-Monthly, etc.
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Email Marketing Campaign: Coordinated email marketing messages delivered at intervals with a specific objective or goal.
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Email Newsletter: Content distributed to subscribers by email, on a regular schedule. Content is seen as valued editorial in
and of itself rather than primarily a commercial message with a sales offer.
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Email Vendor: Another name for an email broadcast service provider, a company that sends bulk (volume) email on behalf
of their clients.
EMAIL MARKETING GLOSSARY (CONTD)
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Geo Targeting: The ability to target new customers by geography such as city, state, country and zip code.
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Hard Bounce: A message that was sent to an invalid, closed or non-existent email account.
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Header: Routing and program data at the start of an email message, including the sender’s name and email address, originating email
server IP address, recipient IP address and any transfers in the process.
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IP Address: A unique number assigned to each device connected to the Internet. An IP address can be dynamic, meaning it changes each
time an email message or campaign goes out, or it can be static, meaning it does not change. Static IP addresses are best, because dynamic
IP addresses often trigger spam filters.
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ISP: Internet Service Provider. Examples: AOL, Comcast, MSN, Earthlink
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Landing Page: A web page viewed after clicking on a link within an email. Also may be called a microsite, splash page, bounce page or click
page.
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List Rental: The process in which a publisher or advertiser pays a list owner to send it’s messages to that list. Usually involved the list owner
sending the messages on the advertisers behalf. This is what UMail Portal does for its clients. We own a huge email list, and we send email
messages to our members on behalf of our clients. *If a company is willing to hand their list over to you so you actually receive the email
addresses, this is highly illegal and you should proceed with caution if at all.
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Open Rate: The number of HTML message recipients who opened your mail, usually as a percentage of total emails sent. The open rate is
considered a key metric in the success of an email campaign.
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Opt-In: A specific, pro-active, request by an individual email recipient to have their own email address placed on specific email mailing lists.
EMAIL MARKETING GLOSSARY (CONTD)
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Opt-Out: A specific request to remove an email address from a specific email list or database. UMail Portal includes a link to
opt out of receiving offers from the client we send email on behalf of (i.e. Restaurants, Bars, Lawyers, etc.) and another link
to opt out of the UMail Portal database completely.
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Pass-Along: A recipient who got your message via forwarding from another subscriber. Personalization: A targeting method
in which an email message appears to have been created for a single recipient. Personalization techniques include adding
the recipients name in the subject line or message body.
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Preview Pane: The window in an email client that allows the user to scan the message for content without actually opening
the message itself.
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Seed Emails: Email addresses placed on a list (sometimes secretly), to determine what messages are sent to the list and to
track delivery rates and visual appearance of messages.
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Sender ID: The informal name for a new anti-spam program combining two existing protocols. Sender Policy Framework and
CalledID. SenderID authenticates email senders and blocks forgeries and fake email addresses.
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Shared Server: An email server used by more than one company or sender. Share servers are less expensive because the
broadcast vendor can spread the cost over more users. However, senders sharing a server risk having emails blocked by
major ISP’s if one of the other users does something to get the server’s IP address blacklisted. UMail Portal uses our OWN
dedicated servers and do not participate in a shared server environment.
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Soft Bounce: Email sent to an active (live) email address but which is turned away before being delivered. Often, the
problem is temporary – the server shut down or the recipient’s mailbox is full. The email is usually held at the recipient’s
server and delivered later.
EMAIL MARKETING GLOSSARY (CONTD)
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Spam: The popular name for unsolicited commercial email. However, some email
recipients define spam as any email they no longer want to receive.
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Subject Line: A sentence that identifies what an email message is about, often designed
to entice the recipient into opening the message. The subject line appears first in the
recipients’ inbox, often next to the senders’ name or email address.
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Subscribe: The process of joining an email mailing list, either through an email command,
by filling out a web form, by filling a form offline or requesting to be added verbally.
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Unsubscribe: To remove oneself from an email list, either via an emailed command to the
list server or by filling out a web form.
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Whitelist: Advanced-authorized list of email addresses, held by an ISP, subscriber or other
email service provider, which allows email messages to be delivered regardless of spam
filters.
INTRODUCTION TO DESIGNING HTML EMAILS
This guide is for marketing agencies, designers or
experienced HTML programmers that wish to
Upload their own HTML to use when marketing
with UMail Portal. If you are none of the above, we
offer hundreds of template that are customized to
specific industries and basic templates that you can
customize without knowing HTML. Please visit
www.umailportal.com for more information.
Let’s get started!
Designing successful HTML Email Marketing Campaigns is dependent upon having a clear
understanding of your marketing goals which will determine “who” you (or your clients if you are a
marketing agency) would like to market to (males, females, a certain geographic area, etc.) and with
“what” offer you’d like to market to them. Here are some examples:
• Acquiring New Customers
• Converting Potential Customers Into First Time Buyers
• Growing Current Customer Relationships
• Retaining Loyal Customers or Enhancing Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty
• Reactivating Lost or Lapsed Customers into Current Customers
Once you goals are clearly defined, the email marketing campaign can be designed to target a specific
audience with relevant messaging. This HTML Creative Design Field Guide includes the features to
enhance email communication, the Do’s and Don’ts for designing and coding HTML email, and the
guidelines for email copy and creative.
CONTENT GUIDELINES
Keep content of HTML emails short and to the point. You have a short time frame to capture a potential customer’s attention.
• Engage interest with short, easy-to-read, relevant content
• Using bullets is a good way to call attention to important details. But don’t use images as bullets in unordered lists (UL).
• Avoid Spam Filter words and phrases. See Our “Guide To Not Get Trapped” for more details.
Subject Lines:
• The first point of contact with a potential customer is the subject line. This also creates the initial impression about your business or event or offer you
are promoting.
• The goal of the subject line is to convince the recipient to open and read your email message.
• The subject line should be a maximum of 8-10 words to get immediate attention
• The average email viewer can display 60 characters in the subject line before it gets cut off.
• umailportal.com recommends keeping subject lines under 50 Characters or greater than 72 Characters and refrain from using punctuation
(especially exclamation points and question marks)
Headlines:
• Headlines appear at the top of the email message just under the subject line.
• Headlines should contain the offer, savings or promotional message you are marketing.
Body Content:
• Restate the offer(s) from the headline at the top of the body content
• Include 1-2 short paragraphs with details of the marketing offer and a brief company description when applicable.
• Convey benefits to the customer
Call to Action:
• Include a strong call to action that tells the recipient of the email what you want them to do (i.e. sign up, join, buy, attend, etc.)
Address:
• The DMA (Direct Marketing Association) Email Best Practices and the CAN SPAM Act require the physical address and phone number of the sender of
the message to be included at the bottom of the email.
The Bottom Line:
Create an email with content and offers that you would enjoy receiving
yourself. Ask yourself if you would open the email, if you would read the
email and more importantly, would you act on the marketing offer being
presented.
CREATIVE GUIDELINES
Design for Quick Viewing:
• Keep layout about the fold – 250 to 300 pixels
• Design as a half-page rather than a full-page ad. Do not force the recipient to scroll.
• Create the HTML Email in an HTML editor in Plain HTML. Do not use MS Word, Layers, CSS, PageMaker or Dreamweaver.
Use of Graphics:
• Use bold graphics and design. Lifestyle Graphics work best.
• When using images, use ALT tags as a component of <img> tag. This will ensure copy shows up in place of the image for those recipients who have
their image reader turned off or the reader is set to off by default.
• We do not recommend the use of forms, flash, animated GIF’s, nested background colors, background images in DIV tags or TABLE cells.
• We do ot recommend embedded images.
• Avoid the temptation to build your emails using only images. Try to keep a 60 (text) to 40 (image) ratio on your emails.
Optimize your HTML Creative:
• Try to keep the entire HTML and graphics must be under 50kb in weight (HTML 10kb or less and images 40kb or less).
• Save graphics with large blocks of flat color or plain text as GIFs.
• If the layout is one large graphic, slice into smaller pieces and spread throughout email.
Design Format:
• Do not use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) or Javascript!
• Include your logo at the top to attract attention and quickly promote your company.
• Test your design in a preview pane, full screen and with images turned on/off.
EMAIL CREATIVE DO’S AND DON’TS
Here is a list of Email Creative Do’s:
• Create the HTML in an HTML editor, in Plain HTML
• Use ALT tags in the HTML code for each image used in the HTML design.
• Use headers, especially when featuring a brand or logo.
• Get important messaging above the fold so it is viewed within the preview pane.
• Clearly identify the call to action that you want the recipient to take.
• Make the hyperlink prominently displayed and in multiple locations if the purpse is the drive customers to your website.
• Use bullets as a good way to call attention to important details.
• Save graphics with large blocks of flat color or plain text as GIFs.
• Use a colored background behind a small but important part of the email message to distinguish it.
• Use a signature graphic, to make the email appear more personal.
• Ensure that the entire HTML email including graphics is under 50k in weight.
• Use fonts that are universal on the internet such as Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, or Times New Roman. Any other fonts will resort to
a default font if the recipient doesn’t have it installed on their computer.
• Minimize the number of fonts, sizes, and colors used in the design for easy flow and professional look.
• Minimize graphics and images to logos, photos of products or situational photos that support the message visually.
• Include a re-direct to the email creative as a viewing work around. i.e. If you are having trouble viewing this email with images,
click here. Place at the top of the HTML email creative.
• Ensure that the physical mailing address and phone number of the sender are included at the bottom of the creative as required
by the DMA Email Best Practices and CAN SPAM Act.
• Keep the length of the email short, concise, and about one page maximum in length. Newsletters may be slightly longer, but the
further details of the message should be left on the hyperlinked- landing page.
• Include a landing page where responders go after they click through from an email.
• Keep the subject line less than 50 characters or greater than 72 characters.
EMAIL CREATIVE DO’S AND DON’TS (CONTD)
Here is a list of Email Creative Do’s:
• Don’t use Microsoft Word, Layers, CSS, Pagemaker, Javascript or
Dreamweaver.
• Don’t use forms, flash, animated GIFs, nested background colors,
background images in DIV tags or TABLE cells.
• Don’t use embedded images.
• Don’t use images as bullets in unordered lists (UL).
• Don’t make the layout one large graphic, instead slice it into several pieces
and optimize each piece.
• Don’t use white (#FFFFFF) text. Spam Filters hate white text.