Debbie Mayo Smith - February 2014 - Will your event email get through?

I had just written and was testing my latest online newsletter. Every test I received resulted in the same thing. Outlook sending my little masterpiece directly into my own Junk Mail Folder.

This issue had an article about running an email management and marketing workshop, so there was no way to pick a synonym for the words marketing and increase sales (each in separate paragraphs mind you). How could I not say the words 'give away'  in the contest I was running?

As there was nothing I could do - I finally gave up and with pushed the SEND button, shooting out over 18,000.

Then I had what I thought was a brilliant idea. Why not send a follow up email immediately after; telling my readers to look in their junk mail folder for the newsletter?

This email went out 15 minutes after the newsletter distribution finished.  One paragraph. Plain text. The subject line read: Check your junk folder. The email was personable and said they should have just received my business quick tip newsletter and as my copy went in my junk folder, theirs might too. I suggested they right click it and select safe sender to prevent it from occurring again. I also promised them there were 6 interesting short articles in it, so to please take a look.

The newsletter was out by 12:55. The follow-up email at 1:15. By 5 that afternoon I had over 800 emails personally replying to me. In total over 1200 responses to the check your junk mail folder email.

Lessons Learnt:

1.  Most responses were from those having received it.

2.  Few had it in their junk folder. Rather they had not received it at all.

3.  Many wrote of xtra pulling non-spam emails into it's spam folder

4.  Some individuals received the second email first - by up to one day! This is because when email servers are busy, they softly reject emails which are then presented again at a later time.

5.  What a lesson in goodwill -  while people rarely comment about the newsletter, this seemed to give them an opportunity to send well wishes.

6.  What about the thousands that did not write? Did they ever receive either of the emails?

Email delivery is, has and will be a key problem for anyone using email.  Especially in this day of email overload.

As you can imagine I felt obliged to answer all 1200 emails. While I did this personally over several days, here are two suggestions if you find yourself in a similar circumstance.

1. Write out a base reply, highlight and keep on the clipboard and memory. Then you can zap through your  replies by hitting Control + R - reply;  then hitting Control + V (paste) and filling in the rest manually.

2. You can create a rule to reply to emails with a saved email template. Create your response, save it as a template. Next create a Rule looking for a commonality with all the replies (words, subject lines) and have it send the responding email. Then simply turn on the rule and have it run through all the emails already received. You could answer hundreds this way at once.

Debbie Mayo-Smith is one of the most in-demand international speakers in Australasia as well as a bestselling author and media columnist.  Debbie helps businesses to save time and boost revenues. Sign up to her quick tip newsletter for ideas and ways to save time and boost business results.