Buying a list - and sending to the people on that list -- is always a bad idea. The customers on a bought list have not given you permission to send to them specifically. Sending to emails on a bought list can bring you spam complaints from ISPs, ruin your reputation and cripple your ability to send to your legitimate customers. You can also inadvertently send to spam trap addresses: email addresses created by ISPs to catch spammers. Avoid the temptation -- build your own list. .

Another bad idea is going to various Websites and cherry picking email addresses to form a list. Again, these customers have not given you permission to send to them. This is a sure way to get spam complaints from customers and put you in direct violation of the federal Can Spam act. Email harvesting is an illegal practice that can land you in jail and earn you stiff fines.

To read more on the federal Can Spam act, visit here. While the United States is starting to crack down on email harvesters, the United Kingdom has also followed suit. U.K.-based violators can face fines of almost $10,000 as well as two years in prison. Click here to read more.

Using SPF (sender policy framework) records are a simple way to ensure that no one can fake or “spoof” email from you. Basically, an SPF record is a line within your DNS entry that lists the IP addresses that you regularly send from. So if someone tries to spoof your email address (pretending they’re you) and sends from a different IP address, ISPs can immediately tell that the mail is a fake and that it didn’t come from you. Visit www.openspf.org for more info.

At Benchmark Email, we can provide you with SPF records to improve your delivery rates – just contact us at service@bmesrv.com.

Move your list from single opt-in to double opt-in. In other words, when a customer signs up on your Website (or in person) to receive your email, use Benchmark’s system to send them an additional email with a link that confirms their subscription. This is probably the single best thing you can do to improve your delivery rates.

A large amount of customers are using email gatekeeper services to separate legitimate emails from spam. How this works is simple: you send your email and get an autorespond email back from your customer asking you to click on a link to verify that your mail is not spam. Make sure you check your email regularly and respond to these requests. This is a great way to avoid the spam or bulk email file and improve future delivery rates.

Keep your subject lines short, specific and not too sales-y. Customers – more than ever – rely on subject lines to make the decision to trash your email or open it. Be honest about what’s in your email and avoid writing in all caps or using overly promotional phrases like “huge blowout sale” or “unique sales opportunity”. Using overly promotional words in your subject line can tip off ISPs and destroy your delivery rates.

Once you’ve created your email or newsletter and you’re ready to send, test it on email addresses that you have access to. Create an AOL, Hotmail, gmail and Yahoo email account and send a test campaign to see if your mail gets through. If it ends up in the bulk email file or never arrives at all, you now have the opportunity to make the proper adjustments to ensure delivery before you send your actual campaign..