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How Do YOU Bypass The Yahoo Spam Filters?

by Fabian Tan
9 replies
Hey Warriors,

We have all heard about spam filters causing problems even for legitimate email marketers. However, most of us would have noticed that Yahoo's spam filters are rather trigger happy in putting emails into the spam folder.

Imagine if 30% or more of emails are not even seen by subscribers?

That's what might be happening if about 30% of email subscribers are using Yahoo mail (even if not, it should be a very high percentage..)

To counter this, I've gone through the usual steps - telling subscribers to whitelist my emails, add my email to my contact address book etc but this may even not be enough when it comes to Yahoo's filters because the majority of subscribers won't take the trouble to do that.

There are a few possible action steps that I have thought of:

1. Blocking all Yahoo emails from signing up (of course, not a recommended option as that will leave a lot of subscribers on the table)

2. On the squeeze page below the opt-in form, tell subscribers, if they're using Yahoo mail, to add the email address of your list to their Contacts list

3. Add screenshots or a video on the Download page or Thank You page specifically showing Yahoo email users how to add your email address to the contacts list (my favorite idea at the moment)

4. Add one more reminder in the first follow-up email

What actions have you taken to bypass the Yahoo spam filters?

Fabian
#bypass #filters #spam #yahoo
  • Profile picture of the author Adrian Jock
    Originally Posted by Fabian Tan View Post

    What actions have you taken to bypass the Yahoo spam filters?
    Fabian, here's something you may want to read: StreamSend Email Marketing Blog: Straight From Yahoo [Discussion between StreamSend's Deliverability Manager and Yahoo's Anti-Spam Czar (Mark Risher)]
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  • Profile picture of the author DougBarger
    Hey Fabian,

    What I do is actually put a line on my squeeze page:

    (please add listname@autorespondercompanyhere.com
    to your list of contacts to ensure proper deliverability.)

    It does the trick. :-)

    I highlight the words beginning with add and the address
    to call attention to the command so it's sure to
    get the job done.

    Feel free to pm me for an example
    of this in action.
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    => Stay tuned...

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  • Profile picture of the author Fabian Tan
    Thanks Doug, I will probably add that in.

    I'm also considering sending a short email to my current Yahoo.com subscribers as a little reminder.

    Fabian
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  • Profile picture of the author DougBarger
    You got it Fabian.

    I believe you'll be quite pleased with the decrease in broadcast bounces
    and increase in email opens.

    And thanks to you for all your help too.

    Sounds like a good idea with the email to your yahoo folks too.
    Would be interested in keeping tabs on those results so let us know if you will
    because it should prove to be quite helpful for many.
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  • Profile picture of the author selcor
    Dougs advice is spot on, as I use a yahoo account and never saw a way to "Whitelist" names - and never did it for a long time. then when someone explained that i needed to add them as a contact, it made sense and i knew how to do that.
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    • Profile picture of the author Fabian Tan
      Ok, been doing days of research on this issue and talked to a few email delivery experts on this.

      The first step I did was add more reminders for adding into Contacts etc into the first email and also a screen shot on the Thank You page.

      Here is a simple screen shot I created: http://www.fabiantan.com/Yahoo-Contacts.JPG

      With it I put these instructions - IMPORTANT: If you're using Yahoo mail, make sure you add my email address to your Contacts to receive my emails as Yahoo's spam filters usually catch many legitimate emails as well.

      The second step I took was to sign up with Delivery Monitor which is owned by Aweber (I'm still waiting for them to start my first campaign so I can get results)

      Then I've been sending test emails to a few Yahoo accounts to determine deliverability and what I've found so far is that the key is the links in the email. I've also been reading up a lot on Yahoo's SpamGuard system and what others have to say about it online.

      Here's what I have found...

      If the links in the email are 'corrupted' in Yahoo's eyes (ie lots of mailings contain the same main 'Recommends' link for example or the IP address of the link has been blacklisted on Yahoo's partner detection systems), then almost all of your mailings will end up in the spam folder.

      Do note that I'm not even talking about using your own dedicated server as a mailing server. I'm using Aweber's and Get Response's servers (apparently so I don't have to bother about open DNS servers, SPF records and all that techy stuff) and those don't seem to have a problem with Yahoo, it's the links in the email that Yahoo seem to be catching.

      So I created a BRAND NEW domain name on Hostgator and started sending test emails to my Yahoo account and they started going through to the inbox.

      Keeping good email practices like avoiding words that trigger spam filters also help. However, Spam Assassin's rules may even be considered lenient when it comes to Yahoo.

      Another thing I've noticed is that I'm still getting unsubscribe requests from Yahoo addresses. It might be that:

      1) Many are adding my email to the Contacts already

      2) They have SpamGuard turned off

      3) They are checking their Yahoo spam folders regularly

      4) Delivery only starts becoming a problem to a particular email address when a subscriber has been on a list for a while and has been receiving lots of mailings containing the same links, so that triggers the spam filters in their account.

      To sum up my findings so far, it seems like it's the links in the email that are key. Switch to new links on new hosts (kind of like starting new CB accounts) and things seem to run smooth again.

      One easy way to get around this is to just use the long tracking links from Aweber and Get Response as those URLs are not blacklisted.

      Fabian
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  • Profile picture of the author Fabian Tan
    Update:

    Ran my campaigns through Aweber's Delivery Monitor system for a few days and got a 70%+ inbox delivery success overall. ('deliverability' is near 100% but some emails go into the spam or bulk folders so it's about 70%)

    Guess which email provider got 100% of my emails into the spam folders? Yahoo (and Bellsouth.net, which uses Yahoo's systems).

    Here is my strategy that I'm using now:

    What I have done is I have created segments in my autoresponder services so that I send one version of my email to non-Yahoo subscribers (which is almost at 100% deliverability - which means it goes into the inbox and not the spam folders or goes missing) and another version of my email to Yahoo subscribers.

    For the email that goes to Yahoo subscribers, I only make two crucial changes - I simply turn on the tracking links that Aweber or Get Response provides and use text emails (which I often already use anyway). Sure, the links are long and 'ugly' but it gets the mail delivered safely.

    Immediately my emails start going through!

    This is because Aweber.com and GetResponse.com (which are the TLD's of the tracking links) are not blacklisted by Yahoo's partner detection systems so they are not snuffed out. Yahoo's spam detection systems are very quick to jump on anything but those two URL's are safe.

    This simple step should ensure near 100% safe deliverability for all lists. If you're not already using Aweber's or Get Response's tracking links, use them only for Yahoo subscribers. Segment your lists between Yahoo subscribers and non-Yahoo subscribers. It takes a little more work, but it means more opens, clicks and sales.

    Fabian
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