How to Get Your Email Ignored

I receive far more email than virtually anyone else I know. I receive it for two reasons - I have a lot of different addresses including several on most of my customers' domains such as postmaster and webmaster, and I don't filter as hard for spam as many ISPs now do.

This means I get to see examples of what others try to send that might be spam in the definition of being sent out unsolicited, but which is not nearly as "spammy" as the stuff that is unsolicited and sent in the millions by rogue robot-pcs. 

I get all manner of what are probably legitimate introductions to companies and products and people - yet I open virtually none of them - how do I determine which ones to open? How can you ensure that your lead-in email to someone, whether it is for something commercial or just to ask them a favour or for some information, gets seen and opened?

I don't know about you, but I have my email set up so that anyone I've previously corresponded with gets pulled out of the INBOX by my message filters and put into a separate box - might be by their name, their job/business name, or by some grouping such as friends, industry contacts, etc. This leaves only those messages from people I've never received from before in the INBOX. 

Using Evolution (an open source lookalike for Microsoft Outlook) I can set up the INBOX without a preview pane - so I only see the message subject, date, from and to addresses. I added the "TO" column because I have so many different email addresses that come to me - and knowing which of the many the message was addressed to aids me in figuring out if the sender is really trying to reach ME or trying to reach anybody who will open the message (i.e. is spam)

Email sent to "root@xyzmachine..." that is not already grabbed by my filters as a machine report is spam - no doubt. Same with stuff sent to my account at some specific machine since that is NOT my address, it is merely one of many delivery options I set.

Email without a subject, or with a subject that is patently bogus, like "your lottery win" (I don't play lotteries), or "Facebook new login system" (they will never send such email - they'll announce it on their web site front end) or "possible fraud transaction" from my bank (they phone me - and they know my balance and how much my last payment was and where I live and that I won't talk details over my cell phone) get turfed immediately.

That leaves few, if any, left for me to think about opening.

Anything with an attachment at this point gets thrown - anybody who sends me an attachment without first telling me they're going to send it - or without having already corresponded a lot with me, is simply wasting bandwidth.

Anything that does not have something in it about one of the subjects that I, personally, deal with in my daily life is likely to get junked. This is a fairly short list which includes any of my customers' names, any of the several technical subjects I deal with, or any of the political or other movements I deal with, or the name of one of my friends or relatives. No other need apply. You need to know something about ME and what I do in order to get my attention.

I got an unsolicited inquiry the other day with the subject "video tech support" - and darned near didn't open it. But I did, and it was an inquiry about something I do - namely wildlife video technical consulting.

What would have been a better subject? Well, putting the word "wildlife" in there sure would have helped a lot. Putting a reference to Hancock Wildlife Foundation would have been better. But even making the phrase a full sentence like "I need some help with my wildlife video project" sure would have made a difference.

You see, the spammers mostly don't know English very well - and some of the broken phrases they use are a dead give away. I expect they'll learn better English over time - they've learned better programming and better human dynamics already.

So... if you really want me to open your first email to me you'll have to learn a lot more about me and use that knowledge to "spear fish" me directly. Casting a wide net that just might get almost anyone to open your email just isn't good enough.