Getting Email Through to AOL Readers

By Lynda Partner

Upwards of 40% of the addresses on your list may be AOL addresses.

AOL readers can be a significant portion of your mailing list, especially if you are marketing to small businesses or consumers. Upwards of 40% of the addresses on your list may be AOL addresses, so making sure you maximize delivery rates to this audience is time well spent.

AOL has released AOL 9.0 with several new features designed to address their members' #1 concern-too much spam! This is good news for legitimate marketers-our wanted email will certainly not get lost in the crowd if all the unwanted email is directed to a spam folder. But...

We also need to make sure that we understand how these features work, so that we can make sure we don't accidentally get caught up in spam filters. We wouldn't want the marketing messages we worked so hard on to end up in the black hole of spam folders—and in this AOL release, they truly are black holes! Read on for a detailed explanation of AOL's new features and what they mean to you.


When AOL 9.0 is downloaded, the default spam filter setting is a communal filter set up by AOL. This filter looks at words in the text, subject line and parts of the header of many emails sent to AOL members. If it finds inappropriate words as selected by AOL, it will send the email to a spam folder.

Members can also choose to use their own personal spam filter. When the member uses the "Report as Spam" button, the filter will diagnose the message and "learn" that it is considered spam by the recipient. These are called training events, and after 20-30 training events, the personal spam filter will be active. If the filter makes a mistake, the user can choose to flag a filtered message as "this is not spam" and the filter learning will continue. Users of the personal filter option can also create their own list of words and URLs to filter.

Unlike with AOL 8.0, the spam filter's contents are not visible to the end user unless they take a specific action to make it visible.

Here's the big gotcha. When the filter thinks a message is spam, it automatically sends the message to the user's personal spam folder. Unlike with AOL 8.0, the spam filter's contents are not visible to the end user unless they take a specific action to make it visible. In AOL 8.0, the default settings displayed several folders including "People I know," "Bulk mailers," and "Unknown senders". The default settings for AOL 9.0 show only "People I know". Furthermore, the option to see the spam filter contents is only available on AOL 9.0 client software - anyone using their browser to access their AOL email will NOT have the option to see their spam filter contents. Lastly, the spam filter does not notify the member or the sender that an email has been placed in the filter.

So, avoiding the spam filter in the first place makes the most sense. Here's how to minimize your chances of getting caught:

Follow best practices to avoid looking like spam to an AOL filter.

• While AOL does not share the words that will trigger the shared spam filter, many words commonly used by other spam filters are well known and well documented. For a great list of these words, check out http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt8/spamfilter_phrases.htm.

• If your HTML message has more than 50% HTML tags, it may appear to be spam.

  Use capitalization carefully - too many capital letters can be seen as "yelling" or feel "spammy".
• Keep your HTML simple - according to SpamAssassin, if your HTML message has more than 50% HTML tags, it may appear to be spam.

• All caps in a subject line is a bad thing, as are including question marks and exclamation points.

  Make sure the contents of the Name and/or Subject field are recognizable by your readers. Use your brand in one or both of these fields. Be especially careful with subject lines. Beware of starting your subject line with "free", "hello" or a dollar amount. Never use FREE in CAPS in a subject line. All caps in a subject line is a bad thing, as are including question marks and exclamation points.