Seven ways to ensure follow-up e-mail gets read.

You've seen them in your inbox. Offers for cheap prescription drugs, links to questionable Web sites and even downloadable files that will send junk e-mail to anyone in your address book. Junk mail, or spam, is a huge problem for e-mall users. The average user receives at least 60 junk e-mails per day. Even with the passage of the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography mad Marketing (CAN SPAM) Act people are still inundated with offers in which they have absolutely no interest.

Spammers, the people who send the e-mails, are getting smarter and smarter about tricking people into opening these offers. And unfortunately, this can prevent genuine emails from being opened or, worse yet, making it through the sophisticated filter systems that companies and individuals have set up to reduce the influx of spam.

More than anything, use common sense when sending an e-mail. Information on e-mail etiquette can be found on the following Web sites: www.e-mailreplies.com, www.learnthenet.com, www.getnetiquette.com and www.onlinenetiquette.com.

E-mail Guidelines

1. Avoid using all capital letters in the subject line. As a rule, using all capital letters is the online equivalent of shouting and should be avoided Excessive use of capital letters in a subject line is a red flag to most e-mail filters.

2. Avoid excessive use of exclamation points in the subject line and the e-mail. While you may feel that your community deserves to be described as beautiful! Immaculate! or Outstanding! a spam filter might view such over exuberance as junk mail and once again, e-mail will not reach the recipient.

3. Never include an active hyperlink (Web address) in the subject line. Even the least sophisticated e-mail filters will fail to deliver an e-mail with a subject line that contains this element. Feel free to put a Web address in the body of an e-mail, but be warned: excessive use of hyperlinks (active Web addresses that allow the reader to click on the address to be directed to a specific Web site) in an e-mail are also filter triggers.

4. Avoid excessive use of certain words in the subject line as well as in the body of the e-mail. Words to avoid include free, offer, response, act now, save and coupon. Also avoid using the dollar sign "$."

5. Include a subject line that is relevant, innovative and brief. If a prospect has requested information on two-bedroom apartment homes in Boulder, Colo., the subject line might read, "Information on great two-bedroom apartments in Boulder." This is both informative and safe and it doesn't exceed 76 characters, yet another red flag for spam filters.

6. Include a subject line. Today's junk mailers increasingly send e-mails without subject lines in hopes that unwitting recipients will open them. This is causing many people to delete e-mails with no subject line before reading them.

7. Don't send an attachment without prior permission from the recipient. In other words, the first e-mall should ask the prospect if they would like to receive an electronic brochure. Simply attaching it and sending it out in a first e-mail is not the best course of action to take. Most individuals using e-mail these days are very wary of attachments coming from unknown sources. Play it safe and ask about sending a brochure in the next e-mail. This shows that you follow the rules of Netiquette (the Internet version of etiquette), as well as helps to begin an e-mail dialogue with the prospect. Also, some attachments never make it through company firewalls. The e-mail will disappear into Cyberspace and the prospect will never know that you tried to follow up with them.

Lisa Trosien has more than 20 years of industry experience, as well as expertise on targeted uses of the Internet. She is a frequent presenter for NAA. Trosien can be reached via e-mail (with a subject line, of course) at [e-mail].