So IDC reports that 1/3 of all email in North America is now spam. We've noticed a lot of our clients are employing corporate-wide anti-spam filters, and that there's always that initial "hey, add me to your address book" in order to get past them. When this first started happening, we thought it would be a huge problem in terms of lost emails. But it's become an everyday part of life these days.

When we send a new email campaign for clients, we always advise them that their first campaign will get some spam-filter problems at first. It helps to test a small sample before sending out to your list at once. These days, you should try to notify your list of recipients by some other means (post a web page asking people to add you to their address book) before sending the initial campaign.

In our MailChimp product, when users sign up for accounts, our "Thank You" page tells them an email receipt is heading their way, and if they don't get it, they should check their spam folder. That reduced the 'hey, where's my receipt?' calls to our office significantly.

One Third of Email Now Spam