Much of the fuss over the December 2003 EU directive centres on one issue: opt-out versus opt-in. Commentators and marketing practitioners alike complain about the fact that we’re no longer free to send unsolicited emails to private individuals. They point out that legislation is not the way to defeat the big spam companies, technology is. Whatever the virtues of some of these arguments, much of the debate misses the point.

Spam is here to stay – at least for the foreseeable future. While the EU has gone the opt-in route, the USA’s CAN-SPAM legislation has enshrined the opt-out principle. Yet we all face the same problem: the inexorable rise of mass-produced spam. Recent technological developments on the email authentication front may look promising, but how long will they take to implement worldwide – and how quickly will the big spammers sidestep any new email technology?

Meantime, we legitimate marketers have customer acquisition and retention targets to meet. We have to deal with the world as it is right now. If we’re to survive and prosper in an online environment where global email volumes are 65% spam – and rising every month – the onus is on us to take action to differentiate ourselves from the spam merchants.

Here are five tips to help you survive, even prosper in the age of spam:

The average person gets more and more unwanted email every day, both at work and at home. The more emails are sent, the fewer get opened. Unlike direct mail, emails are quick and easy to delete. So if you don’t make sure your email has the highest possible chance of being opened, you’ve wasted all your effort – before you even send it.

Lists: wherever possible, use only opt-in lists of customers or prospects. Preferably your own. The desktop is not the same as the postbox. The very same consumers who have been conditioned by years of direct mail to simply accept all the unsolicited mail they get each day, can go nuts when they receive unsolicited commercial emails. They’ll flame you, report you to ISPs, and email complaints to the regulatory authorities. Remember: bad email practice is quickly and easily punished.

If you must rent third-party email lists, make sure you know a great deal about the list’s provenance – particularly the opt-in details. Was it full opt-in, or soft opt-in? (The latter usually take the form of customer lists with an implied opt-in, or one hidden in the transactions terms & conditions, rather than concrete permission being granted.)

Consider whether you should use – with their permission, of course – the list owner’s name in the ‘from:’ line. After all, the recipients opted-in with the list owner, not you. How will the recipient react to an email from you? Remember: if the list turns out to be bad, it’s your company, your brand, that will suffer. Can you afford the reputational hit?.

Address lines: Pay careful attention to both aspects of your address line: ‘From’ and ‘To’. Your ‘From:’ line should contain a real person’s name, or company name. Your ‘To:’ line should, ideally, reveal the individual recipient’s address. If you want to use a collective name for your list, make sure it’s appropriate to your company, brand and market. Don’t be taken for a spammer.

‘Sign’ your email: have an appropriate signature/sign-off at the end. This is a highly personal and interactive environment, so make sure people know who you are and where they can get hold of you. When you list all your details, your whole email offering can become more credible. Give suspicious recipients no excuse to be cautious of you.

Opt-out: Make it as easy as possible to unsubscribe. Preferably at the top of the email; certainly at the bottom. Remember: the recipient is ‘in charge’. Legislation aside, what point is there in emailing people who don’t want your messages? They won’t buy, whatever you do, and they water down all your response metrics.

Ironically, the more obvious it is to the recipient that they can unsubscribe at any time, the less likely they are to do so. Simply making it clear that your prospect is 100% in control of your ongoing communication with them will earn you respect – and reduce your unsubscribes.

Subject lines: regardless of your list source (internal or bought-in) make sure the subject line is as good as it can be – or the recipient may not even open your email. The subject line is email marketing’s equivalent of envelope teaser copy in direct mail. So make sure you spend the necessary time writing the very best one you can – or your recipient might hit the ‘delete’ button without opening your email. Provide relevant news, make a good offer, or craft an intriguing headline. Other subject points to watch out for:

Be brief. No more than 45 characters (including spaces) or you’ll lose the end of the subject line on some email browsers.

Put the most important words first. I often see subject lines that build up to a crescendo, putting the call to action last. On the recipient’s machine your offer may turn in to an ellipsis… so the recipient never gets to see it.

Don’t fake it. Your subject line should relate to what follows, or you’ll annoy recipients. They may not open any more of your emails after that

Motivate your reader. 3-5 words that sum up your pitch. Try to intrigue – but don’t give away your story or news.

Subject lines are absolutely key to high open rates. So if you’re not confident of your copywriting skills, get a professional copywriter. Then test, test, test.

You need to demonstrate that you know your recipient – at least a little bit. Another reason to grow your lists internally rather than have an ongoing reliance on bought-in lists. Successful email marketing is a process, not an event. You need a strategic approach to your efforts – with your database at the heart of it.

Open every email with a personal greeting, assuming you have the recipient’s full name. No problem, if you’re emailing your customer lists. If you have more data on each prospect – buying history, product preferences etc (which, ideally, you should have) – then use this as well. But in a meaningful fashion. Five or six personalisation points can boost your email response rates by several hundred percent.

Extend the personalisation to any landing page forms you want your recipient to click through to. Pre-filled form fields make it much more likely that the empty fields will be completed by your prospect.

Know your past customers: Make sure you build the necessary level of profile data on your customers. What they bought, when they bought it, what their other interests are that are relevant to your product range, etc. If you don’t know whom you’re writing to, how can you know what to say? And the more preference information you have about each prospect, the more targeted your mailings will be – resulting both in higher sales and fewer opt-outs.

The right day: When to send email depends whether you’re B2B or B2C. I’ve always avoided sending out B2B direct mail that lands on a Monday or Friday. On Mondays most people’s minds are still a bit unfocussed on work, and they’ve got huge in-trays to cope with. On Fridays, many people are already thinking about the weekend – or that task they have to get finished before 5 o’clock. Why should it be any different with email? I suggest the best day to send them is Tuesday, second best is Thursday. B2C recipients are far more likely to log on in the evening or at weekends.

The right time: time of day can also be crucial. Send your B2B messages mid-morning, so most recipients receive them as they sit at their desks. Just-arrived emails are much more likely to get a response there and then. Whatever you do, don’t rack up your emails last thing at night, so they end up in the recipient's in-tray next morning, along with 20 other emails (most of them probably spam…) – all labelled with the previous day’s date. Keep your emails fresh!

Frequency of contact: one of the biggest complaints consumers voice, even with opt-in marketing, is the overuse of the medium by marketers. Once we get permission to contact them, we do so far more frequently than most consumers would like. The solution? Ask each customer, by means of a range of options on each individual profile page, what their preferred frequency is. Then make sure your respect it.

The big spammers are the ultimate ‘junk mail’ merchants. Thanks to them, email has been more quickly polluted than any other marketing medium in history. In a world of increasing levels of spam, we have to work harder and smarter to make sure we stand out from the crowd. Build the above differentiators into your email marketing strategy and you’ll see your open rates climb – and your sales.