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Have a Simple and Prominent Unsubscribe Link

Don't bury your unsubscribe link at the top of your email messages. Contrary to belief, put the unsubscribe link at the top of your email. This will broker trust with your email recipients and prevent them from hitting the spam button. If recipients grow frustrated by not being able to find the unsubscribe link they'll take the easy route and click the spam button. The goal of email marketing is quality, not quantity.
Make the unsubscribe process easier than the subscribe process.

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Use "Safely Unsubscribe"

If a recipient clicks "unsubscribe" on a spam email it might tell the spammer the recipient has a real email address. This has people concerned about clicking the unsubscribe button. Acknowledge people's fears and include a statement to your subscribers letting them know they can safely unsubscribe at any time. Remember you'd rather have the recipient click the unsubscribe link than mark your email as spam.
Test and make sure the unsubscribe link actually works. If the unsubscribe returns an error they may just mark you as junk instead of letting you know it's broken.

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Create the Right Email Marketing Template

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Use your Company Colors and Logo

When possible, use your company colors and logo. The recipient will recognize your communication, especially if your templates are consistent, and won't hit the spam/junk button. But, keep in mind a pretty email is nice to look at but the most important thing is getting your information to your subscriber so don't get too fancy with the design. Lots of design elements will get stripped out by mail clients and Outlook will display hardly any of them.

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Don't use Spam like Words in your Email

Avoid adding spam words like "free" to your email messages or templates. Fortunately, Lead Liaison includes an email message grader that scans your email content for spam-like words. Replace the words with something less spam-like. For example, instead of "free" you may use "complementary".

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Send Messages in Text Format with HTML Format

If you're sending your message in html format make sure the text representation is a true representation of the text in the html version. Fortunately, Lead Liaison auto-converts your html messages into text format with a single button click.

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Limit the Size of Emails

Don't use images or send attachments that are too large. 300K bits (37K Bytes) should be the absolute max size of the email so be sure to make sure the total for images and attachments comes in well under that (adding a file to an email will increase the size by about 30% just in encoding it).

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Limit the Use of Images in Emails

Don't include too many images in your email (1-2 per email should suffice) or some filters will flag it

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Add a Link to your Privacy Policy Web Page in your Emails

In your privacy policy web page, assure the recipient that lists, names, addresses, email addresses and any other personal information will be exclusively used for your communications with them and will not be shared or sold to other entities to build trust with your subscribers. Having this link demonstrates you're concerned about keeping your subscribers information private.

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Go Slow at First

When you're just starting your communications or lead nurturing campaigns go slow at first. Send your communications every month or so in the beginning then ramp up frequency 3-6 months later. Don't send infrequent communications which signals a lack of commitment and inconsistency thereby worrying the subscriber. Develop a lead nurturing campaign or various lead nurturing tracks and stick to a set schedule. Contact Lead Liaison for example lead nurturing programs to use as an example.

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Have an Active Email Address for Replies

Use a valid and active email address in your reply to address. Lead Liaison allows marketing to send email on behalf of sales. For example, if John Smith, john@company.com, is the lead owner of Susan Que then marketing can send lead nurturing campaigns or one-off marketing messages to contacts like Susan as if they came from john@company.com. This takes the burden off of sales to stay in touch with their prospects giving them more time to focus on closing deals.

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Mark the Source of your Contacts

As your contact lists grow make sure to mark the source of your leads. For example, did the leads come from a trade show, website inquiry, website tracking or a partner. If a flurry of bounces, spam traps, or unsubscribes occur you can analyze the source of the lead and mitigate the issue on the particular segment of your database.
Lead Liaison provides the ability to segment your database using various lead characteristics and behavior while interacting with your company's market assets. Ensure your emails are targeted and relevant by building Target Lists Segmentations that dynamically update based on a contacts profile.
Lead Liaison also applies a default Lead Source tag to new leads to help you track the source of your contacts.

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Check and Re-Check Uploaded Lists

Before and after uploading a contact list in .xls format check the integrity of your lists. Make sure all the formatting is still in place, the fields are correct, and no data values were replaced with mysterious characters.