About a month ago, accusations were made concerning the Internet giant’s treatment of emails sent from the campaign office of US presidential candidate Donald Trump. People who had actually subscribed to receive newsletters, donated money, or purchased products from the Trump organisation were wondering why they had not heard from his office until they peeked into their spam folders and found the missing messages. Prior to this, claims that Google’s autocomplete feature was biased in favour of Hillary Clinton were also widespread. According to the latest reports from Trump’s supporters, favouritism for the democratic candidate is still very much in evidence.
The Problems Continue
Many of the fundraising emails sent by Donald Trump’s office during the month of July have also ended up in the Spam folders of recipients who use Gmail, leading them to believe that the IT company is conducting an ongoing campaign of its own in support of the Democratic Party candidate. While Google dismissed claims that its autocomplete functionality was being used to promote Hillary Clinton, it has so far not responded to claims that its spam filtering policies also favour the Democratic candidate. Reports that Google’s CEO funded a start-up called Groundwork, with the specific aim of supporting the Clinton campaign, have not helped to deflect the claims of bias and neither have assertions made by Julian Assange, the man who founded the infamous WikiLeaks, that the search engine giant is deeply involved with Clinton’s election campaign.
Could It Be a Storm in a Teacup?
Emotions inevitably run high whenever politics is the topic being discussed and it is certainly possible that the emails are being filtered into spam folders because of the way in which they are being distributed en masse or because of the subject headings they employ. As any corporate marketing expert can confirm, it is very easy to run afoul of spam filters and see your carefully crafted electronic missives go straight into the junk folders of intended recipients. Whether this is the case as far as Trump’s fundraising messages are concerned is difficult to say without conducting a detailed analysis but it is one possibility that cannot be ruled out at this stage. Governments and public administrations that are concerned their own filters may mishandle incoming emails can purchase anti spam products that are tailored to meet their specific needs.
Could Your Marketing Messages Be Going Astray Too?
If you are responsible for the creation of direct email campaigns and you often find that your messages end up in junk folders, there are certain measures you can take to reduce the chances of your marketing emails being treated as spam in the future. Not sending bulk mails and reducing the frequency with which you use this marketing technique are two policies that you can try to start with: there are several others that may also prove to be effective in the long term. Making sure your emails are only sent to willing recipients and are genuinely interesting is of course also very important
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