Can I or can I send you an email?

There is a real difference between “Can I send you an email?” and “Can I email you?” And I’m not just talking about what question to ask your prospective subscriber.

In case you’re wondering now that I’ve mentioned it, WordTask defines “may” as an expression of permission or possibility, while “may” expresses ability.

In email marketing, the first question … “Can I send you an email?” is the essential question you ask your prospective subscriber when you get permission to email them. This is where you need to be very clear about what you are asking permission to send, and she needs to be very clear about what she is giving you permission to send.

The “Can I email you?” It is a completely different story. Your ability to deliver the email is, however, still a bit of a permit. Not so much asking for permission … the “May I?” because there’s really no one to ask for permission … but to find out through testing if you can actually move the email from your “outbound basket” to the “inbound basket” of its intended recipient.

This is the more technical side of email marketing and it can be a lot more complicated.

The “can” for email marketing is whether your prospective subscriber has the right kind of software to receive your email in the format you designed it … and … (the part about how to find out if you got permission without “Mother, can I?”) Is if you can (have the ability to) get your content and design through the permission police of the numerous spam filters currently used by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) as well as any additional filter added by your prospective subscriber.

The first part of the “May …” in terms of whether your subscriber can actually read what you send is getting a bit easier, as operating systems and software updates now allow most email users to read HTML, PDF and text. However, it is certainly not 100%, so part of his “May I send you emails?” questionnaire is “In what format would you like to receive your emails?” so you know what you can read on your computer, as well as what you may prefer.

The second part of “May I” (your ability to physically receive the email) also involves action on your part and is … she must “whitelist” … or add you to her acceptable contact list , as well as confirming the subscription, so that your emails are not automatically sent to your “spam”.

Now that you’ve come this far, the last barrier about “Can email get through?” It’s the hardest … and frankly, it’s best left to the experts. Especially if you are quickly building a large email list. The experts in overcoming spam filters are email marketing services, who act as your agent and have developed a “relationship” with the ISPs. They know and understand which words, phrases, graphics, and other testing criteria can cause their messages to be considered “spam” and cause them to be blocked before they can be received.

On Toptenreviews.com, you can see that the top three ranked email marketing services are Icontact, Benchmark, and ConstantContact. They are not the only email marketing companies you might consider, but using someone in this field can make a significant difference in whether your email message can make it to the inbox of the intended recipient.

There you go. Once you have the permission, you can send the email. And, once you understand the formats and filters (and you’ve probably gotten some professional help), you can send your emails to the appropriate inbox.