Should you ever use the word FREE when writing your email marketing messages?

This powerful little four letter word can bring you a lot of increased sales because of its ability to grab your readers attention. But using the word free in your email will only work if your email gets delivered into the mailbox of the people you are sending it to.

The word FREE in all caps is a red flag to email hosting services and corporate SPAM filters. In fact using the word in lower case can be a problem as well. You might see some very promotional emails attempting to fool the SPAM filters by breaking up the work "free" into F.R.E.E or F-R-E-E or some other variation. But email service providers have caught on to these tricks

Unfortunately, this amazingly powerful word has been tainted by association. It is so often used by scam artists and borderline illegal emailers. Don't forget... a SPAM filter is just an unthinking piece of software. IT has no judgement or discernment. A SPAM filter only knows how to follow rules. And rule #1 is FREE = SPAM.

Should you completely avoid using FREE in email sales copy?

Short answer: It depends

I have worked with many businesses that have great opt-in practices and have a perfectly legitimate free email offer that deserves to be included in their message. Not using the most powerful wasy to state their offer seems... obscene. Many products and services thrive on offering customers free trials, free samples etc.

Completely avoiding the use of FREE in their email sales copy is a great way to please SPAM filters but what effect does it have on response? Based on our testing using the word free in email promotions consistently boosts response. In fact many times, if not most times, the increase in response more than compensates for the negative effect of SPAM filtering.

How can you safely use the word FREE in email sales copy?

• Don't use the word free in the subject line
• Try using images that use the word free like the example to the right. Although many email programs automatically block images your readers may click on the available options to view images. Especially if the rest of you email sales copy is interesting enough to get their attention