Spamming is killing us. Well, death may be overstating the problem, but spamming is frustrating users and marketers alike and its financial impact on legitimate marketing can’t be understated.

Read rates of marketing e-mail is in serious decline. More and more users hit delete before they even glance. DoubleClick reports a 24 percent year-over-year decrease for all mail in its Q2 2005 E-mail Trend Report. That means a dramatic downturn in average campaign revenue and an industry loss of tens-of-millions of dollars compared to previous years.

The problem is spam. Spammers give all marketers a bad name. The good news is that the law is now starting to hammer some of these e-mail bandits. An Iowa judge pounded a Florida spammer, awarding $11.2 billion in damages to an Iowa ISP after it received millions of unsolicited e-mail. Yes, billion. You probably received some of the wicked e-mails from the notorious hood in question advertising mortgage and debt consolidation. Damages were calculated at $10 per illegal e-mail.

An increasing challenge, compliments of the trend wrought by spammers, is that more and more users are turning-on image blockers that turn-off images in an HTML e-mail. While spam e-mail images are turned-off, so are legitimate e-mail images.

To overcome these challenges you have to build trust with your readers which requires their permission and a transparent relationship with synchronous (two-way) communications.

Here are a few tips for overcoming these challenges:

• Get their permission.
• Double opt-in is strongly recommended.
• Opt-out option on all correspondence.
•  Privacy Policy is a must .
• Write succinct, punchy subject lines.
• Strong opening body text (non-image) emphasizing the buyer benefit.
• Third-party lists are strongly discouraged; ditto for sharing.
• Provide links to back issues and related information.
• Ensure a strong offer in every e-mail.
• Call to action should have short deadlines.
• Measure response to e-mail offers; tailor campaigns based on response.

Ultimately your e-mail success will depend largely on how well you know and understand your readers and how well you tailor your efforts based on their needs and expectations. As such, don’t be afraid to ask for feedback and to undertake surveys. Heck, try phoning a few with a polite telephone survey – you might just further strengthen a valuable relationship.