How To Avoid Spam Filters When Sending Emails

ecommerce

The Like shooting fish in a barrel, 12-Step Guide On How To Forestall Emails From Going To Spam

Written by Franco Varriano.

I'm sure yous've run into the frustrating question "why are my emails going to spam?". Well don't worry - we are here with our 12 step guide to explain how to end your emails from going to spam with some tips & tricks on how to avoid spam filters.

It would be a shame for all the hard work y'all put into crafting your emails to go to waste, just that's exactly what happens when your e-mail ends up in a subscriber's spam folder. In fact, a report from Return Path reveals that spam filters are more rigorous than ever, with i in v emails declining to reach the inbox.

When y'all're putting together an electronic mail marketing campaign, statistics like this are alarming. But don't worry--we've got your dorsum. We don't desire your emails to be just another statistic, and we've written the following guide to help you keep your emails out of the junk folder and in your recipient'due south inbox where they belong. And then without farther ado, hither are the 12 things you must exercise to prevent emails from winding upwards in spam.

1. Ask Subscribers to Whitelist Your Email Accost

Whitelisting an email address in Gmail.

Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! all work difficult to ensure that their email program spam filters don't catch emails that come from people in your contacts. These companies (rightly) assume that if an email is from someone in your contacts, it'due south non spam.

To ensure that your emails get this privileged treatment, ask your subscribers to whitelist your emails by adding your "From" address to their contacts or list of safe senders. We recommend including instructions and screenshots illustrating how to exercise this, as you should not assume that all of your subscribers have the technical proficiency to whitelist emails.

To ensure that all your emails get this treatment, include the whitelisting instructions in the offset welcome email y'all ship when someone joins your electronic mail listing.

2. Always Get Permission to Ship Emails

Zippo volition get your emails flagged as spam faster than sending an email without permission. Only think nigh what you do when you get an email from an unknown sender. Assuming the e-mail fifty-fifty makes information technology through your email service's spam filter, you're going to marker it as spam without even opening it.

Sending people marketing emails without their permission is not a recipe for concern success in the long-term. If you want to convince subscribers to purchase from you, you desire them to exist engaged and interested. Random e-mail recipients are neither; they're indifferent at all-time and more probable bellyaching to get an electronic mail from someone they don't know. Always become permission earlier sending an email; information technology's the all-time practice both ethically and financially.

3. Follow the Laws Governing Email Marketing

Speaking of ethics, you lot need to be aware of the laws that govern digital marketing communications. In particular, you should be familiar with the CAN-SPAM Human activity, which outlines the practices you must utilize when sending commercial emails.

You don't need to read every line of the law, just you should know that there are harsh penalties for sending spam emails. How do you know if an e-mail is (legally) spam? The Tin can-SPAM Human activity defines spam email as any message which yous:

Send without the recipient'due south permission.
Send without including a mailing accost.
Send with a deceptive subject field line.
Send without including a way for recipients to opt-out.

Yous don't need to be as well worried about the higher up, since all modern email marketing programs ensure that y'all comply with the mailing accost and opt-outs by default. But yous should be careful about your field of study lines, which we'll explore in more detail later in this post.

iv. Use a Reputable Email Marketing Program

Ane sign that spam filters go along a look out for when trying to catch messages is to wait at the IP accost associated with the sending email address and see if there are whatsoever spam complaints associated with it. If there are, and then legitimate electronic mail addresses can go flagged simply due to association.

To make sure this doesn't happen to your emails, ever use a reputable e-mail provider. All the top providers take steps to prevent spammers from using their platforms, which helps ensure that the malicious actions of spammers don't hurt the deliverability of your emails.

Furthermore, as we already mentioned, the best email marketing software providers will also have features built in to aid you lot avert other common spam triggers such as non including a physical accost or using a sending email address that looks suspicious.

5. Proofread Your Emails

If your emails sound like they were written hastily (or by a computer), that can be a ruby-red flag for spam filters. If a typo slips into your emails occasionally, that's non going to cause you any serious problem. Simply if your emails are riddled with typos, grammatical errors, and sentences that just audio...off, and then in that location'due south the risk that spam filters will stop them.

For instance, take a look at this existent phishing email:

While yous're not going to write an email with problems this farthermost, it does offer valuable lessons about how typos, poor formatting, and bad grammar are all hallmarks of spam emails. If y'all're not comfy with your grammer abilities, and then discover someone you trust to proofread your emails for you, or at least use a program such as Grammarly to catch bones grammar errors.

6. Don't Write Spammy Subject Lines

While in the past there were specific lists of "spam trigger words" to avert in your marketing emails, spam filters are now much more sophisticated. Therefore, instead of focusing on specific words to avoid, it's best to think more holistically and ensure that you don't write subject lines that sound similar spam.

For an example of spammy subject lines, have a look at the following screenshot taken from a real Gmail Spam folder.

As you can see, some of these emails are from legitimate brands similar Lyft, Dollar Shave Club, and FareDepot. However, due to the wording the email marketers at these companies chose, the emails take ended upwardly in spam. Note how many of these emails make references to money, apply besides many exclamation points, or mostly promise discounts.

Does this mean you should never send emails with subject area lines offering discounts or deals? Of class non, but it does show that you should exist careful with these sorts of subject area lines. For more information, you can review our guide to email field of study line best practices.

seven. Purge Abandoned E-mail Addresses from Your Listing

I metric that spam filters use to catch errant emails is to look at how many of the emails to which you are sending are active. If the percentage is as well low, so that can exist a sign that you're sending spam email content.

To ensure this doesn't happen, you lot should regularly remove addresses associated with email accounts that don't announced to be agile. If someone hasn't opened your emails in a long fourth dimension, then it's probably safe to remove them from your list. You can recollect of this like pruning a tree. You cutting away small $.25 now in lodge to ensure the overall continued health of the organism.

Of course, this advice only applies if a small number of your subscribers aren't engaging with your content. If you take depression email open up rates overall, and so you may need to rethink your overall email marketing strategy, as this could indicate a deeper issue than only a few inactive email addresses.

8. Employ a Spam-Checking Tool

Emailable-email-list-verification

Wouldn't it be bang-up if there were a program that would just tell you lot if your emails were probable to get caught by spam filters or if they're nonetheless even valid at all? As it turns out, such applications be.

One of our favorites is called Emailable. Simply ship your email to their provided e-mail address in guild to automatically receive a report on how probable your email is to become to a recipient's spam folder.

9. Have a Clear Sender Address

Your sender address is what appears in the "From" field when someone looks at your electronic mail. If yous accept a sender address full of random characters or that simply sounds suspicious, yous run the risk of your e-mail getting flagged as spam.

For this reason, we recommend fugitive sender addresses that contain lots of numbers or gibberish. Stick to either a person's name or your company proper name. Not only is this helpful for keeping you lot out of spam, but it'southward too more than personal than a cord of random characters, which people have come to associate with automatic emails, not compelling, personalized offers.

10. E-mail Your Subscribers Regularly

If y'all but send an e-mail every couple of months, so you risk subscribers forgetting who you are or why they subscribed. If this happens, they may unsubscribe or fifty-fifty mark your e-mail as spam when they do finally hear from you.

To prevent this, stay in regular contact with your subscribers. Of course, you should always provide value when y'all send an email; don't just email subscribers with a certain frequency considering information technology'due south "best practice" to do so.

Rather, await for opportunities to provide value to your subscribers as often as you lot can. If that'south just once a calendar week, that'south okay, so long as you consistently email them each week (and use smart timing to make certain they go the emails when they're most likely to open up them).

11. Make it Easy to Unsubscribe

Making information technology piece of cake for your subscribers to get out your electronic mail list might seem like a counterintuitive suggestion, merely it'due south key to both complying with the Tin-SPAM Act and ensuring that subscribers trust yous. While complying with the law is your foremost priority, including a fashion to unsubscribe too shows subscribers that you lot have confidence in the value of your content. After all, if you don't call back that your emails are excellent, why would you send them to begin with?

How easy you make it to unsubscribe is upward to you. Some brands take the confidence approach to the extreme, placing an unsubscribe button in the header as well as the footer of their emails. While y'all tin can do this, in that location's as well the run a risk that people will either unsubscribe without reading the email or hit the push button past mistake if you lot place it in the header.

Therefore, nosotros think that a standard unobtrusive unsubscribe button in the electronic mail footer is the way to go for almost ecommerce entrepreneurs. See the higher up screenshot from a Stack Overflow email for an instance of this, and remember that your email marketing software will already take this feature congenital into its templates.

12. Be Honest

We already mentioned how the Tin can-SPAM Act forbids sending deceptive emails, only the point warrants further exploration. Above all, you should always be honest in your email marketing. Don't write subject lines that play a joke on people into opening your messages.

Specifically, don't write things that make emails look like they're from a person'southward employer, bailiwick lines that are threatening or alarming, or email addresses that appear to be from someone they're non. Resorting to cheap tricks like these is not the manner to run a concern. Instead, focus on how yous can create value for your subscribers. When you requite them a nifty offering, the money will take care of itself.

We hope y'all now understand what causes emails to stop up in spam, likewise as what you can do to keep them from going there. Equally long as you follow the best practices we've outlined above, y'all can remainder confident that the emails y'all transport will air current up in your subscribers' inboxes, and not buried in the junk postal service folder.

Next up, have a look at our Resources page for useful guides and tutorials to help you maximize your returns from email marketing.

And if y'all want actionable tips that can help you increase your eCommerce revenue today and so read this case study about how one eCommerce merchant has made $245,000+ with a welcome series email.