You can’t afford to spend time, money and energy creating email campaigns only to have them land in the spam filter.
The list of criteria for what constitutes spam is growing and more savvy software is being developed to protect people from unsolicited emails.
Make no mistake, spamming is wrong, but it doesn’t take a spammer to get caught in the spam filter. With all this robust cyber security, how do we make sure our email campaigns get to their desired destination?
Before we start, there are common mistakes that will land you in the spam filter, these still apply so if you’re new to email marketing then make yourself familiar with these common things to avoid.
Common Spam Avoidance Techniques
Choose body content and subject lines carefully
Firstly make sure you have a subject line and avoid spammy language like ‘buy now’ ‘click here’ ‘last chance to win…’ ‘why pay more’. Don’t use capitals, urgent phrases and excessive punctuation!!!!!!!!
Words like ‘viagra’ or ‘cialis’ appearing in an email are nearly always quarantined.
But they aren’t the only targets. Using words like ‘free’, ‘cash’ or even just including dollar signs ($) in your email can trigger a spam filter particularly if they are found in the email subject line.
Get Permission
Sounds simple I know, but often the goal of trying to gain email addresses outweigh the priority to get permission.
Ensure you have explicit permission to email the registered address for the specific purpose you are intending to use it for. For example, you may have collected email addresses over time through your business for general correspondence or client contact, but this doesn’t mean these people automatically want you to start sending them coupons and specials.
Seek explicit consent so that your subscriber doesn’t mark you for spam, or even worse, report you for abuse.
Use A Double Opt In
The best way to get permission from a subscriber is to use a double opt in method.
How it works:
- the user puts their email into an online form (First Opt In)
- they receive a confirmation link
- they confirm by clicking the link and then are added to the list (Second Opt In)
- if they don’t click, then they’re not added to the list
8 Lesser Know Spam Avoidance Techniques
Now, on to some more advanced concepts in avoiding the spam box.
Use Tools
Make sure you test your email campaign before you send it. This can save you time and disappointment. Use a free online spam testing tool like Contactology or Mailing Check.
If you are using an email campaign program such as Constant Contact, Mailchimp or Mad Mimi, use their internal Spam grading tools to see how likely it is that your email will trigger spam alerts.
Use a normal font size
Fonts that are too big or too small can trigger a Spam filter. The reason is that many Spammers either try to hide text in an email with tiny font sizes or they use huge font sizes to make an offer. Use a standard font size to avoid Spam filters.
Email early
If you’re collecting email addresses for your subscriber list, don’t wait until you have 1000 subscribers before you send your first campaign. Suddenly sending to large quantities of addresses will trigger spam filters. Start sending to a small group first while you are building your list.
Watch your text to image ratio
Spammers often use images to communicate their offer because Spam filters can’t read what is in the image. Spam filters look skeptically upon emails that contain very little text but a large image.
Watch your link to text ratio
Spammers often send emails with little or no text and a link or numerous links. When marketing with email, links are often a critical part of the email. We usually need to place a link to the offer or to the content we are sharing with the email list. However, be sure to include ample HTML text when including links or risk being marked as Spam.
Be careful who you link to
Just as it is important not to link to spammers on your website, it’s doubly important not to do so in an email. Linking to a known spammer is a surefire way to get a bad reputation.
Use clean code and proofread your text
Spam filters are keen to some of the more common spam formatting like red text in the body of the email or excessive use of underlining and bolding.
But they are also looking for anything out of the ordinary. Things like blank lines, words with gaps (spaces) in them and excessive use of the same words can add to your Spam score.
Timing is important
This issue is less related to a Spam filter and more related to subscribers that might mark you as Spam in their email program.
Develop a regular email pattern and stick to it.
If you email too often you run the risk of your subscriber marking you as junk for being annoying. Conversely if you don’t email often enough, users will forget they signed up to your list and will unsubscribe or flag the email as spam.
Avoid Spamming to Avoid Email Firewalls
Because spam is increasing at an exponential rate many email service providers (ESP’s) now have email firewalls.
They are being implemented globally throughout large businesses, ISP’s, governments and corporations. The important thing to note here is that these email firewalls communicate with one another, sharing information about who is a spammer, what spam is and who to block.
The moral of the story is that if you get enough complaints against you, email firewalls will communicate globally about your status notifying everyone that you are spammer. Obviously you can see the disadvantage to this, so keeping out of spam filters is even more important than ever.
Here are some of the widely used email gateway and firewall services:
- Cloudmark
- Barracuda Networks
- Postini
- IronPort
- Brightmail
- MessageLabs
Spam is a serious issue so make sure all the work you’ve put into email marketing isn’t hindered by ending up in a spam filter.
This can lead to future issues such as abuse reports and having your details shared amongst global email gatekeeper and firewalls. By understanding how spam is blocked you can ensure that you’re delivering your content in a legitimate way.
