The spam filter can be an email marketing director’s worst enemy. We all receive hundreds of emails a day. Companies put a lot of work into their email campaigns, and it would be a shame for them to go unnoticed and directly to the spam folder. Spam filters can be picky and mark your email as spam for the simplest things. Although the spam filter can be nice for your personal account for the businesses that truly are spam, you do not want your company’s email getting categorized along with those. There are ways to avoid the spam filter simply by changing a few items in your emails.
Email Opt-in Option
The spam filter will pick up on if your IP address is not something the user has subscribed to. Always make sure that someone who is choosing to opt in to receive your emails truly wants to receive your emails. It could be as simple as checking a certain “subscribe” box and then one extra click confirmation of the subscription. A spam filter is intended to make sure the inbox stays clear of the unwanted and unsolicited emails.
Stay Consistent with Design
Avoid using multiple different typefaces, colors, and sizes within your email design. A design with bold colors and crazy typefaces will be a red flag to the spam filter. It is important to keep your design consistent. Keep the design simple and relevant to your brand’s image. It can be fun to go out of the box and get creative with an email design, however, it is important to stay professional and consistent.
Trigger Words
The spam filter can scan through the whole email and look for trigger words being used that are often used in spam emails. A few examples of these spam trigger words are words such as; buy now, sale, free, prize, and winner. These examples are only a few of the many trigger words. Spam filters are getting more and more selective of what gets let through. Knowing the trigger words that set off the filter is important to get your email to the customer’s inbox.
Sender Name
Keep the sender name simple and relevant to your business. The from address must stay consistent and provide good content that would not be viewed as spam. Sticking with a simple email address will make your emails more deliverable. For example having an address that is personalized such as, “[email protected]” will likely perform better than “[email protected]”.
Subject Line
The subject line is a lot of what the spam filter looks at. It is important to avoid the cheesy false subject lines using “FW:” and “Re:”. This reflects poorly on your brands reputation and shows that your company is trying to be sneaky avoid the spam filter. Spam filters have been able to begin to pick up on this and flag certain emails containing it. Also, make sure the subject line does not contain exclamation points and all caps. Though these sound super simple, it is something a lot of spam emails contain and the filter is on the hunt for it. The simplest change to your subject line could make or break if your email makes it to the inbox.
Attachments
Emails that contain a lot of attachments from a company will be likely seen as spam. Avoid attaching a lot of documents and images. The spam filter is attempting to keep the inbox clear as well as the computer free of virus. Attachments come in an email and are likely flagged saying, “Caution: this email contains attachments that could be harmful to your computer. Do you wish to continue?” This big caution could be the reason your email ends up in the spam filter.
Conclusion
The spam filter is a huge aspect of email marketing. So much work goes into building out an email campaign and we want to make sure you get the best chance of getting your hard work noticed and opened. Ending up in the spam folder because of all caps or an exclamation point in your subject line would be terrible. Making these simple changes to your emails can really help the success of your emails.