The main purpose of every email marketing campaign is to get the reader to take some sort of action after receiving the email.
Unfortunately, avoiding spam filters when sending emails is not a simple task.
Many of the people who get your campaign emails will have opted in to receive them when they visited a website or signed up for a service.
Let's pretend you don't know any of the people who will be receiving your message. It's possible that they won't be expecting another email from you, and so will designate it as spam.
So what is it that we can do about it? If you want your email to be read and replied to, follow best practices.
10 Email Tips to Avoid Spam Filters
If you're sending emails, you want to make sure they go to recipients' inboxes rather than spam. This is becoming an increasingly pressing problem as email servers continue to strengthen their spam filtering mechanisms.
Fortunately, there are 10 easy best practices to implement when sending emails to guarantee delivery to the inbox, so this shouldn't be a problem for you.
1. Use Personalized Subject Lines
In order to attract them to read your email, you need to get them curious about what's within. An email with a clear and pertinent subject line is much more likely to be opened.
The subject line of an email is extremely important because most recipients will see it before ever opening the message.
In order to write an effective subject line, you must first gain insight into the needs and concerns of your readers.
You may do this in a number of ways, such as by conducting research on your target audience, sending out surveys, or asking email subscribers about their interests.
If you want to escape spam filters, this strategy could be useful because many of the attractive and attention-grabbing subject lines that hundreds of marketers have used in the past are already known to these email servers and, therefore, most of them are designated as spam.
2. Don’t Use Words That Trigger Spam Filters
The default settings of most spam filters are excessively strict. When people get emails, they may initially think they are spam and immediately delete them. This is usually the result of the wording used in the message.
That's why it's so important to steer clear of phrases typically seen in junk mail messages. Be wary of spam filters if you're sending an email to an address that isn't a known recipient. Keep in mind that emails from unfamiliar senders may be marked as spam.
Let's pretend you're running a massive email marketing campaign. To avoid confusion, use the same email address that your recipients have previously received messages from. If you want to avoid having your email filtered as spam, make it brief and to the point when communicating with a new contact.
3. Avoid Being Overbearing or Obnoxious
Let's pretend you come out as too dominant or aggressive in your email. Otherwise, your too forceful tone will alienate your audience.
However, if you don't make an effort to be heard in your email notice, it will be removed without reading. To keep from coming across as too dominant or aggressive,
Emails should be viewed as discussions with your readers. The goal is to get people to pay attention to you and what you're saying, to maintain their interest in what you're saying, and to express yourself confidently.
However, you should avoid coming out as hostile or persistent.
Avoid using ALL CAPS and unnecessary bolding or italicizing when sending emails, as these are read as shouting.
4. Only Send Emails At The Recipient’s Request
A major problem with sending unsolicited emails is that the receivers can report them as spam because they weren't expecting them.
Let's pretend you've accidentally sent an email to a person who hasn't signed up to receive your newsletter. The recipient is likely to report your message as spam in those circumstances.
Carefully consider whether you have authorization to email the person in question before doing so that your message doesn't get flagged as spam.
This might be requested at the conclusion of each newsletter, or it can be included in a welcome email sent to new subscribers.
5. Avoid Over-Promotion
This is another important reason why so many individuals send emails with spam-triggering terms.
Almost all of the emails that end up in spam inboxes are advertisements for some kind of product or service; common spam trigger words include "20% off," "Grab this," "Cheapest price," "Promise," and others of the like.
Don't worry about spamming individuals with promotional emails or using such words to coerce them into opening your email broadcast; just make sure you utilize them naturally.
6. Use a Known Domain for Transmission
In order to keep your emails from being flagged as spam, always use a trusted sender's domain. Suppose you use [email protected] as your email signature.
Since the address doesn't lead to a real domain, your emails will more than likely be marked as spam. Using an email marketing provider is the safest way to send emails and increase your open rates.
With a reliable email marketing service, you can use a sender address that your customers already know and trust, like your company domain.
7. Always Include an Unsubscribe Link in Your Emails
In its capacity as an email marketer, the company must comply with anti-spam legislation such as the CAN-SPAM Act of the United States. This necessitates the addition of an "unsubscribe" link in all email promotions.
Email marketing campaigns lacking an easy way to opt out are often viewed as spam since they effectively force the recipient to continue receiving the sender's messages. As a result, services like GetResponse and ActiveCampaign, which specialize in email marketing, have integrated unsubscribe links into their email broadcasts.
Make sure your emails provide the following details, in addition to an unsubscribe link:
- A name for yourself (or the name of your company).
- Identifying text for the promotion or deal at hand.
- Easily mark the message as spam.
- A guarantee that your personal information will not be shared with third parties.
- The word "cancel" or "unsubscribe."
- The words "take out."
- The word "cease"
8. Be Brief and Give a Clear CTA (Call To Action)
You shouldn't send too long a message or be excessively promotional. Shorter emails are read more often.
If you don't ask your readers to act, they won't. Email marketing campaigns must be concise.
Emails should be simple and contain a clear call to action.
9. Double-Check Your Grammar And Spelling
Avoiding grammatical and spelling errors as an email marketer is more common sense than advice, but it is nevertheless important to keep in mind, particularly in the context of spam complaints.
Spammers are easily identifiable by their poor grammar and spelling. It's not obvious why this is the case; perhaps phishers don't care about the quality of their lies, or if misspelling words helps them get past some spam filters.
Mistakes don't look good, and too many of them can make your recipients so dissatisfied and angry that your email is relegated to the trash instead of the inbox.
10. Tone down the fonts and colors
It appears that readers place significant importance on the fonts and color schemes employed. According to the aforementioned Radicati Group survey, more than sixty percent of respondents considered it inappropriate if email marketers employed non-standard typefaces, font sizes, or font colors. Additionally, seventy-plus percent of respondents said they only need to use one font size.
Spam filters are also triggered by invisible text and varying font sizes (a white font on a white background for example). For this reason, it is best to simplify.
Final Thoughts: How to Avoid Spam Filters
When it comes to email marketing, your goal is to make sure your emails arrive in the receiver’s inbox and the only to achieve this is by following the 9 best practices when sending emails.
You can do this by using personalized subject lines, avoiding words that trigger spam filters, not being too prominent or shouty and only sending emails at the recipient’s request, and not being too promotional.
You should also send from a recognizable domain, always include an unsubscribe link, and use a reputable service to send your emails. With these tips in mind, you can be sure that your emails reach the people who want to read them and drive them to take action.
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