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Stop my emails going to spam

It’s nearly impossible to think about email without thinking about spam. Almost 300 billion emails were sent and received in 2019. This includes billions of promotional emails sent daily by marketers. Although a lot of people think marketing emails belong in their spam folders, they’re generally harmless, if a little annoying.

However, some of these 122 billion unsolicited, and unwanted emails are sometimes virus-infected. Over the years, tech companies have made sophisticated filters to stop spam. These filters analyze the content of an email to determine if it’s spam. They’re pretty good at what they do. Occasionally, they can be too sensitive and mark an innocent email as spam.

Here’s how to avoid spam filters

Don’t use certain subject lines

There are some words and phrases you shouldn’t use in an email subject line.

The list includes words that imply urgency, those that promise things that seem too good to be true, and those that are linked to certain industries.

Here are some examples:

  • Using capital letters constantly such as DON’T MISS THIS
  • Multiple exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!
  • Misspelt words
  • Invoice
  • Attention
  • Pharmacy
  • Prize
  • RE: your account
  • Free
  • Congratulations
  • Click here
  • Buy direct
  • Act now

You might also trigger spam filters if your subject line contains a domain name.

The content you should avoid

Email content follows the same rules as subject lines.

If you make wild promises, put pressure on readers, or mention violence, drugs, or terrorism, spam filters will likely flag it. Also, make sure your emails are original and structured well so they have a better chance of avoiding the spam folder.

You should avoid certain signatures

A few things in your email signature can make it look like spam.

Examples include:

  • Images with hyperlinks
  • HTML code
  • Third-party links

Your images should be limited

If an email contains too many large images, spam filters may blacklist it. Whenever you include photos and graphics in your emails, you should only include the bare minimum and ensure that they are compressed so that they have a smaller file size. If you want to avoid spam filters, images should not account for more than 50% of the email body.

Avoid shortening URLs

By using URL shorteners, spammers hide the true nature of their links in emails, but spam filters are aware of this. It is best to include hyperlinks with appropriate text in your emails if you want to include links to URLs.

SMTP authentication is recommended

You should send emails from your inbox rather than relying on scripts with potentially insecure outgoing mail settings.

How can I make sure that everyone receives my emails?

This isn’t possible. But you can improve your chances by getting a perfect score on mail-tester.

Keep your customers happy

You should also keep in mind that your customers are also able to send your emails to the spam folder, not just spam filters. These tips will help you to ensure your emails do not annoy your customers and tempt them to mark your email as spam. Be careful not to send too often and annoy your customers. Make sure your customers have the option to opt-in to receive your emails before sending them.

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