11 Tips to Make Sure Your Emails Avoid Spam Filters

Once new subscribers are added to your list, send them an email asking them to confirm that they actually want to hear from you. Having double opt-in helps you keep your list clean, ultimately improving your sender reputation. Whitelisting sends a clear signal to ISPs that subscribers on your list want to receive emails from you.

Having an unsubscribe link makes it easy for those who do not want to receive emails from you to opt out. What's more, it is legally required from you by the CAN-SPAM Act. It's important to know that having people unsubscribe doesn't hurt your sender reputation in any way. However, having them mark your emails as spam does way more damage. Make it easy for them to unsubscribe, so they don't have to choose the other option.

Using uppercase letters in online communication is perceived as shouting and is usually considered to be rude. Emails with subject lines in uppercase look unprofessional and will most likely annoy your subscribers. This will probably result in them marking your emails as spam. Furthermore, these emails are a great way to trigger spam filters, damaging your deliverability rate. It is just too much of a risk to take. You can capitalize the first letters of words, or perhaps one word you feel should be emphasized, but that is as far as you should go.

Using attachments in your emails will land them in your recipients' spam folders. That's because those who send out blast emails with attachments typically tend to be spammers. Apart from this, by adding attachments to your emails, your message becomes too large, and it takes longer for it to be sent. This can cause delays in recipients receiving your emails, ultimately affecting campaign performance. But don't worry: you can still share the content that would otherwise be attached in the email by linking it in the body copy or CTA.

By authenticating your email, you're verifying yourself as a legitimate sender, thereby decreasing the chances of your emails going to spam. Needless to say, ISPs trust authenticated senders more and are more likely to deliver your emails into the inbox. SPF or Sender Policy Framework helps you prevent spammers from sending messages on behalf of your domain. DKIM or DomainKeys Identified Mail helps you prevent email spoofing on outgoing emails. Lastly, DMARC, or Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance, ensures that a legitimate email is properly authenticating against SPF and DKIM standards. If this is getting too complicated and you need help setting things properly, schedule a call with our email experts.

Most of us are more likely to open emails coming from known senders. An effective sender name will be consistent, making it easy for the customers to align it with your brand. Sender names with a format like firstnamelastname@domain are always a good way to go. Make sure you don't change your sender name frequently and don't use obscure sender names. Both of these would confuse your customers, making them more likely to mark your emails as spam.

Testing your emails is always a good option. It makes it easier for you to see what kind of customer experience you offer, and in line with that, provides you with steps to improve your email marketing program. There are several sites that allow you to test the quality of your emails by assessing how likely they are to land in spam folders. Mail-tester.com, glockapps.com, and isnotspam.com will alert you if your emails are likely to trigger spam filters.

Spam rate doesn't have to trigger a stress response in marketers the way spam words trigger spam filters. There are steps you can take to make sure your emails land in your recipients' inboxes rather than spam folders. Applying the suggestions listed above will undoubtedly bring you closer to building a good sender reputation and sending out engaging content.

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