here are several reasons why emails may end up in the spam folder. Reasons include filters, email appliances and human error. As an email marketer, it’s crucial to follow best practices to avoid it. Email delivery to the inbox is more likely to occur when you use complete sender information, create good content, have a great subject line,
Email campaigns are the lifeblood of most industries.docx
1. Email campaigns are the lifeblood of most industries. They are the major
contributor to the billions of yearly emails sent worldwide. Most email
campaigns are well planned, However, regardless of hours spent on design,
content and ROI predictions, they all have the same thing in common. Some
emails go into the spam folder faster than a hot knife through butter.
Why, because everyone hates SPAM,
and everyone is trying to control it.
Contents
1 Why, because everyone hates SPAM, and everyone is trying to control it.
2 Aside from filters, human error and email appliances, it seems everything concerning
inbox delivery is designed to work against the email marketer.
For example, email programs can give the recipient the ability to:
Create email rules so the next emails from the Suzie Cream Cheese
factory automatically goes in the SPAM folder.
To easily mark a message as SPAM, thereby training their email
program to always deliver this FROM address to the SPAM folder. And
if it was marked by accident, the FROM address is still banned from
their Inbox forever unless they change it.
Use email filtering appliances such as Mimecast, or Barracuda, of which
none of these is 100% accurate, User’s noted “We have seen a vast
increase in false positives and undetected malicious emails in our
environment over time with barracuda.”
Aside from filters, human error and email
appliances, it seems everything concerning
2. inbox delivery is designed to work against the
email marketer.
Keep those messages out of the SPAM folder by:
1. Using complete sender information– Avoid a sloppy
email FROM field, caused by arbitrary characters, a nonsense sender
address, or use of numbers. Use a real FROM address, and preferably
continue to use the same one, so it becomes familiar to the receiver.
2. Include a Physical Address in the message. Having a real address,
even a PO box if needed for those home-based businesses, will show
the recipient that the email comes from a real place. And it’s the law
in most countries.
3. Emailing your messages to opted in subscribers. It takes time to
acquire a list for email marketing. It may be tempting to rent, borrow, or
buy email addresses but this isn’t recommended by most Email Service
Providers. Instead, build your list organically with opted-in forms on your
website, social media, and other marketing channels.
4. Creating a good, catchy Subject line. There’s lots of advice on the
Internet on how to create the prefer Subject Line, including web tools
and AI Subject Line generators.
Avoid the use of all capitals, emojis, and punctuation marks.
5. Offering good content will keep them coming back. Effective email
content is crucial for engaging, informing subscribers, and promoting
your products or services. To achieve this, it is essential to consider
your audience, the tone of your message, and the intended goal of your
message. (and do not forget to check your spelling and grammar)
6. Authentication, to prove you are who you say you are. Normally
before an email is considered deliverable to the inbox by a receiving
email server, it’s scrutinized, authenticated, and examined right along
with the sender and their sender reputation. Using authentication
protocols (SPF, DKIM, BIMI, DMARC) validates that the email is sent
from your domain and IP address. It’s less likely to be directed to the
spam folder from the receiver email server.
7. Testing the internal links in your message. Always review the entire
message, (have someone else read it over too) and test all the links to
verify they work as expected. Make sure they are labeled correctly:
When you have a link that said Digital Web Leprechauns, make sure
goes there.
3. 8. Adding attachments. There’s been a steady increase of spam,
malware emails, and phishing attempts in general. Sending attachments
that are not expected, too big or too many is never a good idea. (Just as
a side note, our customers send attachments without issues, as they
are assigned their own IP address, with up-to-date authentication
protocols, and the attachments are expected by the recipients.)
9. Cutting back on images. Don’t overcrowd your message with images.
Be smart with your visual content, is should have a purpose. “A picture
maybe worth 1,000 words”, but it can also trigger cues that this
message is spam.
10. Messaging the correct audience. When you have a big list that
requires segments to deliver your messages, verify those segments are
targeting the right recipients. When you accidentally send mustache
remover coupons to your segment list of young ladies, you may elicit
some unwanted unsubscribes.
11. Removing those unsubscribes and inactives on your active
list. Inactive subscribers are ones who lost interest in your messages;
taking no action on your emails as they have filtered your messages out
of their virtual life. ( Put those aside for a re-engagement campaign)
Emailing to inactive members can harm deliverability. With today’s tools,
ESP’s who notice you are sending messages to an address that never
opens your message will start to route your messages to the spam
folder.
12. Leaving an easy pathway to unsubscribe. Publicize easy-to-
use unsubscribe instructions. The unsub process should be automatic,
without the caveat of waiting up to 10 days to leave. Do not require a
series of clicks to opted out. You know how you feel when you want to
stop receiving email from a list. Test you unsubscribe link. Make sure it
works.
There are several reasons why emails may end up in the spam folder.
Reasons include filters, email appliances and human error. As an email
marketer, it’s crucial to follow best practices to avoid it. Email delivery to the
inbox is more likely to occur when you use complete sender information,
create good content, have a great subject line, use email authentication, test
internal links and avoid unexpected attachments. And as always test your
emails before you send, for optimal results.