Email is an effective way to reach your target audience and grow your customer base. Nearly 60 percent of users say marketing emails influence their purchases. however, as online protection and privacy laws become more stringent, getting your emails into recipients’ inboxes has become more difficult.
If your emails end up in users’ spam folders, don’t worry. By following a few simple best practices, you can not only ensure that your emails reach their recipients, but also encourage higher open rates and have a stronger impact.
In this article, we’ll explore why emails end up in spam and what you can do about it.
That’s a lot of ground to cover, so let’s dive in!
do you prefer to see the video version?
why spam is a problem for email marketers
Estimates indicate that as many as 60 billion spam emails will be sent every day between 2019 and 2023. Users obviously don’t appreciate that rush of spam. however, this is also a major issue for email marketers. Up to 20 percent of emails will never make it to the recipient’s inbox, preventing you from reaching your audience.
Because email generates an average return on investment (ROI) of 122%, it’s important to minimize the chance of your messages being in that 20%. Every email that ends up in spam is a waste of money on your part, both for the email itself and for the potential conversions it might have generated.
Fortunately, there are many things you can do to keep your messages out of spam folders, and most of it is pretty straightforward. In the next section, we’ll take a look at some of the most common reasons email becomes spam and see how you can avoid them.
60% of users say marketing emails influence their purchases… but if your emails are sent directly to spam, you’re missing out on a huge marketing impact. 📩 make sure they reach your audience with this guide ⬇️click to tweet
why are my emails being sent as spam? (9 possible reasons)
There are many reasons emails can be identified as spam, from keywords triggering spam filters to incorrect permissions.
Let’s go over some of the most common scenarios and explore what you can do to make sure your messages make it to users’ inboxes.
1. your recipients marked your emails as spam
The first and most obvious reason your emails end up in spam is because your recipients put them there.
Even if your content is solid and the recipient gave you express permission to contact them, you may still decide to mark your email as spam as a way to clean out a cluttered inbox.
They may have also forgotten why they signed up for your list in the first place, or they just made a mistake.
Unfortunately, if enough of your messages get flagged by users, it can cause spam filters to flag your address and start sending your mail to spam automatically.
This means your messages may end up looking like spam, even to users who haven’t explicitly flagged it in the past. this is especially likely on gmail, outlook, yahoo and other services with algorithms heavily powered by artificial intelligence.
once the email is sent, there’s not much you can do to prevent someone from marking your emails as spam.
What you can do is make sure your content is top-notch and follow other best practices to prevent users from perceiving your email as spam. this can minimize the chance of someone intentionally flagging your communications. we will cover some of these strategies in the following sections.
2. you are not following html best practices
While text-only emails are fairly straightforward, they may not be a viable option for some businesses, such as e-commerce stores, as they can drive lower engagement compared to branded emails , images and other html elements.
However, when including html in your messages, it’s important to follow a few simple rules to ensure they don’t end up in spam folders.
Here are some html best practices for email, according to mailchimp:
- keep the maximum width of your email between 600 and 800 pixels. this ensures that it is large enough to read easily, while also working well in email client preview panes.
- assume that email clients will block any images and users won’t see critical information if it’s contained in media elements.
- keep your code as clean and light as possible, particularly css. also avoid javascript and flash altogether. these can be seen as attack vectors for spam filters, and many email clients don’t support them anyway.
- make sure your messages are optimized for mobile devices. in fact, it’s generally a good idea to design everything with a mobile-first philosophy these days. that means thumb-friendly buttons, small images that won’t overload mobile networks, and email-safe fonts that can be read on small screens.
- When it comes to fonts, you’ll also want to make sure the ones you choose are cross-platform and clearly legible. arial, verdana, and georgia are solid choices.
- check all links added to your email signature, avoiding any websites that could be flagged as spam.
Finally, it’s a good idea to make the most of the text in your email content and minimize the amount of html you include. your company branding and maybe a splash of color can work wonders for engagement, without going overboard.
3. your subject lines are misleading or contain spam triggers
Subject lines are often the first impression a user gets of your message, so they should grab attention and entice the reader to open the email. however, they also need to be honest. a misleading subject line isn’t just bad etiquette, it’s also against the law, according to the can-spam law.
More than half of email respondents report feeling tricked or tricked into opening an email based on the subject line, according to Litmus. that’s a quick way to send your email to the spam folder, and may even cause some users to unsubscribe.
What does a misleading subject line look like? Here are some examples:
- re or fw. Don’t start your subject lines with “re” unless you’re actually replying to something. it’s a cheeky hack and a quick way to unsubscribe. similarly, using “fw” can make the person think they know you (the definition of misleading).
- personal messages or leading questions. Topics like “did I leave my phone instead? or “did you hear about so-and-so?” can make users wonder if they know the sender.
- overly sensational claims. some subject lines aren’t necessarily lies, but they’re still a bit exaggerated. In general, you want to make sure your subject line matches the content the reader will find in the email.
Your subject lines should also be professional. that means no capitalization and definitely no spelling or grammatical errors. The free Grammarly tool can check your spelling, grammar, and punctuation automatically, and alert you to any issues that might alert spam filters.
Now you know which subject lines to avoid, but you still need to entice subscribers to open your messages. hubspot has some great tips for creating strong headlines:
- start with action verbs.
- create a sense of urgency and importance (but again, don’t be misleading).
- pose an interesting or compelling question.
Finally, remember: whatever your subject line is, make sure the content lives up to its promise. otherwise, you risk damaging your reputation.
4. you do not have permission from your recipients
This one is simple: Online privacy laws like GDPR require that you must have express permission from recipients before you can send them emails. that means you can’t just buy email lists to get quick access to a group of contacts (this isn’t a good idea for other reasons, including poor targeting).
However, it also means that even users who provide their email addresses on your site must explicitly tell you that they want to receive emails from you, especially if they are EU citizens. this can come in the form of a disclaimer during account creation or on your contact form, or it could be a checkbox that users must check to indicate their willingness.
While this is not necessarily required in the US. uu., is still a good practice. People get a lot of email these days, and if your messages suddenly start showing up in someone’s inbox when you didn’t ask for them, there’s a good chance they’ll be marked as spam.
5. its content triggers spam filters
spam filters look for certain words (or combinations of words). If an email gets enough hits or contains those words in addition to some of the other items on this list, it can end up in your spam folders. spam trigger keywords may include:
- “free”
- “lower price”
- “additional income”
- “easy money”
- “no cost”
- multiple exclamation points or dollar signs in a row
- words with spaces or unnecessary punctuation marks
- words that are in uppercase
In general, these are words that are either heavily sales-oriented or clearly designed to bypass spam filters (such as extra spaces). while using a handful of these isn’t necessarily a death sentence for your messages, using too many can be.
Of course, some of these keywords are tough to avoid, especially if you’re sending ecommerce or financial emails. To get around this problem, you can use varied language and try to get creative about how you phrase things.
Above all, it’s smart to avoid aggressive or “salesy” language and make sure you follow the proven best practices for writing the email content we highlight here.
6. you don’t include a link to unsubscribe
laws like can-spam in the us. uu. clearly state that your emails must include a clear way to unsubscribe. furthermore, if someone clicks the link to unsubscribe, you must process that request within 10 days and cannot force the user to go through any hurdles.
While this may sound like a bad thing (why would you want to give people the opportunity to unsubscribe?), it can actually have the opposite effect, as long as your content is solid. Giving people an easy way to get off your subscriber list shows that your brand is trustworthy.
On the other hand, hiding or simply not providing an unsubscribe option is a sure way to frustrate people. it can also result in negative press on your newsletter (word travels fast on the internet) and generally annoys people.
7. your “from” information is incorrect or misleading
One of the main reasons your emails can end up in spam is incorrect “from” information. The ‘from’ line, the one that tells your recipients who sent the email, should be accurate and not misleading. In some cases, a tool on your site, such as a contact form plugin, could be sending “fake” emails with “from” details that trigger spam alerts.
If emails from your contact form are being marked as spam, the solution is usually quite simple. You’ll want to make sure the “from” field in your contact form settings has your site’s admin address, rather than the email address entered on the form. if the contact form sends you email notifications, also make sure that the addresses used in “from” and “to” are different.
8. you have not configured email authentication
another common reason why the origin information of your emails may be incorrect is when email authentication is not configured correctly through a service like mailchimp (or one of its alternatives):
authentication authorizes the service to send emails on your behalf, so they will appear with your domain name attached even if they were sent by a third party. If your authentication isn’t set up correctly, your emails may end up going straight to your recipients’ spam boxes.
There are a few different types of email authentication, the main ones being Domain Key Identified Mail (dkim), Sender Policy Framework (spf), and dmarc.
dkim provides an encryption key and digital signature to verify an email, while spf works by verifying the sender’s ip address against a list of approved ip addresses. dmarc is a bit different in that it requires the other two to be enabled and allows the sender to indicate that their emails are protected by dkim or spf.
If you’re using an automated email service and you’re having delivery problems, the first thing to check is authentication. If you need help with this, we have a helpful article detailing exactly how to set up email authentication.
9. you are sending too many attachments
Attachments are a big red flag for most spam filters. this is because the files can be easy vectors for malware and viruses. The general rule is just don’t send any attachments, especially in newsletters. If you need to send an attachment, make sure the recipient knows ahead of time and minimize the number of files you attach to a single email.
If you need to attach a document or file to an email, it’s safest to first upload it to a cloud storage service like google drive or dropbox. you can then include the link to the file in your email. that way, your message shouldn’t trigger any spam filters.
save your marketing emails from the spam folder with this guide 📩 💥 #emailmarketing #emailclick to tweet
summary
There are many reasons why your emails can end up in spam folders, from poor subject lines to keywords that trigger spam filters. Whatever the reason, it’s important to resolve the issue to maximize your return on investment and maintain a trusted reputation with your audience.
By addressing these issues quickly and implementing some proven best practices, you can easily keep your messages out of spam. Best of all, those same practices can also increase the impact of your messages and hopefully convert more subscribers into customers.
Do you have any questions about the email marketing best practices outlined above? let us know in the comments section!