Email marketing as many of us know, can be a powerful and inexpensive method of reaching our most active potential and/or existing customers. It can boost not only our direct sales, but also our credibility and referrals.
One of the major benefits of email marketing is that email is cheap, but obviously this is the same reason that spam has become so popular and so frustrating. With spam comes spam filters and with spam filters comes the blocking of legitimate email.
In this article I'll describe the basic steps you can take to help reduce the number of emails you send out that get blocked by spam filters -- hopefully resulting in a more rewarding marketing effort.
Always keep your email headers and message content accurate, and not misleading or deceptive
Deceptive or misleading content is a sure sign of spamming and will get your email blocked or reported as spam!
- Your from name or display name should always be your actual name or company name, do not stuff the from name with message content, slogans or phrases. Never put an email address in the from name.
- Your subject lines should never start with "Re:" or "Fwd:" unless your emails are actual replies or forwards
- Using emojis in subject lines is a great way to grab attention but be careful not to use them in a deceptive manor. For example, don’t use emojis or images next to names or brand names to imply the name has been verified in some way.
- Make sure your subject and pre-header accurately reflect the message content.
- Links in the email body should be visible and easy to understand. Your recipients should know what to expect when they click a link.
The right selection of words
Spam filters catch suspicious words and phrases associated with scams, gimmicks, schemes, promises and free gifts. Avoid words that make exaggerated claims and promises, avoid words that create unnecessary urgency and pressure, avoid words that look like shady, spammy, or unethical behaviour, avoid words that are jargon or legalese.
Pay attention to your formatting
When formatting your email, keep it simple and professional. Excessive use of different colours, fonts, sizes, ALL CAPS, images and so forth will result in a higher spam filtering rate. Keep your email as clean and professional as possible, and try to stick to a maximum of 2 or 3 different font types and sizes. Overly large sized fonts will surely add to an email being flagged as spam!
Avoid messages with large images or attachments, or messages that are composed entirely of an image, hiding the message text in an image is a common trick spammers use and all spam filters look out for this.
Consistency is king
Use a template if you plan on sending newsletters consistently. This will make sure that all your newsletters look and feel the same. It will also add a touch of professionalism and branding to your newsletters.
Whilst not directly affecting spam filters, this will enable your readers to distinguish your newsletter instantly, thus not reporting it as spam accidentally. Some spam filters work by querying a spam server, whereas others report individual emails as spam. If your email gets reported as spam, then more than likely multiple spam filters will flag your email.
Being consistent with your timing of the newsletter also helps. For example, if you send a newsletter once per month, then aim to send it out at the same time, on the same day each month.
Once again, your potential readers will learn to expect your email, adding professionalism and often improving open rates, also reducing accidental spam flagging as well.
Always address your subscribers by their name
Beginning an email with "Hi John", instead of "Hi Customer" feels much friendlier and looks less spammy. Personalised emails will elicit a much better response than generic messages. You may be surprised just how much better personalised emails perform!
BoltMail allows you to use merge tags to personalise emails with your subscriber's details such as their name. All lists have First Name and Last Name merge fields included by default, to personalise an email with each subscribers name simply type "Hi [FNAME]" ([FNAME] will be replaced with the subscribers first name when the email is sent). To create additional merge fields go to Lists > click on the list name, then click on "Custom Fields".
If you do not have names for all your contacts then you should really make an effort to obtain this information! How much of a response can you expect to elicit if you do not even know your customers names?
For further information on using merge tags see: Campaign tags and filters
Ask your subscribers to add your email address to their address book
It's a good idea to include some text in your email asking them to add your email address to their address book, this can help prevent your emails from ending up in their spam folders. However this does not guarantee delivery and you must specifically state this in your email.
Always remind customers why they are receiving your emails
It's best practice to include some text reminding customers why they are on your mailing list, this explanation could be placed in the footer before the unsubscribe link. You should make this part of your template so you don't need to add it each time.
If each customer has a unique reason for being on your list then you could create a custom field to store this information for each subscriber and then use a merge tag to display this in your email.
To create custom fields go to Lists > click on the list name, then click on Custom Fields.
For further information on using merge tags see: Campaign tags and filters
Always include unsubscribe and contact information
Every newsletter you send out should contain a way for the reader to unsubscribe. Not doing so is illegal and is an instant sign of spamming. You should also display your contact information (Phone and Address) clearly, as this greatly increases confidence in your email and your company, as well as conforms to spam laws. Contact information also allows a potential customer to contact you if need be.
You should add this to the footer of your email template so that you don't need to add it each time.
Please see How to add an unsubscribe link
Always honour unsubscribe requests within 24 hours
Continuing to send emails to people who have unsubscribed will result in your emails being reported as spam. Most of the time BoltMail takes care of this automatically for you; our unsubscribe links automatically unsubscribe the contact from your list. But some people may reply to your email asking to be unsubscribed or you might be creating a new list for each campaign which risks continuing to send to people who have unsubscribed from your previous lists. In these cases you will need to know how to manually unsubscribe people, please check out the following help topics:
How to add an unsubscribe link
How to manually unsubscribe someone
Managing your lists outside of BoltMail
Always use double opt-in on subscription forms
Always use double opt in on your subscription forms. This means that when a user subscribes to your contact list, they will be sent an email with a link that they must click on to confirm their subscription. This is very important because many people can accidentally enter an incorrect email address, or even the email address of someone else on purpose. When that person receives a newsletter they did not subscribe to, they will assume they have been spammed, and your newsletter will be reported as spam.
Please see Signup confirmation - double opt in
Always use captcha on subscription forms
If you are collecting subscribers through a subscription form please ensure that the form includes captcha (such as Google's "I am not a robot" checkbox) to prevent automated robot submissions. Robots will fill your subscription form with email addresses who did not choose to subscribe. All subscription forms generated through BoltMail include Google's "I am not a robot" checkbox. Failure to use captcha and/or double opt-in may result in spam trap or honeypot emails getting into your mailing list, this can be catastrophic! Learn about The dangers of spam traps and honey pots
Please see How to add a subscribe or unsubscribe form to your website
Remove stale subscribers
Consider removing, or reconfirming, subscribers who have not interacted with your company for some time, they may not be expecting your emails and may report them as spam. To reconfirm subscribers send them an email asking if they want to continue receiving your emails
Please see Reconfirming your subscribers
You should also check for and remove any incorrect or outdated email addresses from your lists, such as addresses containing typos or for companies that have gone out of business. A high number of emails bouncing is a red flag that email providers look for and will get your emails blocked as spam.
Always use a verified sending domain (SPF, DKIM & DMARC)
Verified sending domains allow spam filters to confirm that BoltMail is legitimately sending email on your behalf, this way spam filters know that your emails are legitimate. Using a verified sending domain is now required for all email sent through our platform.
BoltMail makes this easy, please see Creating a sending domain
Don't send too often or too infrequently
Sending too often may annoy some people causing them to unsubscribe. It's important to respect your subscribers, we all have busy lives.
Conversely sending too infrequently may result in subscribers forgetting they had joined your mailing list and flagging your email as spam.
Depending on how much you have to say, we recommend sending monthly or quarterly. If you are planning to send more frequently make sure you always have something genuinely new, important or urgent to say. No matter how rarely or often you send each email needs to be new and interesting. Putting some effort in here will make a big difference! Do not fatigue your subscribers with repetitive content! It is often tempting to resend a campaign to people who did not open it the first time, before doing this please pause and consider if this is really a good idea! If they didn't want to open it the first time around, hitting them with the same email again might just annoy them! If you must try resending, consider changing the subject line and pre-header text to see if something different will elicit a better response. You need to also be aware that both Gmail and Microsoft's free mail service (hotmail.com, outlook.com etc) now have privacy features that block open tracking. So when you resend to un-opens you will be sending again to all of your gmail.com, hotmail.com and outlook.com subscribers including those that did open it!
Test, test, test
The key to avoiding spam filters is testing. The first method of testing I use is to send the newsletter to multiple email accounts with existing spam filters. For example, I have a Gmail (https://www.gmail.com) account and an Outlook (https://www.outlook.com) account that I make sure I send my newsletter to. If the newsletter ends up in the junk folder, then I've got some work to do!
Please see How to test your email campaign for spam
Conclusion
Avoiding spam filters when sending out legitimate newsletters can be a time consuming effort. However, as your contact list grows, it can also be a very beneficial exercise. I've watched open rates of just 2 to 3% soar to a massive 50% and over, simply by applying the techniques described in this article.
