Keep Your Emails Out of the Spam Folder
Learn how to get your marketing emails into your customers’ inbox and out of the spam folder.
It’s Getting Worse
Nearly half of the world’s emails now are spam so companies like Google are continuing to refine their spam filtering to reduce delivery of these annoying emails. But of course that means that more of your marketing emails will end up in spam folders unless you adhere to some best practices to avoid this. Let’s look at some of these techniques.
Ask For Your Readers’ Help
Always get clear permission from your contacts to send them emails. This way, you know you are sending emails to people that want to read them. Consistently low open rates can significantly increase the chances your emails will land in the spam folder because email providers interpret low engagement as a sign your emails are not relevant and possibly are spam.
Use your welcome journey series (see our previous email on creating a welcome journey) to ask your subscribers to add you to their contact list to ensure an inbox placement.
A Clean List is a Happy List
Clean your email list on a regular basis and delete unengaged, unsubscribed, invalid and duplicate contacts. This will improve the quality of your list. Be cautious with the unengaged group however, as you never know when someone might open one of your emails over time. As a matter of fact, before you purge your unengaged, single them out and create a re-engagement campaign to rejuvenate their interest in your offerings.
Another benefit of a clean list is your data metrics are more accurate. Reporting on bounced and unsubscribed emails just makes your data inaccurate since there is no way those people can open your emails anymore. Get them out of the total list which makes your report more meaningful.
Adhere to the Rules
CCPA and GDPR laws along with the CAN-SPAM act have specific rules you must follow. The following are issues to avoid. Any one of them can flag your email as spam in the eyes of the law.
- Not getting your recipient’s permission to send them emails.
- Not including an mailing address.
- Using a misleading subject line.
- Not providing a way for readers to opt-out.
Proof-Read Your Emails
This is common sense, but did you know misspellings and poorly written sentences (think AI generated) can send your emails to the spam folder? The missing first name field such as “Dear (No Value)” will get you flagged as well.
Use a Spam-Checking Tool
It doesn’t hurt to use a tool to check your emails. This is a fast and easy way to spam check your content. “Emailable” is a reputable service and is cost effective.
Keep Your Emails Coming
Regular emails not only keep your readers informed but you provide familiarity even if your readers don’t read every email. They are called email journeys for a reason!
Get Those Emails In The InBox!
Creating a checklist from these practices and reviewing it regularly is a great way to get your emails in the inbox more often. You should see your open and click through rates go up accordingly. Good luck and happy emailing.
