You work so hard on your new email campaign and put a lot of time into it. So you don’t want to see your emails landed in the potential leads’ spam folder. But if you don’t get any responses from your email subscribers and your engagement rates are low, we have bad news for you: your emails go to spam.
What is important to know is that more than half of all emails are spam, and you don’t want your messages to be in these statistics for sure and lost in the spam folder. Lucky for you, our article will give you tips on how to prevent emails from going to spam.
But before that, let’s discuss what a spam folder is.
What is a Spam Folder?
A spam folder, also known as a junk or bulk folder, is a place where all your unwanted emails appear instead of reaching the inbox.
Email service providers check both email addresses and content, and when they notice anything suspicious, they don’t let those messages reach people’s inboxes. On top of this, email subscribers can report your messages as spam to clean their inboxes of unnecessary emails.
You need to avoid both cases. To reach that goal, first, you need to understand how spam filters work. So let’s discuss that.
How Spam Filters Work
Different spam filters have different filtering technologies. They use many different criteria, like analyzing the sender’s reputation and checking for suspicious content to check emails. Considering all these factors, they give a spam score, and based on this score, the email will pass through the filter and reach the inbox, or it will land in the spam box.
We have an idea of what a spam folder is and how filters work to detect spam emails, but what types of spam filters are out there that you should know about? It’s time to discover that.
Types of Spam Filters
All spam filters, regardless of their type, aim to detect unwanted emails and keep people’s inboxes clean and healthy. However, every spam filter has unique filtering criteria, and based on those criteria, there are these types of spam filters.
- Content filters
Those filters screen and check email content and decide whether or not to mark it as a spam email. When they notice money-related words, inappropriate language, or suspicious attachments, they mark your email as spam, and this is why your emails end up in a spam folder. So, you should keep your email content spam-free to ensure it reaches your email recipients’ inboxes.
- Blacklist filters
Blacklist filters block messages from spammers who have been listed on the spammer’s list. And because spammers can change their email addresses and domains, blacklist filters regularly update and evolve.
- Bayesian filters
Those filters learn email recipients’ preferences and monitor what kind of emails they mark as spam emails. They create a group for trusted and suspicious addresses. If they send all messages from a certain sender as spam, a Bayesian filter can recognize this pattern, and these emails will automatically land in a spam folder.
- Header filters
Header filters automatically sort and manage emails based on the criteria email recipients set. These filters analyze information senders, subject lines, and headers. When noticing anything suspicious, they can automatically send these emails to a spam folder.
With the help of header filters, email recipients’ inboxes remain free from unnecessary or suspicious messages. Basically, those filters make email communication stronger and healthier.
- Permission filters
Permission filters play an important role in helping emails avoid ending up in spam folders. Implementing those filters ensures that emails are sent to people who have agreed to receive them.
Thanks to permission filters, you shouldn’t spam your email recipients and maintain a positive sender reputation. This can increase the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.
- Challenge-response filters
Challenge-response filters verify senders and ensure their legitimacy. They ask you to provide a password or solve a puzzle to ensure that the message is coming from real people.
- Gateway filters
Spam gateway filters, like other types of filters, aim to detect and mitigate spam emails. Additionally, they prevent phishing, malware, and other security threats.
What’s great about these filters is their regular updated to enhance functionality in identifying various security threats. They help to maintain email system security and health.
- Hosted spam filter
Hosted spam filters analyze email content and sender reputation, comparing them with lists of blocked senders to determine whether an email is likely to be spam. The filter also tries to identify phishing and spoofed emails. When it finds suspicious messages, it either rejects them or forwards them to the recipient, depending on the filter’s settings.
Now, you might be curious about how to prevent emails from going to spam and passing through spam filters. We will cover this later, but now it’s time to clearly understand why your emails go to spam instead of your inbox.
Why Emails Go to the Spam Folder
We already know what a spam folder is and how spam filters work, but you may wonder, “why are my emails being marked as spam?”
So, now it’s time to understand why emails keep going to spam and find five main factors that influence whether your messages land in the email spam folder or the inbox.
Unengaged Subscribers
A low engagement rate can be one of the main reasons that your emails are flagged as spam. Email service providers track engagement metrics and consider low engagement a sign that email recipients aren’t interested and can mark your future emails as spam.
Here are the steps you can take at this stage to ensure your email list stays engaged:
- Find your target audience.
- Segment your email list.
- Choose the best time to send your messages.
- Create compelling subject lines.
- Clean your list regularly.
So, do everything in your power to ensure you successfully engage your subscribers, from writing catchy subject lines to using engaging GIFs in your emails. This way, you can prevent your emails from landing in a spam folder.
Bad Sender and IP reputation
Sender and IP reputation are the most important factors that spam filters consider when deciding whether to send emails to a spam folder. So, you need to analyze both your domain and IP reputation carefully.
There are several tools for IP and Domain reputation checks. These solutions will show how trusted your IP address is based on its email sending history. Additionally, they inform you about any email deliverability issues you might have. The next step is to perform a blacklist check using blacklist tools to determine whether your IP address is on a blacklist.
After discovering any issues with your sender and IP reputation, try to solve them as soon as possible to ensure your messages won’t end up in the email spam folder. Having a positive sender and IP reputation and following essential email security practices gives you peace of mind that your emails won’t land in the spam box.
Spam complaints
It’s almost impossible to escape from spam complaints. However, you have to avoid having spam complaints because they harm your email deliverability and lead to high spam scores. When email recipients mark your emails as spam, it signals to email service providers that they don’t want to receive your messages, so these emails end up in the spam folder.
Your job is to understand the reasons behind spam complaints. The most common reason is that the recipient doesn’t recognize your address or remember subscribing to your email list.
So, how to prevent email going to spam because of those complaints? Create memorable branding and ensure it reflects in your email campaigns. In addition, you should successfully generate email leads and engage them by sending personalized messages.
Spammy Content
If your content looks spammy in the eyes of spam filters, most definitely, your messages will end up in the email spam folder. So, here are the things you should avoid to prevent emails from going to spam:
- Using spam triggers words such as “urgent,” “earn money,” and “limited time offer” in your email copy or subject line that sound too pushy.
- Spelling or grammar errors.
- Including too many exclamation marks.
- Adding many images to hide text.
- All caps or all lowercase letters because they can make your messages seem like junk mail.
- Having excessive links or suspicious attachments in the email content since scammers often link to malicious websites in their spam emails.
Avoiding these tactics and creating spam-free email content increases the chances of your messages successfully landing in the recipient’s inboxes.
Using Link Shorteners
Link shorteners might seem handy, but you should avoid them because a lot of spammers do it to hide malicious links and bypass filters.
If you use them, there’s a good chance your messages will end up in the spam folder. Nobody wants that, right? Instead, go for the full, descriptive URL. It might look a bit longer, but it builds trust with your recipients. They’ll appreciate seeing exactly where that link leads before clicking.
Sloppy HTML
Messy HTML is another common problem in spam emails.
This means the code behind the email is poorly written, which can make the email look weird or work improperly. Even if these emails don’t get caught by spam filters, people might mark them as spam anyway.
To avoid this:
- Use email templates to keep your code tidy.
- Test your emails before sending them. Use tools to see how they look in different inboxes.
- Fix any errors found in the HTML.
Open URLs
Do you need to encourage your email subscribers to visit your website or provide them with more information about your products and services? Then, you should add a website link to your email.
You can use an open URL, which is a plain, typed-out web address that is not made into a clickable link or button. But this can be the reason why your emails are marked as spam.
So instead, use a clear call-to-action (CTA) button with a clickable link. This not only makes your messages cleaner but also minimizes the chances of being marked as spam.
Your Emails Lack a Plain-Text Version
One of the effective tactics to avoid looking spammy and appearing in spam folders is to add a plain-text version of your emails. Typically, email services allow you to add this easily when creating your message. Without a plain-text version, your emails might seem suspicious and end up in spam folders.
Plain-text emails are also essential for ensuring your messages can be read by screen readers, making them more accessible to everyone.
Your Emails Aren’t Authenticated
Another common reason why your emails end up in a spam folder is poor email authentication. So, one of your main tasks should be to authenticate your domain to show the email service providers that you are a legitimate business, not a spammer. But if you fail to properly authenticate your emails, you can’t expect successful communication with your email recipients.
Here are the main authentication protocols you should follow:
- DKIM- It helps verify that an email was actually sent by the domain it claims to be from and prevents spoofing and phishing attacks.
- SPF- This authentication protocol verifies that an email was sent from an authorized IP address.
- DMARC- It strengthens email security by combining SPF and DKIM to authenticate emails and verify they come from authorized sources.
Integrating these email security policies is key to not landing in a spam folder and having a high deliverability rate.
7 Ways to Prevent Emails From Going to Spam Folder
How to prevent emails from going to spam? Isn’t this the biggest question that concerns you? So, let’s explore seven effective tactics that will stop emails from going to spam.
1. Warm Up Your Email
You probably have an amazing new email marketing campaign you want to share with the world. But don’t rush anywhere and warm up your email to avoid landing in a spam folder. This process involves sending a small number of emails to potential email leads and gradually increasing the number of emails each day.
Warming up your email can be time-consuming, but all hard work will pay off because, in the end, you will have high email deliverability, and your emails won’t end up in the spam box.
2. Personalize Emails to Avoid Spam Folder
Imagine you walk into a store, and the assistants greet you by name, remember what you bought last time, and offer something you might love.
Pretty nice, right? That’s exactly what personalization can do for your emails.
It’s not just about avoiding the spam folder (though that’s a big plus). It’s about making your subscribers feel like you’re talking directly to them, not shouting into a crowd.
Start by getting to know your target audience. Where are they from? What do they usually purchase?
Once you’ve gathered the information, segment your email list into groups based on your findings. Then, write and send personalized emails that address each group’s interests and needs.
Remember, when people feel like you know them, they’re much more likely to open, read, and act on your emails – and much less likely to mark your emails as spam.
So go ahead, make it personal!
3. Avoid Spam Trigger Words
Why my emails are going to spam? If this issue bothers you, the reason can be having some trigger words in your content. Your email content should be spam-free, and it shouldn’t include words and phrases that can trigger spam filters.
We have already discussed how those filters carefully analyze all emails before letting them appear in people’s inboxes.
So, avoid the following words in your emails:
- Promotional phrases
Extremely promotional words, like “Limited time offer,” “Buy now,” “Free,” “100% free,” or “Save up to,” will trigger spam filters. Instead, you should use less aggressive language when promoting your offers and ensure your messages reach email recipients’ inboxes.
- Money related terms
Spam filters may consider emails with financial words as scams. So, your email copy and subject line shouldn’t include the words “Income,” “Cash bonus,” or “Earn money fast.”
- Exclamation points
You shouldn’t overuse exclamation points because they make your email look spammy.
Be careful of the language you use in your emails, and convey your message without spam trigger words to ensure they successfully land in your subscribers’ inboxes.
4. Use a Reputable Email Service Provider
Using a reliable email service provider will ensure that emails won’t end up in the spam box. So, how to choose a provider that will help to reach that goal?
Reputable email service providers should have high delivery rates and include IP reputation and list management features and authentication protocols, that ensure your emails are delivered to the inbox.
Reliable email service providers usually offer deliverability monitoring so you can check if your email lands in a spam folder.
5. Clean Your Email List Regularly
A clean email list is one of the most important factors that can enhance your email marketing efforts. You should clean your email list regularly to boost your deliverability rate. The quality of your mailing list can directly affect your sender reputation and, consequently, the likelihood of your emails ending up in the spam folder.
Here are the steps you can take to make your email list healthy:
- Use mailfloss to clean your email list from inactive and invalid subscribers and improve email deliverability rates.
- Remove unengaged subscribers, as low engagement can harm your deliverability.
- Remove addresses that have bounced in the past. This will help to keep your list up-to-date and strong.
- Segment your email list to send more targeted and relevant emails, increasing deliverability.
6. Make it easy to opt out or unsubscribe
You don’t want to lose any email subscribers that can be potential customers. However, your emails should include an opt-out button so you can avoid getting spam complaints. Not only is it an ethical practice, but it is an effective way to increase the recipients’ trust and ensure higher engagement rates.
Another important thing is to make the unsubscribe process as easy as possible so people can opt out with just a few clicks. If you make the unsubscribe process straightforward for people, you minimize your emails being marked as spam. This, in turn, improves your sender’s reputation.
7. Create Compelling Email Content
Engaging and useful content is the heart of successful email marketing. But if you’re not sending content your subscribers actually care about, you might as well be talking to a brick wall.
So, how do you nail it? You just need to put yourself in your readers’ shoes.
Maybe it’s a killer deal they can’t resist, or maybe it’s a clever tip that solves a certain problem. Or, maybe you need to add some creativity to your emails. Whatever it is, make sure it speaks their language and gives them real value.
But how do I know what they want, you may ask? It’s easier than you think. Pay attention to what they click on, what questions they ask, and what problems they mention.
Your readers are constantly dropping hints – you just need to listen.
Remember, relevance is your secret weapon. Use it wisely, and watch your emails transform from “meh” to “must-read”!
To sum up
We all know how annoying it is when your thoroughly crafted emails end up in spam. But with the tips we’ve shared, you can increase your chances of landing in the inbox.
This is just one piece of the puzzle, though. The email world is always changing, so keep an eye on our blog for more practical advice to stay ahead.
Remember, great email marketing isn’t just about what you write – it’s about making sure your messages actually get seen.
So here’s to more opens, more clicks, and more success with your emails.
FAQ about spam folder
Where can I see my spam folder?
You can see your spam folder in most email services by navigating to the folder list on the left-hand side of your inbox interface. It’s typically labeled as “Spam” or “Junk.”
Do I empty my spam folder?
Yes, you should empty your spam folder periodically to maintain an organized inbox and prevent important emails from being overlooked.
How long does spam stay in folder?
Spam typically stays in the folder for a certain period, often around 30 days, before it is automatically deleted by the email service provider.
