Picture this. You've painstakingly crafted the perfect email, complete with a great offer, and you're ready to send it off to all your contacts. You click send, confident that your efforts are going to bear some serious fruit for your marketing results.
Fast forward a few days, and things don't seem to have gone to plan. Not only have your emails not been effective, but you've been getting ominous reports indicating quite a few of them have landed in spam folders. You're baffled, thinking "Where did I go wrong?" To help you solve the mystery we've listed the top 5 email marketing transgressions that send your email spiraling into the spam folder.
Common Reasons Your Email Lands up in the Spam Folder
You’ve Violated Legal Requirements
Internet service providers (ISPs) are adept at sifting out emails that violate the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Avoiding the spam folder means ensuring your emails and conduct meet the following legal requirements.
- An unsubscribe button should be visible in all your emails
- All your from-addresses must be accurate (and preferably personalised)
- Keep your subject lines relevant
- Ensure that all requests to unsubscribe are honoured within 10 days
- Include a physical mailing address in all your emails
Your Sender ID is Not Authenticated
ISPs also authenticate email sender identities to ensure that the source of the email is legitimate. Often emails sent from a company server that hasn't been correctly configured can result in your mails being flagged as spam.
An easy way around this hassle is by using a email marketing program like Hubspot to distribute your emails, as authentication is built-in and automated.
You Don’t Have Your Recipients’ Permission
It's important to ensure your recipients agree to receive your email messages. Buying a contact list of people you have no previous relationship or interaction with and sending unsolicited emails is a sure way to get flagged or marked as spam.
It's a good idea to include a double opt-in process to be certain your customers know what they'll be receiving from you. And also remember to include a reminder of how they joined your mailing list in the footer section (in case they forget!). Remember to adhere to the GDPR or CANSPAM rules.
You Haven’t Added any Value or Personal Appeal
Every message you send out should have relevance and value, which means avoiding the temptation to blast your contacts with communication 24/7. Follow these guidelines to ensure your messages have weight behind them:
- Don't keep sending newsletters or emails to contacts that who consistently delete them without opening them
- Don't send messages out five days a week if your opt-in suggested more infrequent communication updates
- Write accurate, appealing subject lines that engage your intended recipients
- If you haven't messaged an individual in over eight months, don't contact them (permission to contact an individual typically runs its course in six months)
You’ve Unknowingly Sent SPAM
Did you know that your email content can contribute to it being considered spam? Well it does, and for some very interesting reasons you may not have expected. Making the following mistakes in your content could land your email in the spam folder:
- Using all-caps. It's the online equivalent of shouting, and NO ONE LIKES BEING YELLED AT. See, not very nice, is it?
- Being misleading with your subject lines. If you haven't communicated with someone before, don't use "Re"or "Fwd".
- Going crazy with images. If you embed text within images, or send emails consisting only of images, you running the risk of being flagged as spam.
- Using bad links.
- Shortening urls or linking to unreputable sites or content is a quick route to Spamville.
- Tweaking words with special characters (#totallyspammy). Don't use special characters in place of letters e.g. H3llo!
- Using sloppy html. If you use Microsoft Word for html, it's possible that it can add extra formatting to the code, which boosts your spam score.
Nobody wants to waste an excellent email by seeing it sent to their recipients' spam folder, and your email marketing can only pay dividends if you're careful to avoid the mistakes above. So check those emails before they go out to ensure you're not setting them up for failure.
