How to avoid the spam trap
Spam filters are designed to keep unwanted mail from clogging up your inbox but sometimes genuine emails can offend these filters and be marked as junk. Most spam filters work on a scoring system, they will score your email on any bad factors and if the score reaches the threshold (usually 5 points) the email will be marked as spam. Below we have listed a few of the ways you can avoid being caught in the spam trap.
Don’t be afraid to ask.
Do you have a message at the top of your email asking your subscribers to add you to their safe sender list? You should. Just by adding this request at the top of your email you will encourage subscribers to add you to their address book or safe senders list. This will make your from address trusted and help avoid the email being junked in the future.
Set-up your SPF Record.
Whenever you send an email, whether it be from Outlook or an email marketing system it will have a from line which will contain a domain. By having an SPF record it will show that you are giving NewZapp, or any other email marketing software, permission to send mail on behalf of your domain, so should any spam filters look this up they will see we have permission to send using your domain.
To find out more about SPF please see our guide here.
Spammy words and actions.
Certain spammy words or actions can cause your email to be zapped by a spam filter. Here are a few things to avoid;
- ANYTHING IN CAPITALS
- Excessive use of exclamation marks!!!!!!
- Use of words in red
- MS Word Coding
- Embedding a video or form – these have scripts that will most likely be disabled making them useless
On the subject.
If you have a badly chosen subject line this can sometimes cause your email to be marked as spam, depending on how bad the subject is. Some email filters will let the email through if it doesn’t score it high, and some will junk the email due to the filter being offended. It is recommended you should avoid the following;
- SHOUTING IN THE SUBJECT LINE!!!!!!
- Very long subject lines often get you scored higher, also they don’t fit in the recipient’s email client
- Free or money off
- Special offer
- Limited time offer – today only!
- Save 20%
- Gift certificate discount
Alt text on images.
By setting the alt text (alternative text) on your images, you will display the text if the email client block the images – most do this by default. By setting the Alt text on your images you will display the description of the image so your subscribers can be see the content of the email, this is your chance to encourage subscribers to download the images and view the email in all its glory!