How to Avoid the Spam Filter

In a perfect world, getting your marketing emails out to your audience would simply be a matter of clicking ‘send’. But in the real world, email marketers also need to maneuver around deliverability minefields that could abort their mission - mainly, the spam filter. Designed to prevent junk mail from seeping into people’s inboxes, it can also work against innocent marketers who just want to send updates to their subscribers. 

If you thought you were safe, think again. More than 20% of marketing emails don’t make it to the inbox - proving that no matter how well-intentioned your message is, it’s surprisingly easy for it to get caught in the spam folder accidentally.

Why should you care? Because your sender reputation is at stake with every email you send. Your subscribers’ email service providers (ESPs) act as the gatekeepers and determine which incoming messages are junk mail. The more your emails are tagged as spam, the more ESPs will automatically assume that all of your emails are spam and never let them into the inbox. 

To send the message (pun intended) to ESPs that you’re not a spammer, we recommend following two best practices when creating and sending your emails. 

Be Careful Who You Contact

The first rule of thumb is simple: Only email people who signed up to your mailing list with a valid email address and who have engaged with your campaigns (opened, clicked or viewed) during the past 6 months. It goes without saying (but we will anyway) that it’s never a good idea to buy mass lists of recipients or import contacts who didn’t subscribe. They don’t know who you are, and will most likely just delete your emails. Accumulate enough of these rejections, and your sender address could be blacklisted.

In addition to evaluating how many of your emails are deleted, ESPs also look at how many of your emails are not even opened. That’s why it’s also important to keep a clean mailing list and remove inactive and invalid contacts. The second you send an email to this type of address you’re setting the cards against you - your email will never be opened, and your deliverability rate will get an automatic strike. 

Lastly, don’t send emails to addresses that bounced or contacts who unsubscribed. And just in case some slipped through, Wix Email Marketing will automatically remove these people. 

Watch Your Language

Your sender reputation depends a lot on the content of your emails. The more suspicious your text and images, the more red flags it’ll raise. A few tips to remember:

  • When it comes to subject lines, don’t use all-caps. It’s a classic spammer move, and far from attracting attention, it can be pretty annoying (the online equivalent of a business-owner yelling in your face). Also, stay away from certain trigger words like ‘prize’, ‘free’ and ‘$’. These are suspicious terms that ESPs focus on when they scan incoming emails. 

  • Don’t overload your email with tons of images. Spam filters can’t read images, so spammers use that to their advantage by using little to no HTML text. The filters have learned to counterattack and censor emails that don’t have enough text. 

  • At the same time, avoid long body text. They’re hard to digest and aren’t so fun to read. One quick look and readers might be turned off and simply delete your email (which lowers your reputation).  

Build a Strong Reputation

Ensure that your emails arrive safe and sound in your recipients’ inboxes by keeping a close watch on who you contact and what you say. Sending low quality emails to people who don’t interact with them could harm your sender reputation, so it’s important to understand what to avoid in order to help your deliverability rates stay high. 

Learn more about spam and your email marketing campaigns. 
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