How to Avoid Spam Filters to Reach your Customer

B2B marketers burn the midnight oil to create an effective email marketing campaign. Unfortunately, many of them get stuck in the spam filters. While these filters do a great job at keeping the customer’s inbox clean, it becomes difficult for marketers to achieve top-notch email deliverability.

In fact, most of the emails are sent by authentic businesses but due to several intricacies, the emails end up in the customer’s spam box. According to a report by Return Path, only 73 percent of emails delivered in the US reach the inbox.

Despite the above-mentioned stats, email communication is one such marketing channel that is most trusted by the consumers. According to a recent report by Litmus, email will likely outlast other channels including social media.

But how do you ensure that your emails get delivered without getting stuck into the spam filters? Let’s explore:

Maintaining Your Authenticity

Email authentication is one of the main tenets to avoid getting stuck in the spam filters. There are several factors that test your email’s authenticity on multiple levels. Let’s pick them one at a time.

Sender’s Policy Framework (SPF)

This email authentication test detects fake sender’s addresses. It is a text-based record that is stored with your DNS (domain name system). It keeps a tab on all the IPs and email servers that are used to send emails through your domain.

If you use more than 9 or 10 email servers or IPs to send your emails, you won’t get through this authentication test. Also, if your email originates from a different server, other than the recorded ones, it will be marked as unauthenticated.

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)

This authentication test keeps a check on your domain. The recipients can verify that they are receiving emails from an authentic domain. If you are using different domains to send emails to your customers, it can make your emails land in the spam folder.

Domain Reputation

In case your domain is new or you have not created any website on your domain, then it might lower your domain’s reputation. Maintaining a good domain reputation over the years is necessary to send authenticated emails to your customers.

Moreover, if you have bought a new domain and hosting plan, avoid sending too many emails as they will be marked as spam.

Email Service Providers (ESPs)

Chances are, you already have an email service provider to carry out your email marketing campaigns. Before choosing any ESP you need to make sure that it is well-reputed and ensures good email deliverability.

Many businesses opt for inefficient ESPs that further creates a lot of trouble. You must verify essential touchpoints like whether they will be using their own domain to deliver the emails or yours. This is because many spammers use ESPs to send spam emails to customers.

Crafting Subject line and Email Copy Carefully

Many times your emails are marked as spam due to the choice of words and not maintaining overall hygiene in the email copy. Be it sending promotional emails to segmented email lists, or sending bulk emails to your entire email base, you must make sure to optimize your emails on the following grounds.

Clarity in Subject Lines

There are several words that wake up the spam filter alert. Therefore, businesses should avoid using phrases like: ‘Absolutely free of cost’, ‘Win $xxx’, ‘This is not spam’, ‘Risk-free’, ‘You have won a lottery’, etc. You should also avoid using shouty all-caps as it is also considered as a spammer’s activity.

Clean Email Copy

The above-mentioned phrases should also be avoided in the email copy. Spam filters have become smart enough to catch emails that mislead customers. If these phrases or words are used in a pushy tone or overused in the email copy, it would make you a spammer.

Many marketers send discounts and offers via bulk email blasts, and do not double-check their email copy that might include spammy words. So, make sure to keep a subtle tone.

Check the Links

Spam filters are made from the best of machine learning and AI technology. They check the links that are mentioned in your email copy. If they are leading to a malicious link or redirecting to suspicious websites with bad domain reputation, your emails will never reach your customers. You must also check for any broken or shortened links as it can also lead your emails to the spam folder.

Responsive Design and Images

If you are designing your emails yourself or taking the help of any email service provider, make sure the design is mobile and desktop responsive. Moreover, you should consider it a practice to include alt texts in the images that you are putting in your email copy.

Comply with the SPAM Laws

There are many spam laws according to different geographies. In case you have a global business, you must be having customers at different locations. Therefore, you need to comply with all the laws. Here are some prominent ones:

1. CAN-SPAM– It came into force in 2003 in the US. According to the act, businesses sending commercial emails are required to comply with the law.
2. The Canadian Anti-spam Law: This law was enforced in 2014. It keeps a check on the spammers and protects the consumers and businesses from electronic threats. Moreover, it aids businesses to grow in the digital marketplace.
3. General Data Protection Regulation: It came into force in 2016. It empowers the citizens of the EU to have control over their personal data. Data breaches were becoming quite prevalent back in 2012, therefore, GDPR came into effect.

Make sure to comply with the above-mentioned laws and regulations if you want to hit your customer’s inbox and avoid paying hefty penalties.

A Wrap-up

There is no trick or magic to make you pass the spam filters automatically. You must pay attention to all the touchpoints before sending any email marketing campaign to your customers. Privacy of data and spamming are grim issues. That is why these filters are necessary in the digital world.

But if you maintain all the authentication and hygiene factors, and comply with the laws, you will pass all the spam filters with ease.

Image Credit: Hacker Combat

The original version of this article was first published on V3Broadsuite.