Best Practices to Avoid the Spam FolderNew Blog Item

Email spam is defined as irrelevant or unsolicited messages sent over the internet, typically to a large number of users. Usually, spam messages look like an advertisement or promotional campaign or contain phishing links or malware. Your business emails can still end up in recipients’ spam folders for various reasons even if you didn’t send a promotional advertisement. If you want to improve your email deliverability, you should regularly test to ensure your legitimate email gets delivered to the Inbox rather than someone’s spam folder. In this post, we offer the best business email practices you can follow to ensure your emails stay out of the spam folder.

1) Watch your email wording:

Spam filters do not like advertisements or pure promotions. Spam filters will analyse your content and while there are no magic key phrases to enhance deliverability, you can look to limit the use of certain words. Avoid using words like free, buy, or promo, for instance. Instead, consider replacing these words to reduce the likelihood of your emails landing in the spam folder. It doesn't mean that you can't use trigger words, but you should limit the use of the words that are common to promotional emails.

2) Build your own email list:

Building your own email list from scratch is a difficult task, and some people retreat to the easiest options which include borrowing or purchasing email lists. The best practice is to only send emails to people who have agreed to receive information from you. It will take more time to build up your database, but it is cost-effective and results in a higher quality database. 

3) Avoid Dirty Tricks:

Avoid inserting random characters in the subject line or content to fool spam filters, e.g. “F.ree. p.r!z.e”. Try not to use potentially deceptive subject lines: Starting the subject line with “Re:” or “Fwd:” to suggest an ongoing communication with the sender. Don’t include any misleading claims in your email. Subject lines stating that the recipient has won a prize, while the content does not match the subject line will send your email to the spam folder. 

4) Watch where you send it ‘From’:

The email domain that you are sending from is extremely important. Mailbox providers evaluate more than just the sender’s IP, domain and content. Use familiar email addresses such as contact@, newsletter@, support@ or feedback@. Avoid changing the from field name too much and avoid using obscure from field names. Stick to a verified from field name. Build a good reputation for those addresses by sending only engaging, solicited emails, and you’ll notice the difference.

5) Send regular and valuable content:

At the core of any successful email is a commitment to sending relevant, interesting content to your recipients. This means you send regularly but not for the sake of sending. Aimless sending can cause your client engagement levels to suffer. You want to keep up a steady flow of emails to your contacts however the next time you draft an email, consider the following before hitting send: Am I sharing new, urgent, or relevant information with my recipients? Would I find this email valuable as a recipient? Or simply ask yourself “What value does this add?”

6) Other things to look out for are:

• Link only to legitimate sites with reputable domains.
• Don’t go crazy with email size.
• Balance the image-to-text ratio.
• Host your images at credible services only.
• Make sure that you are compliant with local legislation such as the NZ Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 and NZ Privacy Act 2020 (or CANSPAM and GDPR).
• Authenticate your email using SPF, DKIM and DMARC.

We trust that this list has given you a better idea of how you can make sure that your emails don’t end up in the spam folder. If you need any help with your business email practices contact the team at Cumulo9 for advice: email us at support@cumulo9.com or phone:

NZ Support Line +64 9 377 8885

AU Support Line +61 3 9013 4568

USA Support Line +1 201 204 9460