Email campaigns are a crucial part of digital marketing efforts, and your entire strategy can collapse if your targeted customers are not receiving your messages in their inbox.
Let’s face it. The fear of being spam-zoned is real. If you are running email campaigns as a part of your marketing strategy and relying on them for your lead conversions, you will have to learn how to deal with spam filter issues. Else, your campaigns will keep on winding up in Spam, and you will never be able to leverage the right benefits out of your marketing campaign.
Understanding Spam
A spam email is a mail sent in bulk to many users, identified as unsolicited and irrelevant for the recipient. This may include both commercial and fraudulent messages related to lottery, cash prizes, 100% discount coupons, or product giveaways. In some cases, the unsolicited links mentioned in these emails may even transfer viruses to your system!
What are Spam Filters?
Spam Filters are the virtual gatekeepers that permit or deny your mail’s entry into the inbox of your recipient. These filters don’t differentiate between you and other spammers. They just “follow the rules.” If your email behavior resembles that of a spammer, you will be marked as one, no matter what your intentions are.
Anti-Spam Laws
Anti-Spam laws are another checkpoint made to protect netizens from the hazards of digital spamming.
Sometimes, even after gate passing all these checkpoints, your mails can still end up in Spam. One of the reasons can be a high complaint rate. Make sure your content is relevant for your audience and follow all spam protocols, so you don’t end up ruining your email marketing efforts.
Here are a few mistakes you can avoid so your emails don’t end up in ‘SPAM’
1. Spammy content
Well, as simple as it gets, if your email looks and reads like Spam, the chances are that it will be marked as a SPAM. Therefore, it is recommended to check your mail content for common trigger words. Misleading words or links to suspicious websites can further lead you into trouble.
Also, to have a healthy bounce rate, try writing a clear, catchy, and impressive headline that communicates your core message/service/offer. Never use any cheap tactics to entice your audience into opening the email.
Keep in mind that your readers are smart and the algorithms smarter!
2. Your Email design doesn’t follow protocols
Spammers hide trigger words in the image to get past the spam filters. This is the reason that emails with a skewed ratio of image/text can start getting flagged by SPAM filters.
What you can do?
- Maintain a text to image balance
- Image-only emails are best avoided
- Embed images with alt text
3. Violating Spam Laws
All marketing emails should offer the option to Unsubscribe. It is always recommended to add this option in the footer of your email.
Also, check your email for broken HTML and copy-pasted content from PowerPoint, Excel, etc., to avoid adding any unwanted characters to your message source.
4. Poor Domain or ESP Reputation
Your domain and ESP’s (Email Service Provider) reputation play a significant role in your email deliverability. You can say that your IP and domain’s reputation are directly proportional to your email delivery rate, i.e., the better the former, the higher the latter will be.
5. Poor Engagement Rate
If your users are not interested in your emails and your emails have a low opening rate, it indicates to the spam filters that your content might be spammy.
Make sure that you are sending relevant information to your audience and that your contact list is updated frequently; Irrelevant contacts contribute to a poor engagement rate, eventually flagging you as a spammer.
If you are buying data, buy it wisely and filter out any scrappy or malformed email addresses.
It is always better to segment your mailing list and target only those who are truly interested in what you are sending. This sends a positive signal to the email providers about the relevance of your campaign.
6. Allow reply backs on your mail
You must have received marketing emails with a <noreply@yourcompany.com>
We know that this might be necessary in some cases, but if you are looking at increasing the efficiency of your campaign, we would advise you to avoid blocking the feedback. Keep the interaction bridge open for honest, trustworthy communication.
7. Grammar and content
Never underestimate the power of a great copy. By great, we mean intellectually gripping and appealing. However, avoid using highly promising and enticing words/phrases as they might give wrong indications to the spam filters. Check for grammatical errors as non-native English spammers use translation tools to create their emails. As a result, any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors may trigger the spam filters.
While it is crucial to avoid the mistakes mentioned above, other factors like your recipients moving your mail from their inbox to specific folders or moving it back from Junk to their inbox can help improve your email campaign ratings.
So, go ahead and make your way into an effective and powerful email campaign that will help you generate more responses than ever. Happy marketing!
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