How to Avoid Your Email Ending Up in the Spam Folder?

Did you know that approximately 17% of emails end up in the spam folder worldwide?

Well, the number might not bother you unless I state the obvious that you are missing out on a potential profit of 17% due to spam and promotional filters.

Considering your time drafting marketing emails, they don't deserve to remain unnoticed in the spam folder. Let's face it; nobody goes through the spam folder.

You may end up in the email spam folder for various reasons–poor mailing list health, authentication status, or misleading subject line, to name a few.

No worries, folks! Let's explore how to ensure all your cold outreach messages reach your prospects' inboxes. 

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What is a Spam Folder & How Does It Work?

Spam, AKA junk, primarily includes mails to users in bulk for marketing, promotion, or phishing. These are unsolicited ones, and the nature of these emails varies in each case.

Service providers take extra measures with the help of a VPN  to ensure your online mailing experience remains secured and protected from fraud. That's why spam filters (irrespective of email provider-Gmail, Yahoo, or Microsoft) move suspicious ones from the inbox to the spam folder or junk folder automatically and keep only legitimate emails.

Automatic spam identification benefits individual users but can be a nightmare for legitimate businesses.

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Why Does Email End Up in Spam Folders?

We all receive tons of promotional mail daily that can steal our monetary or personal resources. Email service providers have come up with spam folders to our rescue to save us from the risk of getting robbed and the hassle of identifying those.

Mail servers use filters to identify potential spam. Other than known blacklisted IP addresses, outreach messages can end up in spam folders because of poor content, misleading subject lines, low mailbox usage, and low engagement rates.

Here is the list of most common factors that make you land in spam:

• Your campaign is not targeting the right audience
• Low Mailbox storage
• Your IP address is previously flagged as spam before
• Your mail to users contains a misleading subject line
• You didn't include your postal address
• You are using salesy and spam trigger words
• Your outreach copy is not HTML-optimized
• You have a low engagement rate

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How to Avoid Your Mails Ending Up in the Spam Folder?

Creative cold campaign messages ending up in the spam folder (as well as receiving spam complaints) and increasing bounce rates are every digital marketer's nightmare.

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1. Watch Your Words

IRL or online, watch out for what you are saying. Spam filters critically analyze what you are writing in the body of content. Nobody loves a pushy salesperson, and spam filters are no different than that.

According to a study, one in five emails lands in spam filters. Although there are no magic tricks (read keywords) to enhance your content, you should avoid using words such as sale, promo, buy, free, offer, bonus, purchase, etc.

These words are considered salesy and can make your mail land in the spam folder.

Do not use capitalization of words too much in your mail. It is important to highlight or emphasize key points, but overusing them can lead to suspicion. Using one all-caps word in a sentence is okay, but WRITING A WHOLE SENTENCE LIKE THIS IS A BIG NO.

Also, watch out while using exclamation marks. An exclamation mark in a sentence is fine, but screaming at the top of your voice is not. For example, "Get this super exciting offer now!!!" is off-putting.

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2. Get Whitelisted, Please

Spam filters don't spam emails from people on your contact list. Whether your mailbox provider is Yahoo, Gmail, or Microsoft, they think that mail from a known person is not spam.

Now, to ensure your hard work doesn't go in vain, request your subscribers to whitelist your campaign by marking you as a safe mail sender or adding your address to their contacts. This process might be overwhelming for some email recipients. So, I recommend you provide detailed instructions and guides on how to do it.

The best way to proceed through it is by sending a welcome message to every new subscriber with detailed guidance on how to whitelist your email address. You can ensure maximum reach of your email campaign that way.

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3. Consent is the Key

Yeah, you have read it right. Nobody likes an unsolicited email in their primary mailbox. If you don’t ask for permission beforehand, spam filters can automatically dump your emails in the spam folder (junk) instead of the inbox. 

Even if your campaign makes it to the primary folder, subscribers will immediately mark it as 'spam.' If you are thinking of succeeding in your cold email outreach campaign without the user's permission, you should immediately stop.

In some countries, asking for consent is always ethical and sometimes a legal requirement. This practice increases your credibility and creates goodwill for your brand. Therefore, you can use Osano’s consent management software and deal with this issue.

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4. Build Regular Communication

Can you trust a friend who shows up occasionally? No, right? Such is the case for cold marketing outreach campaigns. If you send outreach messages to subscribers once a month, the chances are that they will forget you and, worse, not pay attention to whatever you are saying.

There's a high chance that your occasional mails will end up in the junk or spam folder of the subscriber, making your cold campaign a failure. So if you want to make a living by sending emails, you must send out mails regularly to ensure your subscribers haven’t forgotten you.

Make sure that you are providing value in every mail you send. Do not send arbitrary mails just for the sake of staying in touch. Look for opportunities to update your subscribers with new updates and information.

Providing value and keeping your subscribers engaged is fine, even if it's one weekly mail.

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5. Target the Right Audience

The engagement of your target audience plays a massive role in the success of your cold campaign.

One of the primary reasons your mails are reaching the spam folder is targeting the wrong audience. If you send mails arbitrarily, the chances of a low engagement rate will increase. The spam filter will automatically mark it as a spam message and move it to the junk folder.

Although reaching a vast audience is necessary to bring organic traffic to your company, ensure you create lists with utmost care. So, before hitting the 'send' button, crosscheck and update your list to reach the targeted audience.

It will reduce the chances of your outreach message ending up in the spam folder unnoticed.

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6. Proofread Your Email? Please do it Again.

Proofreading your mails is necessary for better readability and bypassing the spam filter from marking your campaigns as spam. Also, make sure your mails don't contain plagiarized content.

You can take content tools to help to rectify grammatical errors, find plagiarized content, and decrease spam scores.

On that note, ordinary AI email writing software is a BIG NO for writing mails. Most of these services are used to write generic sentences and are considered a red flag for spam filters.

You can go for the intelligent AI-powered email writer tool if you want. It helps you write excellent sales pitches and close more deals. 

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7. Refrain from Using Misleading Subject Lines

The relationship between a customer and a business stands on mutual trust. Misleading subject lines can become SPAM traps for your business. Many email marketers lure their customers with attractive yet misleading email subject lines.

Naturally, these are bound to get flagged as spam. According to the CAN-SPAM act, it is unlawful to trick someone into opening a mail by writing a lucrative yet false subject line on the internet.

Instead, focus on writing genuine and good subject lines for your email campaigns. Believe me; this will save your campaigns from getting flagged as spam messages and build trust between you and your target customers.

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8. Follow Best HTML Practices

You can skip this point if you are sending out text-only mails. But you may want to send HTML mails to your subscribers from your business account. Marketing experts encourage sending branded/HTML-optimized campaigns for better visibility and engagement.

Here are some HTML tips to avoid the spam folder and build domain and IP reputation:

• Use simple and clear fonts
• Optimize your mail for mobile viewing
• Remove junk HTML and keep it to-the-point 
• Do not go beyond 600-800 pixels for images
• Maintain a low image-to-text ratio to decrease spam score

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9. Check Your IP Address

Even if you write a brilliant email body, it could get flagged because of your IP address. If your IP address has been flagged as spam in the past, the chances are that your future emails can also get flagged even if you are providing value.

Mail service providers are very strict with their policies. Even if one subscriber has marked your email message as spam, it will negatively impact your deliverability and create a bad reputation for your business.

I suggest you take the necessary help of the cold email software to improve your email deliverability reputation. It also helps to strengthen your domain reputation. 

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How Email Automation Tools Help Create Emails that Convert?

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Smartwriter.ai is an AI-powered tool to help you create email content that increases email deliverability and converts. This marketing outreach tool gathers online data of your prospect and creates personalized (data-driven) sales copies individually.

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Standout Features

1. Understanding your prospect's interests helps create tailored mail content for them. It tracks your prospect's recent online activities and, based on that, writes winning sales copies for your company and improves the sender reputation.

2. It offers an excellent Chrome Extension that generates leads from LinkedIn and sends out cold campaigns from verified IP addresses.

3. It claims that its AI-integrated writing feature makes writing personalized copies easier and makes the process 40x faster and 6x cheaper. Also, it increases inbox placement rates dramatically. 

4. Besides LinkedIn references, Smartwriter writes cold campaign copies based on our lead's personal achievements, job description, and bio. It helps the prospects connect better with your service or product and boosts ROI to your business.

5. A hook at the start of the mail consistently garners attention. That's what the AI tool does with its custom icebreaker first sentences. You can generate 1000s of icebreakers for your cold outreach campaigns. It also adds value to the customers, making an increase in sender reputation and conversions.

6. As we have discussed before, an excellent copy is never devoid of smart linking. That's why the AI marketing tool brings you personalized skyscraper link replacement and contextual, personalized link insertion features.

7. The automated SEO backlink outreach helps you generate organic traffic through impactful and tactical backlinking. Overall, it helps your business rank number 1 on Google and skyrockets ROI by creating email marketing strategies.

8. Not just outbound and inbound sales copies, but Smartwriter also helps you automate your outreach campaigns, track, and respond with a single click.

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How to Create an Email List of Your Own?

Let me tell you, building a curated list is not an easy task. Most businesses I have seen follow the easiest way to do that. They buy or borrow pre-existing bulk email lists.

However, this doesn't bring results (read, conversion or ROI) to their business.

These methods will lead your mails directly to the spam folders, and sometimes you can get blacklisted as well. As I have discussed, send mails only to people who have agreed to receive them.

Here are some strategic tips for building your list:

• Make use of a mail marketing tool. These tools will help you build custom campaigns based on your target audiences' preferences. I would suggest going for Smartwriter.ai for an end-to-end AI marketing automation tool.
• Being creative with your email copy is a great way to garner attention. You can use enticing CTAs, GIFs, fonts, and exciting follow-up templates to impress your leads and gain a sender reputation.
• Do not forget to add value to your content. Remember that your prospects don't have time and won't check, read, or even open your email if it doesn't add value.
• Besides email marketing campaigns, connect with your audience through social media posts and groups. Find leads based on where your potential customers check out frequently. For example, you can go to Instagram if your target audience is millennials.
• Create mailing lists based on your interactions and predictions from the email marketing software you use. For example, It gathers information from various platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp, etc.), filters them by preference, and creates a personalized customer base.

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Important CAN-SPAM Act Rules to Remember

Consider this a guide for anyone who sends commercial emails to their prospects. In short, the CAN-SPAM act is the regulatory law regarding commercial emails.

While setting up a cold outreach campaign to your prospective leads, keep these things in mind:

• The subject line must convey the intention of your emails.
• Never use a misleading header for your emails.
• If your email is an ad, disclose it immediately.
• You should always add an unsubscribe link for email newsletters.

If you keep these things in check, your email deliverability rates will automatically increase. You may subscribe to smartwriter.ai for the best marketing experience to take your game up a notch.

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Conclusion

Now is the time to implement all the information you have gathered. The tips mentioned above will help your emails land in prospect inbox and improve reply rate. Create tailored marketing email content and achieve amazing results. Opt-in for an outreach tool that will help you avoid getting flagged as spam, and get massive conversions

Use the resources and create fantastic cold outreach campaigns that bring value to your organization.

Hurry up; cold leads are probably waiting for your mail!

Goodbye, see you soon.

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FAQs

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1. Why are my emails getting flagged as spam?

There can be several reasons for that. Check your sender name, for instance. Fraudulent or misleading 'from' name and subject line can make your email end up in a spam folder. Also, ensure you proofread your content carefully and do the necessary HTML checks before sending your cold messages.

Do not include trigger words such as sale, purchase, discount, etc. Try to make use of a spam-checking tool.

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2. What is the best tool for creating personalized email content?

Although there are numerous tools for mail personalization, Smartwriter steals the thunder with its tool integrations and excellent AI-optimized writing assistance.

It generates leads from different social media platforms and performs research on every individual prospect to personalize cold outreach content to generate more conversion and ROI for the business.

It ensures that your mail content is free of spam triggers and always ends where it should be - the prospect's inbox. Not only that, but it also searches interviews, podcasts, medium blogs, articles, and 42 other data sources to create unique messages for your prospects.

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3. How do spam filters work?

Spam filters, irrespective of email service providers, use algorithms to block or identify emails from scammers. They blocklist the senders and the IP addresses to prevent these senders from sending emails in the future.

Spam filters keep upgrading from time to time for better security and a seamless mailing experience.