In the digital trend, emails have become a crucial way to attract a large number of audience to your business and grow organic traffic to your site.
Approximately 60% of marketers believe that their sales increased with email marketing. However, the privacy and protection policies have made it complicated for marketers to reach straight into the users' inbox.
If you think your emails go to spam, then don’t worry. We have come up with the best guide that explains why your emails go to spam and encourages you to fix the issues and give a stronger impact on the users to get more leads as expected. So, let’s dive deeper into the topic and see what you can do about it.
What does spam folder mean?
Spam is basically originated from the word “coined for canned pork.” This product was very efficient and protuberant in the US that TV ads went overboard with their marketing campaigns.
Email marketers related this with their emails when they sent them over the internet to users. Thus, email marketers called such mails spam.
Spam is like any unsolicited/irrelevant email sent to the user’s account. Let us take an example to clear the idea. There is a guy who wants to sell his car, and it seems that you have ample place to park the car.
Thus, if he wants to send an email regarding this context even you have not given him consent, the email will be relevant. It is because the email is sent with a proper strategy.
Besides that, if the same guy sent a bulk email campaign to the entire group of people in the area, including you, without knowing you have a parking place to allot or not, then it would be considered spam.
Why is spam the biggest threat for email marketers?
By checking the reports of spam emails, around 60 billion emails go to spam every day in the year 2019-2023. Well, it is obvious users don’t appreciate the overflow of spam, and that’s the threat of email marketers.
About 20% of emails will never land in the user’s inbox, as it prevents you from reaching your desired audience. Since with the email delivery, the chances are 122% of ROI. Thus, it is crucial to minimize your messages' chances are in 20%. Every email that lands in the spam folder are just a waste of money and effort, and an audience that can generate revenue for you.
Luckily, you have a lot of ways to protect your emails go to spam and deliver it directly to the user’s inbox. So, let us discuss potential reasons and solutions to make it effective.
9 Reasons why your emails are going to spam
If your emails go to spam, there will be numerous reasons, but here we are highlighting the potential or major reasons that can range from keywords to content. Without further ado, let’s explore the scenario behind the emails go to spam and how to land them straight in the inbox.
1. Recipients Marked Your Email As a Spam
One of the strongest reasons emails go to spam is that your recipient put you there. It doesn’t matter how great your content is. If your recipient gives permission not to check the email or mark your email as spam, you can’t land straight in the recipient’s inbox.
Most users do this just to declutter their inbox, but they actually forget they have subscribed to your newsletter, or it can be a mistake sometimes.
If enough of your messages get red flags and go to the spam folder, it will because spam filters to flag your address, and your emails start sending to spam automatically.
Eventually, it means your messages are looking spam, and even users have reported your content as spam, so you will not handle this or prevent your email from going to spam.
The thing you can do is create a driven sales pitch that can minimize the chances of getting a red flag from users. We have covered some of its strategies in the below sections, so read on.
2. You Are Not Following Best HTML Practises
It is true text-only emails generally reach straight to the user’s inbox, and they have strong visibility options such as ecommerce stores. They lead powerful engagement as compared to other businesses that use HTML languages.
If you want to use HTML in your email messages, it is essential to follow some rules so they don’t end up in the spam folder.
- Maintain the width of your email in between 600-800 pixels. It increases the readability and also behaves well in email client preview.
- Keep the HTML code clean as light as possible. Additionally, check the JavaScript and flash.
- Ensure your messages are mobile-friendly and, in fact, it gives a good idea to readers to know about you. And in the digital era, it is a must. You need to make thumb-friendly buttons and small images that take less time to load your site.
- When you need to check fonts, you need to ensure that these must be cross-browser friendly and clearly legible to read. Arial and Georgia are good fonts.
- Ensure that the images can be blocked by email clients and users can not see any critical information over there.
At last, ensure your content of the email should be text and use a lesser amount of HTML. Whether you are adding a company logo or images, ensures they do not hamper the quality of the email.
3. Misleading Subject Lines or Contain Spam Triggers
Subject lines are still very important to make an impression on users and make them engaged. Users only get attracted to email if that is something good for them. However, they also want to have honest details. So, ensure you are not adding misleading information.
A mail with misleading subject lines often tends to see in spam. Although, it’s against the policies under the CAN-SPAM act. Dozens of people respond to an email that they got cheated with emails based on their subject lines. And that’s the reason emails go to spam quickly.
Now, you must be wondering what the misleading subject looks like. Here are a few examples for you.
- RE or FW- If you start your subject line with RE, then it sounds fishy. It’s a quick way to get unsubscribed from your users. In the same way, FW puts the user into thoughts.
- Questions or personal messages- If you start an email with a personal question like Did I know you? Or something like that, the sender will go to spam.
- Over Claims- Sometimes sender uses over-the-top pitch lines that don’t match with the content, and the reader will find your details misleading.
Therefore your subject lines should be professional, free from grammatical errors, typing errors, etc. Now you know what to avoid, but it is crucial to check some best recommendations.
- Use action verbs
- Create sentence that shows urgency or importance.
- Work on compelling questions
- Free
- Lowest price
- No cost
- No EMI
- Easy money
- All caps Words
- Unnecessary spaces and punctuations
- Multiple exclamation signs
Make sure the subject lines end up with a great response, and that is possible only if you know how to write a sales pitch.
4. If You Do Not Have Permission From Recipients
It is simple; if a user has allowed you to send emails to you, then you can connect with a user directly; otherwise, you will land in spam. The privacy laws must have expressed permission from recipients to send them emails.
This means you are not only required to purchase the email lists to send bulk to your contacts, but you also need to get permission from users to send them emails.
However, it is not required officially in some centred like the US but is recommended in the EU. It is becoming necessary these days, as people get a lot of emails in their inboxes regularly. And if they don’t allow you, there are strong chances to mark it as spam.
5. The Content Triggers Spam Filters
Spam filters often check fir spam copies for words. If the email contains those actionable words, the spam filters send content to the spam folder. Here we are listing some of the spam triggers, so emails go to spam.
Now, these are the words that can be either safe or unsafe for readers. However, you need to ensure the email contains only positive messages that don’t seem unattractive. Well, sometimes these keywords are tough to neglect, so when sending your emails, make sure you use varied languages and phrases that make it non-spammy.
6. You Don’t Include Unsubscribe Link
In the US CAN-SPAM law, it is clearly mentioned that your emails should include the clear unsubscribe button. Thus, if some of the users click on the unsubscribe link, you do not need to send them an email again. More, you will need to process the unsubscribe link within 10 days, and also, you are not forced to play any fishy game with users.
However, it seems a bad thing for you, and you might see the opposite effect on your business. Thus, you will need to work on the powerful content that is simply loved by your customer, and you will enjoy a long-time response from the customer.
7. You Have Mentioned The Wrong/ Misleading Information In “From.”
It is yet another major reason that your email goes to spam due to wrong “From” information. You know that “from” information lets the reader know about sender details. And if you have filled it inaccurately, then it will turn negative for your business.
Readers will trust only if you look genuine to them, and this minor mistake can push you into the spam folder. So when sending emails, ensure you have written the right information to FROM. If you’re using a contact form, then send them email notifications. Also, make sure the address of from and to is different.
8. You haven’t Set Up The Email Notifications
Another reason that we mostly found emails go to spam is when email authentication is not clear properly through services such as Mailchimp or others.
With the authentication, users know the reason to trust you and your business. The emails are mostly attached to the domain name, and they would appear genuine if they were sent by a third party. You can go through various ways to authenticate your emails, such as DKIM SPF and DMARC.
With DKIM, you will get an encryption key and digital signature that shows your email is verified, whereas the SPF works by verifying your IP address. On the other hand, DMARC works differently, and it needs two-step verification to make your emails verified and protected by DKIM and SPF.
If you are using automated email-sending emails and getting trouble in the delivery, then authentication is a good step to verify.
9. You’re Sending Bulk Attachments
One attachment can be fine, but bulk attachments seem fishy and increase the chances of getting red flags from the users. It is because files can be easily vector for malware and viruses.
The golden rule is not to send any attachments, especially if it is a newsletter. If you do not want to send an attachment due to business reasons, make sure your recipient has allowed permission to access it.
Or on the safer side, you can save those files at google drive or Dropbox so both can get safe access. Then you can include the link to your message. Also, it reduces file size and keeps you away from the attachment policy.
The Bottom Line
As long as you long in email marketing sales, you will find a never-ending list of reasons that emails go to spam. However, subject lines, authentication, avoiding fishy words, etc., can help you solve 90% of problems to get into spam.
The super trick is only to go for the best practices and create an engaging sales pitch that drives traffic to your site, generates leads, and increases ROI.
So, we hope you have found this post helpful to your knowledge. If you have quires, write to us.
