Tips to Avoid Sending Spammy Email
We all hate spam and get way too much of it. Do you agree? However, it is essential to realize that if your email is “spammy,” you risk it not getting through to the intended party. And not read.
There are a few factors at play here.
Bounce-backs Tell You Why
Have your emails bounced back? Unfortunately, most people automatically assume their email server is malfunctioning or “something is broken.”
Surprisingly, their emails are blocked because they are spammy. So, always review those bounce-back messages as they state the reason for being returned.
You need to be aware of several things to avoid having your emails incorrectly identified as spam. From my experience, legitimate emails make it into my spam/junk/trash folder daily because the sender does or does not do certain things that trigger spam filters.
Then again, emails I am expecting or emails I send are mistaken for spam or junk for no apparent reason. Gmail is known for false positives. At least that I can determine.
I’m not doing anything different; I’m sending it to contacts I communicate with regularly. However, it is essential to always check your Spam/Junk/Trash folders before deleting them. You also want to whitelist any addresses you want to ensure they get through.
ISPs, networks, and spam filters have a constantly evolving list of criteria used to judge email “spam scores” to determine what email gets through or not. High spam score; your email bounces back, is rejected, or even deleted.
Here is a simple checklist that you can use to help your emails avoid being mistakenly marked as spam or, worse, deleted because they land in a spam folder before they are read.
Don’t Be Spammy Checklist
Follow these guidelines to give your email the best chance to reach its intended party.
Spam, Junk, Trash
What’s the difference between your Spam, Junk, or Trash folders? It depends on your software. Trash is for emails that I delete. Junk is for emails identified as spam. Spam is the folder my email provider specifies as spam.
I always check my Spam and Junk folders for emails incorrectly marked as spam or junk. My email program allows me to mark them as “not junk” so that it doesn’t happen again.
The takeaway? Don’t be spammy.
Besides all the filtering, users delete emails they don’t recognize all the time. I know I do it. They glance and hit delete because the email appears to be spam. Don’t let that happen to your emails.
One last tip. If you believe your emails are increasingly being marked as spam, you can check for any potential issues with your domain here.
Considering the above issues increases the chances of your day-to-day communications reaching the intended person on the other side.