You’re trying to reach the inbox – great. You spend time crafting the perfect marketing email and so you want it to reach your recipients and get positive engagement – even better.
As a final check before sending, you’ve got this blog post to confirm that you’re not using any spam trigger words that would cause your email to be automatically rejected.
Well, there is a good news for you. The term spam trigger is an old concept, and inbox service providers (ISPs) are sophisticated enough to use other indicators when trying to determine whether an email is spam.
However, you should still pay attention to the type of content you’re sending and focus your efforts on the content customers are hoping to receive.
While this isn’t a long list of terms to eliminate from your outreach, there are some basic steps you can take to help your subscribers reach their primary inbox by building or maintaining strong deliverability.
How to avoid spam folders
Here are 4 tips to help protect your brand’s reputation and ensure that your emails are reaching inboxes.
1. Send targeted content to people who have asked to receive it.
Sending the mail to contacts who have provided consent to send marketing emails will be associated in a positive way.
It’s also important to send mail that contacts expect to receive.
For example, contacts who have requested to receive a monthly newsletter may engage negatively if they are sent a daily email. This may include leaving it open or taking more drastic steps like unsubscribing or marking it as spam.
In addition to obtaining consent and being thoughtful with outreach, you can protect a strong reputation by not sending people who have stopped engaging with your emails.
It’s common for lists to depreciate and contacts to become disassociated. It’s important to thoughtfully start suppressing non-engaged contacts before they start reducing engagement rates and affecting reputation.
This strategy is often accompanied by a sunset policy, which is a plan designed to manage contacts that have stopped engaging entirely.
2. Authenticate your brand’s marketing emails.
DMARC, SPF, and DKIM are means of authentication and all are considered best practices.
Adding authentication to your brand’s sent messages won’t have a negative impact on reputation or ensure that mail is delivered to the primary inbox, but it may improve recipients’ mail server trust in the mail you send. .
You should also take steps to protect your brand’s shipping reputation by regularly monitoring the following metrics:
open rate
Low opens are a sign that unrelated contact suppression is needed or your sending reputation has been negatively impacted.
Click through rate
Low click-through rates may mean there is an opportunity for better segmentation or a clearer CTA.
hard bounce rate
High hard bounces may be a sign that a listing is out of date, although reading bounce messages will be the best way to diagnose bounce issues.
unsubscribe rate
A high unsubscribe rate could also mean that a list is out of date or that contacts are being sent something they haven’t subscribed to.
Spam Compliance Rate
High spam complaint rates are always a reason to pause as it is a strong indicator that contacts were not expecting mail from your brand.
Spam complaints are taken seriously by inbox service providers (ISPs) and can have a negative impact on your brand’s sending reputation.
3. Avoid the unusual.
ISPs are looking for senders to remain as “normal” as possible from send to send – of course “normal” is a relative term.
In general, sending to similar audiences (with necessary segmentation) and avoiding large volume increases can help your brand avoid anomalous.
Being aware of what you’re linking to can also help you avoid spam folders.
Just as your brand’s reputation can determine whether your mail is delivered to a primary inbox (not spam, junk or other filtered inboxes), the websites you link to maintain your reputation. We do.
If you share a link to an external website with a bad reputation, it may make your mail more likely to bounce or be filtered.
4. Comply with local email regulations.
Whether it’s GDPR, CAN-SPAM, CCPA, CASL, or one of the many other local regulations, compliance with these local requirements is going to be a key component to a successful mailing strategy.
You need to follow the requirements as well as regulations of your email sending platform (ESP). This not only protects you as a sender (there may be consequences if there are violations of local rules) but also allows you to treat your contacts the way they would expect to be treated based on their location. are doing.
Building your brand reputation
Although, unfortunately, simply avoiding word lists won’t keep you out of the spam folder, you can still take steps to protect your brand’s reputation and work toward stronger deliverability.
