HOW TO AVOID SPAM FILTERS IN EMAIL MARKETING

Posted by stuartbroad on November 18th, 2019

Each email marketing professional that sends a campaign expects high open, response and conversion rates. However, quite often, the spam frequency is taking over. It occurs for two reasons–spam filter issues for ESPs and how recipients communicate with your messages.

 Unlike filters, relying on algorithms and automated testing, the human factor is more volatile–if the message doesn't suit the recipient's needs or if the material looks odd, it might be marked as spam.

Here we'll cover everything you need to know about how to stop spam filters and keep your emails from being spam-marked.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SPAM TRAP AND SPAM FILTERS:

ISP's first line of defense against spammers is spam traps. They are email addresses specifically designed to identify or track spammers.

If your triggered email hits such an address, the ISP will immediately flag you as a spammer. The IP address and you're' from domain' will be blocked, your delivery rates will plummet, and it may take you up to a year to restore a good sender's reputation. This is how pure spam traps work. Pretty frightening!

Another thing to worry about is recycled spam traps. These are inactive email addresses that ISP acquires after a certain period of inactivity. If your email enters such an address, the implications are not as serious. Whether your ESP or your client's ESP will give you a bounce message to let you know that you are emailing a dormant address. But, if you keep sending emails to hard bounces, the ISP will eventually record it as a spam trap hit.

ISP's second line of defense against spammers is spam filters, a system that, by using different criteria, filters out unwanted and unsolicited bulk mail, thus preventing it from entering email inboxes. Spam traps scrutinize your targeted emails to the smallest details to ensure that irrelevant and poorly written content never reaches the subscribers.

Without further delay lets discover how to avoid spam filters:

1.   USE PERSONAL NAME TO AVOID SPAM FILTERS:

It's a good practice to always try to send emails from an email address that preferably contains your name with your brand name so that the recipients recognize you.

Why? Simply because in the sea of emails they receive every day, they have to choose which to open. And people prefer to open those that include a personal name in the' from' box, rather than an impersonal, generic one.

A study by Convince and Convert shows that 43 percent of email recipients click on spam based solely on the information they see in the' from' field, name and email address.

2.   THIRD-PARTY CERTIFICATE TO DODGE SPAM FILTER:

There is also a chance of getting the sender's accreditation from a third party which serves as an assurance to ISPs that you are not a spammer.

There are organizations, such as Return Path, that review your email activities and confirm that you are a reliable sender. This certificate ensures that your emails reach most of the inboxes to which you send emails as it signals to ISP that your emails will bypass spam filters.

This is not a free service, but it is probably worth investing in because the money you spend can be returned with improved conversions.

3.   USE EMAIL VERIFIER:

First of all, we do not recommend buying email lists. This because, you have to test every email address you have, even those you've reviewed before. Irrespective of the source, you cannot be 100% sure of the quality of the database, as addresses are deleted, mistyped, and blocked every day.

When time passes, any email list will need to be cleaned up. So why is it so important to check the email address

? If you send emails to invalid email addresses, they bounce back. The higher the bounce level, the better your IP rating, and the lower your IP credibility, the closer you get to being blocked by the ESP. So, you always need to be sure that the emails you send will hit the actual recipients. Plus, it's going to save you a large part of your budget. Please test your every email address.

To make it easy for the email list, you can use tools which work as email finder and email verifier. Many tools are free email checker and email finder but my favorite is the "Find Email Address" tool which is the best email finder and email verifier in my opinion.

4.   BLOCKED IP ADRESS:

If your IP address has a bad reputation in the virtual world, your targeted emails are more likely to end up in the spam folder. The reputation of your IP address directly affects your email delivery speed.

There are some tools, such as MxToolbox, that let you check if you are a blacklisted sender. All you need to do is enter the IP address or domain name in the box and click the' check' button.

5.   SELECT CONVENIENT ESP:

Email Service Providers have a good reputation based on the good reputation of their customers. When ESP clients send useful and relevant content and have high scores on their IP addresses, their ESP will become reliable. Clearing from unreputable ESPs is a must, as their IP addresses are usually blocked by reputable ESPs such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail.

6.   ELIMINATE HARD BOUNCES:

As I have already explained, sending many emails to an inactive address will eventually be recorded by the ISP as a spam trap hit. Bounce rates are one of the important factors ISPs keep track of your sender's reputation. And a bad reputation will hurt your ability to deliver. Pay attention to the ISP bounce message that sends you and delete the issue email from your list.

7.   AVOID BADLY CODED HTML:

Badly coded HTML is a pretty distinctive characteristic of spammer emails, and filters know that. Make sure the HTML template is attractive and appealing.

WRAP UP:

All of these tips are important when sending an email in email marketing. But sometimes things go wrong even in the best-planned projects, which is why you should always send a check message.

You can find a lot of tools to check if the email you're sending goes through all the spam filters. Nevertheless, the only sure way to find out if your email can hit the inbox is to reproduce the actual conditions. Send a spam test email to make sure you haven't missed any of the points.