5 Tips to Stay Out of “Spam”

Everyone from small businesses to the largest companies in the world faces problems with their sales and marketing emails going to spam folders. Every time that happens, those recipients don’t even get the chance to evaluate if they want what you’re selling. Getting sent to spam can dramatically reduce the number of people that see your marketing emails, so it’s important to follow these tips to stay out of their spam folders while keeping your sales and marketing emails as effective as possible.

1. Build Inbox Credibility

A brand new email account that’s suddenly sending out massive waves of emails out will look suspicious to email providers, and that behavior alone might cause them to send your messages to spam folders. To avoid that, you need to build your email address’s credibility.

Credibility comes from a number of different factors, but one of the most important is your inbox’s behavior. If you’re sending emails back and forth with people in regular conversations, you’ll look more normal than if you’re only using your email for large sales cadences. Inbox credibility-building tools automate the process of sending emails back and forth with others’ inboxes to create a record of that behavior.

2. Don’t Include Links or Files

Unsecure links and files look suspicious both to people and their email providers–and rightfully so. Unknown email addresses sharing links and files are often hiding malicious code like ransomware, so email providers will often filter out emails with those included.

This is especially true if there are links to multiple sites, a mix of linked images and embedded images, and attachments with strange names. All of these are major red flags for email providers and can be a major reason why emails go to spam.

3. Avoid Spammy Keywords

Email providers also look for certain keywords that signal if an email could be spam. While not every email with one of these emails is automatically directed to your spam folder, it can certainly be a contributing factor.

The most common spam keywords are related to the kinds of advertisements that usually come in spam emails. “Free,” “No-cost,” “buy,” “order,” and “affordable” are just a few of the most common, but there are complete lists of the relevant keywords available.

4. Get Your Signature Right

Your email signature is important. That’s why we’ve already mentioned it as one of the most important best practices in email marketing. But there’s another part of designing your email signature that you should pay attention to: the way you format its links and images.

As mentioned above, there are certain guidelines you should follow with links and images in general. Those are especially important to follow when you create your email signature. For example, if you include your company’s logo, you should make sure the file has a short and sensible name, and any link to a personal website should be short and secure. You should also make sure that any links you include only open one webpage, instead of using one link to open multiple tabs.

5. Don’t Go Overboard

It’s also important not to go too far with these tips. Don’t let them dissuade you from including any attachments or links in your email–great sales collateral can be a game-changer after all!

The most important part of keeping emails out of spam boxes is to act like a normal person. Send work emails from the same inbox, write normally, and don’t include strange files. If you follow these basic tips, you’ll dramatically increase the number of people seeing the messages you send out.

If you’re looking to get some more help with your sales and marketing efforts, you can also use the services of companies like Salaria. To schedule a call and see how you can get more eyes on your messaging, go ahead and set a meeting with us here.