Three Reasons Your B2B Emails Get Labeled as Spam and the One Strategy You Need to Prevent It

Hey HITters, no doubt we're deep in it, a digital age where business relationships are built at a distance. To that end, email remains a critical tool for B2B communication. However, the challenge many healthcare IT marketers face is ensuring their emails reach their recipients' inboxes. Too often, carefully crafted messages end up unseen and unanswered in the dreaded spam folder. Understanding why this happens is the first step to preventing it. This HIT Marketing Wednesday, I'll tell you three common reasons your B2B emails get labeled as spam and provide one key strategy to ensure they don’t.

Email is making a comeback, and it's your most cost-effective tool for connecting with potential clients, nurturing leads, and driving conversions. However, a significant challenge marketers face is ensuring their emails reach the recipient's inbox. With spam filters becoming increasingly sophisticated, many well-crafted B2B emails never see the light of day, getting relegated to the dreaded spam folder.

Understanding why this happens and how to prevent it is crucial for any marketer looking to improve their email deliverability and ROI. Today, I'll share the three primary reasons why your B2B emails get labeled as spam and provide the one strategy you need to prevent it. Let's get into it.

1. Subject Line Savvy

The subject line is your email's first impression. It determines whether your email gets opened or ignored. However, an overly aggressive or misleading subject line can trigger spam filters and diminish your email's chances of reaching the inbox.

Why Subject Lines Matter:

• Trigger Words: Words like "free," "urgent," "guaranteed," and "act now" are known to trigger spam filters. While these words can create a sense of urgency or value, their overuse or improper use can backfire.
• Length and Punctuation: Subject lines that are too long or filled with excessive punctuation (!!!) can appear spammy. Aim for clarity and brevity to increase your open rates.
• Relevance and Personalization: Generic subject lines that do not resonate with your audience's needs or interests can be seen as irrelevant, leading to lower engagement rates and higher chances of being marked as spam.

Best Practices:

• Be Clear and Concise: Craft subject lines that clearly convey the email's content without being overly promotional.
• Avoid Spam Trigger Words: Use alternative words and phrases that convey urgency or value without triggering spam filters.
• Personalize When Possible: Including the recipient's name or other personalized elements can increase open rates and reduce the likelihood of being marked as spam.

2. Sender Reputation

Your sender's reputation is a critical factor that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) use to determine whether your emails are trustworthy or spammy. A poor sender reputation can result in your emails being blocked or sent to the spam folder.

Factors Affecting Sender Reputation:

• Sending Frequency and Volume: Sending too many emails in a short period can raise red flags with ISPs. Conversely, inconsistent sending patterns can also hurt your reputation.
• Bounce Rates: High bounce rates indicate that you're sending emails to invalid addresses, which can negatively impact your sender reputation.
• Engagement Rates: Low open and click-through rates signal to ISPs that recipients are not interested in your emails, which can lead to your emails being marked as spam.

Best Practices:

• Maintain a Consistent Sending Schedule: Send emails regularly without overwhelming your recipients or leaving long gaps between sends.
• Clean Your Email List: Regularly update and clean your email list to remove invalid addresses and inactive subscribers.
• Focus on Quality Content: Ensure your emails provide value to your recipients, encouraging them to engage with your content.

3. CAN-SPAM Compliance

The CAN-SPAM Act sets the rules for commercial email and establishes requirements for commercial messages. Non-compliance can lead to your emails being marked as spam and significant penalties.

Key Requirements:

• Clear Identification: Your email must identify that it is an advertisement or promotional content.
• Valid Physical Address: Include a valid physical postal address in your email to comply with CAN-SPAM requirements.
• Unsubscribe Option: Provide a straightforward way for recipients to opt out of receiving future emails and honor opt-out requests promptly.

Best Practices:

• Be Transparent: Clearly indicate the nature of your email and your business in the content.
• Include Necessary Information: Ensure your email includes a valid physical address and an easy-to-find unsubscribe link.
• Respect Opt-Out Requests: Promptly process unsubscribe requests and avoid emailing those who have opted out.

Why Is This Hard?

Love it or hate it, HITters, you have three seconds or less to Entice, Educate, and Encourage further Engagement with your potential customers. Crafting successful B2B emails is no small feat. The digital landscape is saturated with emails vying for attention, and spam filters constantly evolve to protect users from unwanted messages. Additionally, B2B audiences are often more discerning, with higher expectations for value and relevance in the communications they receive. These factors can make it challenging to strike the right balance between being engaging and avoiding the spam folder. However, marketers shouldn't get discouraged. By understanding the common pitfalls and implementing best practices, it's entirely possible to navigate these challenges and achieve high email deliverability. Persistence, attention to detail, and a commitment to quality content will pay off in the long run.

So, let's solve this problem.

Here's the One Strategy You Need to Prevent Your Emails from Being Labeled as Spam (as promised).

While addressing the above factors is essential, the one overarching strategy to prevent your emails from being labeled as spam is Engagement-Driven Email Marketing.

Why Engagement Matters:

ISPs increasingly rely on engagement metrics to determine whether an email is spam. High engagement rates signal that your recipients find your emails valuable, which can improve your sender reputation and deliverability rates.

How to Foster Engagement:

• Segment Your Audience: Tailor your emails to different segments of your audience based on their interests, behavior, and engagement history.
• Personalize Your Content: Use data to personalize your emails, making them more relevant and engaging for each recipient.
• Provide Value: Ensure every email offers something of value, whether it's informative content, exclusive offers, or actionable insights.

Implementing Engagement-Driven Email Marketing:

1. Segment Your List: Segment your email list using data such as purchase history, browsing behavior, and engagement metrics. This allows you to send more targeted and relevant emails.
2. Create Personalized Content: Leverage dynamic content and personalization tokens to make your emails more personalized and relevant to each recipient.
3. Monitor and Optimize: Regularly track your email metrics, such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. Use this data to continuously optimize your email content and strategy.

Here's the thing ...,

Preventing your B2B emails from being labeled as spam requires a multifaceted approach. Focusing on crafting savvy subject lines, maintaining a solid sender reputation, and ensuring CAN-SPAM compliance can significantly improve your email deliverability. However, the most crucial strategy is to foster engagement through targeted, personalized, and valuable content. By making your emails more engaging and relevant to your audience, you'll avoid the spam folder and drive better results from your email marketing efforts.

If your team's email marketing efforts are causing you concern, why not treat them to some continuing education? Reach out to me here on LinkedIn to find out how a session with yours truly could be the best thing you can do for your marketing team and your brand.

Happy hunting, HITters