WHY EMAILS ARE GOING TO SPAM FROM MY DOMAIN?

Email marketing has been and will continue to be a lucrative marketing model and cost-effective as well. According to a research established by the Direct Marketing Associate & Demand Metric, "email had an ROI of 122%" which is four times higher than other marketing strategy including social media, paid search, and direct mail. So, email definitely gets the job done.

However, there are one or more issues every #emailmarketer must contend with and falling into the pit hole of email landing in the spam folder is one of them. A study in 2017 discovered that 20% of commercial emails goes to spam. And to be sincere, any email that shows up in the spam folder is as good as not getting any open rate not to talk about converting..

In this guide, we are going to discuss a few common reasons why your emails are going to spam and possible solution to this headache.

The Common Reasons why Your Emails Land In Spam

1. Email Account Is Not Properly Authenticated: one of the reason your emails go to spam is inappropriate account authentication. The ISPs (Internet Service Providers) are cautious of any domain that sends email over the internet, they want to be sure the emails are coming from the said owner of this domain. To pass ISPs screening, you need to authenticate your email account properly, ensure your DKIM (Domainkey identified mail), SPF (sender policy framework), DMARC, and Rdns are configured. Configuring all these records in your domain name system (DNS) is the only way to tell ISPs that I'm the owner of this email account and they should permit you to send email. Just as you registered Sim card (phone number) with the appropriate authority in your country before using it, that's the way ISPs want you to register your email account with them.
2. Inaccurate Sender Information: Outside of fixing your domain authentication, another why your email will go to spam is using inaccurate sender information. HOW? Let's assume you authenticated your yourdomainname.com and you are expected to use [email protected] to send email, but you go ahead to use [email protected]. Definitely you will be sent to spam folder. Until you tell the ISPs that you want to use your subdomain by authenticating it properly, your emails are bound to go to spam. Another thing, let your "From" & "Reply" info be your real name or company's. Avoid using "From" info like; UK GOV, or president. Even if you are using [email protected] as your email address, always use your real name in your "from" not "admin."
3. Did Not Warm Up Your Email Account: Setting up your email account properly without warming up the account before using it to send email can not only land your email in spam, but can get your account blacklisted. Sending emails from your newly set up email account without warming up is a typical spammer behavior, even if your intentions are pure (to ISPs, it is your action that matters here not what your thoughts are).
4. You Are Using Spam Trigger Word: Spam filters read your email content and decides if your email goes to spam or inbox. The moment its notice suspicious trigger words, your email will be sent to spam even if your intentions are good. Sounding needy, shady, cheap, or manipulative are the sure way to flag your email as spam. Therefore, avoid words like; call now, Amazing, for only $, order now, this is not spam, risk-free, etc. Always check your email copy with email content tester like; Emailonacid, mail-tester.com, or optinmonster.
5. Weak Subject Line: Study has shown that 69% recipients see email as spam and never border to open it based solely on the subject line not to talk about spam filters. Follow subject line best practices when crafting your email. Do not go overboard with exclamation points, make false promises, or use excessive capital letters in your subject line. Also, don't sound too pushy or eager.
6. You Did Not Segment Your List: Segmenting your contact helps you narrow down your email copy and save you from spam. If you are sending the same email copy you sent to affiliate marketer to financial coach, there is every tendency your email will land in spam. Contact segmentation helps you to personalize your email and send to contacts that will be happy to read your message.
7. Adding Excessive Images: Even though images and GIFs can make your email look colorful, it can also get you into trouble with spam filters. There are two ways image can send your email into spam folder: First, sending one image with little or no text in your email, this can trigger spam filters. To spam filters, an email that contains one image with little or no text is considered suspicious, because they believe that spammers now use image to hide spammy words. Secondly, you can also run into problems by using lots of images and very little or no text content in your email. Basically, using images to replace text can make your email land to spam.
8. No Unsubscribe Link: Not including an unsubscribe link in your email is the easiest way to deliver your emails in the spam folder. ISPs expect you to give your contacts the option to stop receiving email if they want to. Also, unsubscribe link help reduce spam report, your recipient can choose to unsubscribe from your list instead of reporting your email as spam.
9. No Physical Address: If your business is real there is no need of hiding your address to your contacts. That's why CAN-SPAM/FTC requires you include your physical address to pass the spam filters. It usually above the unsubscribe button at the bottom of your email template. This could be your street address or a post office box that is registered. If you don't want to broadcast your home address, you should definitely get a PO BOX for business purpose.
10. Bad Email Design: You may want to send an HTML email design with your branding elements that makes your email more memorable which is nice, but you could also get into trouble if not well formatted. When designing your email ensure it is mobile friendly and desktop compatible, no excessive images/GIFs, make your text simple, on point, and easy to digest, use 600-800 pixels for width maximum, etc.
11. Linking To Shady Websites or Misleading Links: The purpose of email most times is to get your contact to click on your link, but this link could be your doom, if you are linking to websites that seems spammy; like affiliate product page. Another thing, using a url that redirect readers to a different destination can also get your email into the spam folder. Always make sure your url display is where your readers will find themselves. Not display google.com only to take readers to yahoo.com. The same happens when you insert links from url shortener in your email copy.
12. Spelling And Grammar Error: Incorrect spelling & grammer could land your email in the spam folder. Be very diligent in double checking your email content, because spam filters are on high-alert nowadays. Proofreading your email copy is the best way to get rid of these errors. Thanks to Ginger and Grammarly you can get things done quickly, install one of the apps to run spell check as you write.

How To Avoid Spam Folder?

Now that we know the theory behind why emails land in spam, is time to start fixing thing up and here are few ways to go;

• Choose a good email platform for your email marketing, sign up, and configure the authentication properly. Take out time to read or watch tutorials provided by the platform to learn how to use this platform, even how to authenticate your account.
• Use appropriate sender info, include your physical address, and unsubscribe links in your email copy.
• Always use double opt strategy to collect contacts, ask recipients to whitelist your email, segment your contacts, and maintain your subscriber lists for better engagement rate.
• Follow email copy & design practice. Don't abuse images, no spammy trigger words, avoid unnecessary attachments, link to reputable sites, etc.
• Use a dedicated sending service for your email especially, if you have a big list you want to send emails to.
• Use spam checker to test your email copy and your email design.
• Etc.

Your emails ending up in people's spam folder are very frustrating, but after going through this post, you should be able to know where to search for the problems and fix them. Lastly, if you don't know how to handle your email marketing or don't have much time to invest into learning/managing it, you can hire an expert to help out.

Still have any questions on the subject matter? Or need a consultant to discuss more, Let's talk here!