The #1 rule of email marketing is to get express permission to email first. Never buy a list of email addresses, or you risk violating the CAN-SPAM Act,
Checking Your IP Address
Here are 2 aggregation websites that anyone can use to check on the status of their IP:
Delisting Request Forms
Below are links to the delisting forms used by the more popular external blacklisting services:
To increase your open rates, send your emails at the right time, perfect your subject lines, segment your list, and keep your list fresh.
The second most common reason that emails never reach the inbox (affecting 21% of emails) is spam complaints.
Every time a subscriber reports an email as spam–even if it isn’t really spam–this complaint gets recorded by the mailbox provider. Once the complaints exceed a certain threshold, all future campaigns skip the inbox and get sent directly to the spam folder.
The fifth item on our list, and the third most common cause of low inbox placement (affecting 19% of emails), is low mailbox usage.
In their spam filtering algorithms, mailbox providers look at the ratio of active to inactive email accounts on your list. An inactive email account is an account that hasn’t been used in a long time, or is very rarely ever used.
As the CAN-SPAM act states, it is actually against the law to intentionally mislead someone with your subject line in order to induce them to view the message.
It’s also against the CAN-SPAM ACT to mislead anyone with your “from”, “to”, “reply-to” and routing information.
Did you know that it is actually against the CAN-SPAM Act to neglect including your valid, physical address?
No matter how valuable you think your email campaigns are, you still need to give your subscribers a potential out. If you don’t, you could get spam complaints (at best), or slapped with thousands of dollars in fines.
At the bottom of your emails, include an “unsubscribe” link, or a similar opt-out feature.Some spam filters are triggered by certain words in the subject line or the body of the email. Some spam trigger words include:
amazing
cancel at any time
check or money order
click here
congratulations
dear friend
for only ($)
free or toll-free
great offer
guarantee
increase sales
order now
promise you
risk free
special promotion
this is not spam
winner
If you are sending text-only emails, you don’t have to worry about this. However, you may want to send HTML emails as well as a text-only version. That way, you can include some branding elements that make your emails more memorable (which helps with engagement).
So far, we’ve shown you 11 reasons why your emails go to spam. Next, we’ll show you 3 simple steps to prevent it from happening…
In your welcome email that you send to new subscribers after they opt in, make sure to tell them to whitelist your emails.
How to Whitelist an Email Address with Gmail
Open the email
Click on the drop down arrow next to the “Reply” button
Select “Add to Contacts List”
Click on the “More” button above the email header
Select “Filter messages like these”
At the bottom of the search window, click “Create filter with this search”
Check the box that says “Never send it to Spam”
How to Whitelist an Email Address with Outlook
Open the email
Right-click on the sender’s name, and click “Add to Outlook Contacts”
Click “Save”
On the Tools menu, click “Options”
On the Preferences tab, under E-mail, click “Junk E-mail”
Click the Safe Senders tab
Select the “Also trust e-mail from my Contacts” check box
For other email providers, check out these whitelisting instructions.
Even if your email didn’t go to spam, Gmail users may still have trouble finding your emails because they have been filtered into their Promotions tab.
To prevent this, give them the following instructions…
How to Drag Emails into Gmail’s Primary Inbox
First, look for the email inside the Promotions tab. Then click, drag and drop it into the Primary tab.
Your emails are important to your subscribers, but they probably also receive a lot of other emails from various subscriptions. Help them to find your emails easily by teaching them how to organize your emails into a special folder.
Also, remember that engagement is a big factor that can affect your inbox placement rates. Helping your subscribers keep track of all your future emails will help keep your emails out of spam for good.
Give your subscribers the following instructions to help them organize emails from you…
Instructions to Organize Emails
Create a special folder where you can archive emails from us after you have read them.
Do not set up filters to automatically direct our emails into these folders, otherwise you may miss something.
After you have finished reading an email, manually move it to the folder.