How to Stop Your Emails From Going to Spam

Everyone with an email address is familiar with the spam folder. It’s where unwanted emails go to die. And, with hundreds of billions of emails sent daily, there’s always a chance that your company’s important emails land there. So, you might be wondering how to avoid email going to spam.

Modern spam filters can be very aggressive, but they’re relatively simple to avoid if you follow best practices. For instance, you always need to include unsubscribe links and avoid spammy language. If your sender reputation is pristine, your messages shouldn’t end up in the spam folder, and your subscribers won’t miss out on your email campaigns.

In this article, we’ll talk about what can happen if your emails trigger spam filters and end up in the unwanted folder. Then, we’ll go over several measures to avoid your emails going to spam. Let’s get to it!

What Happens If Your Emails End Up in the Spam Folder

Before we show you how to avoid the spam folder, let’s discuss what can happen if you don’t. To put it simply, your emails ending up in the spam folder isn’t a minor issue. If enough of your subscribers make spam complaints about your emails, that can affect your sender reputation.

That reputation is one of the main factors when it comes to spam filters. If your reputation is low and your emails are full of spam trigger words, your messages are unlikely to make it into user’s inboxes:

If you use email marketing to drive growth for your business or brand, that can be a big problem. Emails ending up in the dreaded spam folder means that you won’t be able to reach most of your subscribers. Even worse, it can significantly affect the way in which users see your brand.

The good news is that most regular emails from businesses don’t run into spam issues. If you work with marketers who have experience using email and you have a strong domain reputation, you’ll easily avoid spam filters and triggers.

That said, if you’re doing the email marketing by yourself, you’ll need a solid understanding of how email services decide what spam messages are. This way, you’ll ensure your emails make it to subscribers’ inboxes.

How to Avoid Email Going to Spam (3 Ways)

Fortunately, there are several simple tactics you can try to help keep your messages out of the spam folder. In this section, we’ll focus on the most important practices you need to follow for every message you send. We’ll even discuss what email service providers to use if you want to maximize your success.

1. Always Include an Unsubscribe Link

Some of your audience will want to leave your email list at some point. This doesn’t necessarily have to do with the quality of your messages. Sometimes, people just lose interest in a business or an email list, and that’s normal.

When this happens, you need to make it as easy as possible for those users to leave the list. That’s why most of the email campaigns you receive also include an unsubscribe link:

In fact, in the United States, including the unsubscribe link is required by law. The upside of this is that if users can unsubscribe in a few clicks, they may be less inclined to mark your emails as spam:

Even if you don’t get spam complaints, making it hard to unsubscribe won’t help your cause. At best, users will simply ignore them, which means you’re getting fewer clicks and tarnishing your brand’s reputation.

Most email service providers will automatically include unsubscribe links with any message you send. They’ll process these requests for you and remove users from the email list. If your service provider doesn’t do this, consider moving to a different option.

2. Avoid Spam Trigger Words

Some specific words and phrases can negatively impact how email providers see your messages. These are what we call spam words and they’re one of the factors that services use to determine what messages to “quarantine”.

Typically, these spam words have to do with sales or offers. They tend to be highly aggressive, which can make readers feel pressured into converting. Here are some examples of spammy words and phrases:

• Offer expires
• Free gift
• You have been selected
• Save big money
• Join millions
• 100% satisfied

Basically, any wording that makes you suspect an illegitimate or “too good to be true” sales offer is something you want to avoid. Additionally, it’s best to avoid anything too pushy or assertive.

You’ll want to be especially careful about the language you use in a subject line. Using spammy phrases there can scare off a lot of subscribers who automatically assume you’re trying to make a hard sale (which you probably are).

That’s not to say you can’t send sales emails, you just need to be aware you’re not misleading or pressuring subscribers. If you’re unsure about your copy, you can use a free spam checking tool.

Options such as Mail Tester enable you to submit emails, and they’ll let you know if they could get flagged as spam:

Spam checkers aren’t necessarily 100 percent accurate, but they will point out words and language that could get your emails flagged. Catching these issues before you send emails out to your list should help reduce any spam complaints.

3. Use a Reputable Email Service Provider

Earlier, we talked about the concept of sender reputation. The way it works is that every sender has a reputation “score” that mailbox providers use to determine if you’re a spammer or not.

These scores tend to be private, although there are some services (such as Sender Score) you can use to get an idea of your provider’s standing. These scores are typically tied to your email service provider.

So, if you use a provider that’s known to be a hub for spam, your email deliverability can also suffer as a result. That applies even if your emails are pristine and contain no trace of language that can trigger spam filters.

One thing to look out for in an email service provider is that it offers dedicated IP addresses. In practice, this means you’re not sharing a sender reputation with anyone else whose actions might impact your score negatively. This can also help stop your emails from going to spam.

To put it simply, if you’re not actively spamming your subscribers, overall sender reputation heavily depends on your provider. That’s why choosing the right option is so critical.

Use SirsteveHQ as Your Email Service Provider

As we have seen, there are a lot of things you can do to prevent your emails going to spam. However, the most important decision you can make is what email service provider to use.

Your choice of service provider will impact everything from email deliverability to sender reputation. So, if you’re serious about email marketing, you can benefit massively from using the right email provider.

SirsteveHQ can help you in this regard. That’s because all of SirsteveHQ’s email hosting plans can help you avoid deliverability issues by providing you with dedicated IP addresses. You can even use SirsteveHQ’s email hosting services with multiple email domains (depending on what plan you sign up for).

All SirsteveHQ plans will help ensure that your emails reach recipients inboxes. That way, you’ll be able to spend more time focusing on improving your marketing emails and less time worrying about whether they’ll trigger a spam filter.

SirsteveHQ’s email hosting plans can also help protect you from unsolicited or dangerous emails. Thanks to mailbox protection, you won’t have to deal with spam emails yourself.

On top of advanced spam filters, SirsteveHQ can also protect you from ransomware and phishing attacks. This makes it an ideal option for email hosting for businesses.

However, the best thing about SirsteveHQ is that it offers a one-stop-shop solution. You can use it for domains, web hosting, and email hosting. And, unlike other providers, you’ll have a 24x7x365 support team that can help you with any problems you come across.

Conclusion

When it comes to email, spam filters can be aggressive. This helps protects customers from having to deal with unwanted messages, but it also means your email campaigns may be erroneously flagged. If you want to stop your emails going to spam, you need to understand how mailbox providers determine what goes into the spam folder and what doesn’t.

The best way to avoid ending up in the spam folder is to follow best practices when it comes to email marketing. Here are a few of the most important guidelines to follow:

1. Always include an unsubscribe link.
2. Avoid spam trigger words.
3. Use a reputable email service provider.

If you’re ready for your emails to stop ending up in the spam folder, it’s time to try a best-in-class email service provider. With dedicated IP addresses, SirsteveHQ can help you increase email deliverability and avoid spam folders. Try out our services today!