Tips to Avoid SPAM Folder

THE SPAM FILTER

(Things You Probably Didn’t Know)

Now, I know that no one wants to hear this, but there are many reasons that could cause your email to go into the spam folder. I know, I know… it’s easy to blame the CRM company for your crappy inbox rates. But agent friend, please know that most of the time it is not your emailing tool’s fault (aka CRM). If we can be honest here, most of the issues you have with Spam are actually your fault. Yep, it’s your fault… but yet it’s not your fault because no one ever explained to you why this is happening. So, let me be the first.

UNDERSTANDING SPAM FILTERS

To effectively avoid the spam folder, it's essential to first understand how spam filters work. Spam filters are designed to protect users from unsolicited and potentially harmful messages. They analyze various aspects of an email, including its content, sender reputation, and user engagement, to determine if it's spam or not.

Spam filters are software programs that are designed to detect and block unwanted and unsolicited email messages, commonly known as Spam. These filters work by analyzing the content and characteristics of each incoming email to determine whether it is legitimate or unwanted.

Another technique used by Spam filters is to analyze the sender's email reputation and behavior historically. This involves checking the sender's IP address, domain name, and other characteristics to determine whether they have a history of sending spam. An IP address, or Internet Protocol address is unique to your internet location (home of office for example). The IP address is a series of numbers that identifies any device on a network. Computers use IP addresses to communicate with each other both over the internet as well as on other networks. If the sender is identified as a known spammer or has been reported for sending Spam in the past, the email message is blocked or sent to the recipient's Spam folder. Let me ask you? Have you had issues in the past with your email hitting the Spam folders more often than not? If so, it may take some time to clean up your sending reputation.

So, the best way to help you avoid the Spam folder is to simply go into the main ways to fix your emailing sending issues.

Craft a Compelling Subject Line - A compelling subject line is the first step in avoiding the spam folder. It should be clear, concise, and relevant to the content of the email. Avoid using all caps, excessive punctuation, or spam-triggering words like "free," "limited time offer," or "buy now." Instead, focus on creating a subject line that piques the recipient's curiosity and encourages them to open the email. Here at EngageMore CRM, our subject lines are written to avoid these types of issues, and you will find you will get higher open rates, which will also help you avoid the Spam folder.
Maintain a Clean Email List - A clean and well-maintained email list is crucial for avoiding the spam folder. Regularly remove invalid, inactive, or unengaged subscribers from your list. This will help improve your sender reputation and reduce the likelihood of your emails being marked as spam. When you see an email bounce inside of EngageMore CRM, you will never need to worry about sending to those addresses again, as our system will automatically stop sending to bounced email addresses.
Authenticate Your Emails - Email authentication helps prove to ISPs (Internet Service Providers) that your emails are legitimate and not spoofed or phishing attempts. It’s kinda complicated to explain, but the providers know if an email is a “good” and reputable, so you want to try to only want to send safe and legitimate email addresses. The more you send to bad emails, the worse it is for YOUR email reputation. This is one of the main reasons you never want to purchase lists, because you never know where they are farming these emails from and how old and obsolete, they are. By the way, EngageMore CRM authenticates your emails for you and will not send to an email address that is known to be suspect. Be sure you that have reviewed the lesson about verifying email address and why we do this for you: https://engagemorecrm.helpscoutdocs.com/article/234-why-and-how-to-validate-your-email-addresses
Maintain a Consistent Sending Schedule - A consistent sending schedule is essential for maintaining a healthy sender reputation and avoiding the spam folder. Send emails at regular intervals, ideally once a week or month, to establish a pattern that ISPs recognize as legitimate. Sudden spikes in sending frequency or large gaps between emails can trigger spam filters and harm your sender reputation. Your drip campaigns inside of EngageMore CRM will automatically do this for you. However, if you never implement the campaigns, they obviously will not.
Avoid Spam-Triggering Content - Spam filters are continually evolving and becoming more sophisticated in detecting spam-triggering content. To avoid the spam folder, ensure your emails contain relevant and valuable information for your recipients. Avoid using excessive punctuation, capitalization, or spam-triggering words and phrases. Additionally, include plain text versions of your emails to cater to users who prefer text-based content or have email clients that don't support HTML (meaning ‘HyperText Markup Language,’ which is the code that is used to structure a web page and its content. For example, content could be structured within a set of paragraphs, a list of bulleted points, or using images and data tables). At the end of this chapter, I will give you some triggers to avoid.
Use a Reputable Email Service Provider (ESP) - Choosing a reputable ESP is crucial for avoiding the spam folder. ESPs with a good reputation have established relationships with ISPs and can help ensure your emails are delivered to your recipients' inboxes. Additionally, reputable ESPs offer features such as email authentication, list management, and deliverability monitoring to help you maintain a healthy sender reputation and avoid the spam folder. Our ESP service provider is constantly monitoring and helping you to manage your email lists to help you keep a good email reputation.
Test and Optimize Your Emails - Regularly testing and optimizing your emails is essential for avoiding the spam folder. Use A/B testing to determine which subject lines, content, and designs resonate best with your audience. A/B testing, also known as split testing, refers to a randomized experimentation process wherein two or more versions of an email are sent to different segments of your database at the same time to determine which version gets the best open rates, clicks and responses. By the way, do not test email by sending emails to yourself from yourself to yourself. In other words, if you want to test, send emails from one email address to different email address you own. The email sending providers frown on this and your tests may not get delivered like you had hoped.
Encourage Responses and Get Added to Contacts - Include a good call to action (CTA), as I have mentioned previously. This means ask a question in order to get a response. When your potential customer responds and answers your question, that will immediately tell the software companies (Google, Yahoo, etc…) that you are someone this person wants to talk to. Ask your contacts to add your email to their contacts too. The more you do this, the better your chances of avoiding the Spam folder. All of the email templates we provide you here at EngageMore CRM provide you with CTA's. That is the huge difference between our content and the content you get in other CRM providers.
Get your Own Email Domain – As I mentioned before, many systems do not respond well to @gmail, @yahoo, @outlook and @aol. If you are sending content from these types of email addresses – your emails will likely end up in the spam folder. You can purchase these domains very cheap through Google GSuite or your website domain provider.
Include an Unsubscribe Link – I know, you hate this idea, but you really need to do this, sorry! The larger the unsubscribe font is, the better. This will help you to avoid spam complaints which are so much worse than an unsubscribe. Never try to hide your unsubscribe link - this will hurt your ability to deliver. The reality is that if you are sending value-added content, you will get less unsubscribes. And, you get that here at EngageMore CRM. If they do decide to opt-out, then it is probably just as well. Cut them loose, don't take it personal, and move on spending time with the others in the contact list that DO want to hear from you!
Avoid Sending Too Many Images or Links - Quite often we tend to send images of Flyers in our emails. A flyer with just one image and there is no actual typed content this email will more often than not get sent directly to spam. Here is an example of a strange link: www.bit.ly/445ZlwEPX. If you use a link shortener software like Bit.ly, you can personalize the link to identify what you are sending. Be sure to keep the number of links in a given email to a minimum.
Get More Opens - If you are already sending emails, and the emails are getting opened and customers are clicking on links within your email then you have that authority that the email services will acknowledge. This is really the single best way to avoid the spam folder. To get more opens, be sure to use engaging, non-spammy, non-advertisey-looking subject lines. I went into this subject in depth earlier. Yes, your get way, way better open rates here at EngageMore CRM because we provide you better subject lines that encourage more opens.
Use a recognizable Sender/From Name – As I mentioned in an earlier chapter, be sure your recipients know you are an agent. It’s so easy to do by simply changing your name within the profile settings of your CRM or emailing sending software to something like ‘Patti – AZHomeInfo.’ Your last name is insignificant to people who don’t know you yet, and most of your new leads don’t know you by name. Be sure you have reviewed the training lesson about setting up your Mail Merge Provide. We will explain how to set up your FROM line easily https://engagemorecrm.helpscoutdocs.com/article/87-setting-up-the-mail-merge-profile

SPAM TRIGGERS TO AVOID

To successfully avoid the spam folder, it is crucial to ensure that your emails do not contain content that may trigger spam filters. Spam-triggering content refers to elements within an email that may be identified by spam filters as potentially unwanted or harmful. By avoiding such content, you can improve your email deliverability and ensure that your messages reach your intended recipients.
Here are some tips for avoiding spam-triggering content in your emails:

First, be sure to use relevant and valuable Information that caters to the interests and needs of your recipients. By providing useful content, you not only engage your audience but also demonstrate to spam filters that your emails are legitimate and worthy of the inbox.
You also want to be sure to limit the Use of Spam-Triggering Words and Phrases. Certain words and phrases are known to trigger spam filters, particularly if they are commonly associated with spam emails. Examples of such words and phrases include "free," "limited time offer," "buy now," "earn cash," and "urgent." To avoid triggering spam filters, limit the use of these words and phrases in your subject lines and email content. I actually have a full list of Spam Triggers to avoid that you get included when you swipe the list of along with my favorite subject lines. Get them at https://exposedagent.com.
Another good tip is to avoid excessive punctuation and capitalization. Excessive punctuation and capitalization can make your emails appear spammy and may cause them to be flagged by spam filters. Refrain from using multiple exclamation points or question marks, and avoid writing words in all caps. Instead, use proper punctuation and capitalization to convey your message in a more professional and legitimate manner.
I discussed earlier not to add too many images to your emails, but the reason is not just to avoid looking like an ad. While images can make your emails more visually appealing, relying too heavily on images can trigger spam filters. This is because spammers often use images to disguise spammy content. To maintain a healthy balance, ensure that your emails contain a mix of both text and images. Aim for an image-to-text ratio of around 40:60 to avoid raising any red flags.
You may also want to try to include plain text versions of your emails, because some email clients do not support HTML or may have images and other rich media disabled by default. To cater to these users and avoid triggering spam filters, always try testing out a plain text version of your email alongside the HTML version. This ensures that your message is accessible to all recipients, regardless of their email client or preferences.

If you think you are struggling with constantly being dumped in the spam folder, it may take some time, but it’s not too late to get your sketchy bad email history cleaned up. By following the guidelines above, you can create emails that are less likely to trigger spam filters and more likely to reach your intended audience. This not only helps to improve your email deliverability but also enhances the overall effectiveness of your email marketing efforts. Good luck and happy emailing!

What to do if my email signature causes my emails to be blocked by spam filters? First, go through the above list to see if anything stands out and fix it.

If you can’t find the problem in the list, then it’s time to take a look at the content of the emails you’re sending. Take a look through your sent items and see if you notice anything about the language you’re using in the body of the emails.
If it’s your work email, have a chat with your IT department about the issue and they should be able to find out why the email is being blocked by looking at mail server logs. If it’s a company-wide issue, such as the domain being blacklisted, other employees will likely have the same problem. (article info courtesy Gimmeo.io)

RECOMMENDATION: If you find your emails continually end up the SPAM folder of any of your contacts or even notifications from EngageMore, please contact us to research the issue.

We also suggest you whitelist our notifications email address if our daily notifications are going to your SPAM folder. Whitelist noreply@engagemorecrm.com Here are directions: http://onlinegroups.net/blog/2014/02/25/how-to-whitelist-an-email-address/