How To Avoid Email Going To Spam (17 Actionable Strategies)
How To Avoid Email Going To Spam (17 Actionable Strategies)
How To Avoid Email Going To Spam (17 Actionable Strategies)
Dec 9, 2024
Inbox delivery isn’t the most exciting topic, but it can make or break your marketing efforts. No one likes to think their hard work is going to waste, yet that’s precisely what happens when your emails don’t reach your recipients. Instead of boosting engagement, that time-consuming email campaign collects digital dust in someone’s spam folder. How to avoid email going to spam is not as thrilling as crafting the perfect email copy, but it is as equally important. In this article, we’ll explore why emails go to spam and how to avoid it so that you can reliably reach your recipients’ inboxes, boost your engagement rates, and communicate effectively without the fear of being marked as spam.
One way to achieve your goals is to leverage Inframail’s email infrastructure. Ensuring your emails consistently reach recipients’ inboxes can help you improve engagement and even build your sender reputation.
Table of Contents
Why Do Emails Go To Spam Instead Of Inbox?
Emails often land in the spam folder when the recipient's mail service provider detects issues such as flagged keywords, a poor sender reputation, or inadequate authentication settings. Many emails are automatically detected as spam and either deleted immediately or moved to a folder that is most likely never checked.
As a result, your mailing list activity could be much higher. Your subscribers aren’t reading your content or buying your products, which can be highly frustrating, especially if you can't pinpoint the cause.
How to Build and Maintain a Strong Sender Reputation
Unfortunately, the list of problems that flag a spam email gets longer as scammers figure out new ways to send spam emails and avoid getting caught. This makes sending genuinely legitimate emails that may still get flagged increasingly challenging. So, why do my emails go to spam? Because a single factor or multiple factors in your emails seem a little off, email service provider. There could be various causes, but the most common reasons include the following:
Poor Sender Reputation
Maintaining a good sender reputation is crucial to avoid landing in spam folders. To build and maintain trust, include accurate sender information, adhere to FTC regulations, and always include a physical address at the bottom of every email. You can also create an email signature that will automatically append to each of your outgoing emails.
Lack of Email Authentication
Failing to set up email authentication protocols like DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), SPF (Sender Policy Framework), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) can flag your emails as suspicious. This matters more if you're not using a widely-recognized email service like Gmail, as many such services auto-configure these settings.
Use of Spam Trigger Keywords
Avoid using terms like "Free," "Win," or "Exclusive Offer" excessively, as these can be red flags for spam filters. Instead, focus on creating a compelling but straightforward subject line and body text.
Sending to Inactive Email Addresses
Sending to inactive email addresses can negatively impact your sender’s reputation. Periodically clean your mailing list to enhance delivery rates. Before removing unresponsive subscribers, consider sending a re-engagement email. Properly executed, this strategy can gauge continued interest and bolster your overall sender reputation.
You Aren’t Targeting the Right Audience
Irrelevant content can tank engagement rates and increase the risk of getting your emails marked as spam. To boost engagement, segment your list and personalize content according to each group's interests and needs. Low engagement rates affect not only deliverability but also your ROI. Leverage analytics and A/B testing to identify the types of content that resonate with various audience segments, thereby increasing engagement and returns.
Sending Attachments
Including multiple attachments or files that are commonly associated with viruses can trigger spam filters. If you need to include attachments, notify your recipient beforehand and ask for their consent. This significantly increases the chances of your email being opened.
No Unsubscribe Link
Failure to include an easy-to-find unsubscribe link violates CAN-SPAM laws and can lead recipients to mark your emails as spam manually. Always provide a clear option for recipients to opt out of your mailing list. Clicking the unsubscribe link in the email content. Include unsubscribe links within the header or footer of your emails. Also, when someone does unsubscribe, make the process as frictionless as possible to leave a positive last impression.
Other Reasons Emails Go to Spam
Incomplete 'From' information. A vague or missing 'From' field can signal to spam filters that your email may not be legitimate. Always use a recognizable sender name and email address.
Irrelevant or missing subject line. Subject lines that don't match the email content or are missing altogether can trigger spam filters. Make my subject lines accurate and relevant—overuse of capital letters or special characters, emojis.
Excessive use of caps or special characters can look spammy and trigger filters. Use them sparingly and only when appropriate.
Misspelled words, incorrect grammar, and punctuation errors. Errors in spelling and grammar are red flags for spam filters. Always proofread your emails before sending them.
Failing to comply with the latest sender requirements from Google and Yahoo. Most internet service providers (ISPs) have spam filters.
Understanding Email Authentication Protocols and Their Role in Security
These protocols decide whether to accept an incoming message. Though they seem like bad guys, they actually protect us from phishing attacks, spammers, and malicious emails.
How Spam Filters Work
The success of your email campaign is heavily reliant on filter technology. Filters not only block incoming messages but organize them as well. Today, many email service providers and email clients break down your messages by:
Social
Commercial
Newsletters
Other categories
They leverage specific criteria to evaluate an incoming message and place it into the relevant folder. Spam filters work similarly and assign a spam score to the message. If the score meets a certain threshold, the email will be inboxed. Otherwise, you’ll find it in the spam folder. There is a long list of spam criteria that gets modified and adapted daily. The filtering practices are usually undisclosed for security purposes, but we still have a general understanding of what they do and don’t like.
Types of Spam Filters
In general, several different spam filters have different approaches to catching spam.
Blacklists
These filters monitor different Denylist/Blacklist databases globally and will stop emails coming from IPs listed in such blacklists. Denylists (blacklists) are databases containing lists of domains and server addresses that have been reported as regular senders of spam content.
Content Filters
Content filters go through the email message and look for specific words and language that could suggest that the email is clickbait, phishing, or other types of spam. Most content filters look for similar things: bad words used multiple times, such as “offers,” “limited-time,” sexual language, and others.
They also watch out for common scams such as the “419 scam”, best known when impersonated by a Nigerian prince asking for money against the promise to return a more significant sum in the future.
Header Filters
These filters are focused on reading the information transmitted via the email header, such as the source IP if the email is sent to a group of recipients and more, and aim to ban messages from bad sources, such as IPs known to be used by spammers.
Language Filters
Some Email service providers monitor the language of emails, and if that language differs from the recipient’s country language, they might stop the messages. These filters may be set differently, but generally, they aim to protect recipients from content not tailored to their needs.
Rule-Based Filters
Email service providers and users alone can use a filter to set up specific rules for all incoming emails. For example, you can set the filter to stop all emails from one specific sender or look for specific words or phrases in the body or header of the incoming emails. The message gets sent to the spam folder if such words or phrases are detected.
Bayesian Filter
The Bayesian filters monitor the recipients’ preferences by examining the emails they send to spam and set rules based on the patterns they detect to flag similar emails automatically in the future.
AI Filters
AI is being increasingly used to fight spam. It aims to detect patterns in emails, sender behavior, and other suspicious content to help spam filters flag messages more accurately through the network. AI is trained on the network's incoming and outgoing content, using real messages to learn what is good and what is bad, and its contribution to this fight is becoming increasingly valuable.
How do Spam Filters Calculate the Spam Score?
The Email Service providers constantly update their spam filters’ rules in response to the ever-changing and inventive ways spammers find to catch email users off guard. But even so, there are a few essential and standard criteria that all spam filters consider when forming the spam score of your emails.
Sender Reputation
The first thing spam filters do, no matter what, is check the sender’s reputation. As discussed in detail in our article on Email deliverability, this refers to the credibility of your sender IP. If your IP is listed in any Denylists/Blacklists, your emails will be flagged as spam.
Domain Reputation
Let’s assume your IP is clean, but your domain has a bad history and is known to be sending spam. Again, this information may be recorded in the recipient’s email provider’s public denylists or private databases. Unlike the sender reputation, where responsibility is shared with your ESP, the domain reputation is something you are personally responsible for, and you should monitor it carefully.
Email Content Quality
Email content quality is fundamental for user engagement and spam filter avoidance. High-quality content is relevant, well-written, and provides value to the recipient. When creating email campaigns, email marketers should learn to avoid “spam trigger words”—specific words or phrases that can activate spam filters. You don’t have to overthink it, but as a rule of thumb, these words are often associated with deceptive or aggressive marketing practices.
Related Reading
• Why Are My Emails Going To Spam
• Email Deliverability Rate
• Email Monitoring
• Email Deliverability Issues
• Email Quality Score
• Bounce Rate in Email Marketing
• Why Do Emails Bounce
• SPF or DKIM
• How To Check If Your Emails Are Going To Spam
How To Avoid Email Going To Spam (17 Actionable Strategies)
1. Send Newsletters From Your Domain
Email your friend or colleague from domains like @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @hotmail.com, etc. When it comes to bulk email delivery, it is not a good idea. To prevent emails from going to spam, you should always send newsletters from your domain email that match your website domain name.
Why? Because MailerLite works closely with email clients, such as Gmail and Yahoo Mail, to whitelist your domain or IP address.
Best Practices for Choosing an Email Sender Address
If you send bulk emails from other domains, you risk sending your newsletters straight to the junk pile or landing on a block list. Spammers will send phishing emails from domains that aren’t their own. So, if email client algorithms can’t determine your identity, they may assume you’re sending spam emails.
You should also avoid frequently changing your “From” field names and using strange names like “8wqq823o@yourdomain.com”. Use clear and reliable names like:
“newsletter@”
“contact@”
“feedback@”
The best approach is to personalize your address using a real name, e.g., tom@yourdomain.com. It’s much more engaging than something uninviting like “noreply@yourdomain.com”.
2. Authenticate Your Domain
Domain authentication is a method to legitimize your bulk-sending domain with our servers so they can send emails on your behalf. You can authenticate your domain by adding new DKIM and SPF records to your DNS panel. This helps email spam filters tolerate your bulk mailing and validate your domain. Domain authentication is a surefire way to prove to email accounts that you’re sending legitimate emails.
3. Maintain a Strong Sender Reputation
Sender reputation is a score given to a sending domain based on the quality of email campaigns, their frequency, size, and subscriber engagement. To put it simply, your sender reputation is like your Uber rating. You get five stars if you’re polite and follow all the rules. If you’re rude or make a mess, your rating goes down.
Three key events that negatively impact your sender’s reputation include:
Spam complaints: When users report or mark your email as spam
Email bounces (hard and soft): When recipients on your email list don’t exist, don’t provide permission to receive emails from your domain.
Spam traps: Email addresses used for the sole purpose of catching spammers. Any messages sent to these addresses are considered unsolicited.
Tip: The best way to maintain a high email sender reputation is to follow the practices outlined in this article.
4. Choose the Right ESP
The email platform you choose can significantly impact whether your emails hit the inbox. Choose an ESP that prioritizes deliverability to ensure your subscribers see your messages.
A key factor to look out for includes:
A good reputation: Any ESP with a marketing budget can become ‘well known.’ But when it comes to sending reputations, the numbers don’t lie. Choose an ESP with a proven track record of good deliverability. Email Tool Tester runs bi-annual tests to determine the deliverability rates of leading ESPs.
Engagement-focused features: Inbox providers look at email engagement when deciding what is spam. Emails sent from domains with consistently low opens and replies are more likely to land in the junk folder. With this in mind, choose an ESP with features like A/B testing, dynamic content personalization, and advanced segmentation that can help you create more engaging emails.
User-friendly design tools: ESPs should offer intuitive design tools to create professional and engaging emails. Effective design can enhance the user experience and positively impact email deliverability. The easier it is for you to design compelling, well-structured emails, the more likely they will avoid the spam folder and reach the inbox.
5. Consider Your IP Reputation
While we’re on the topic of comparing ESPs, make sure you consider how they manage and maintain the reputation of their servers. For example, at MailerLite, we review all accounts before they’re cleared for sending and continuously monitor activity on our servers to ensure that they’re optimized for deliverability. This is partly why we rank first in email deliverability among our competitors. When using an Email Service Provider (ESP) like MailerLite, users use a shared IP or a dedicated IP. The benefit of using a dedicated IP address is that no user activity (besides your own) affects the IP reputation. Dedicated IPs require “warming up,” which involves sending a low volume of emails from your dedicated IP and systematically increasing your email volume over time. The IP reputation will suffer if the sending volume decreases below 50,000 weekly emails. The benefit of shared IP addresses (using default ESP servers) is that the onus isn’t on you to maintain the heavy sending volume required to keep a good reputation. You can send a single email monthly and maintain a good IP reputation.
6. Optimize Your Newsletter Copy
Spam filters don’t have the human ability to analyze email copy in context, so they flag any spam-associated email characteristics.
How to optimize your email copy to avoid spam filters:
Keep it short (mostly). There isn't a perfect newsletter length–and some highly long newsletters have found raging success. That doesn't mean you should stuff emails full of padding—spam filters like engagement. Every paragraph should be as valuable as the last. If the reader has to work hard to get through it, shorten it
Use only a few exclamation points.
Avoid writing text in red.
Make sure you are not writing in all caps
Use spell check to ensure your email is written correctly.
7. Avoid Spam Trigger Words
While there are no magic keywords to improve your email deliverability, you can limit risky words to reduce the chance of emails going to spam.
The main thing you want to avoid when writing emails is sounding:
Desperate
Pushy
Outlandish (too-good-to-be-true)
Desperate Pushy Outlandish
Please click here
Action required 100% free
Don’t miss this!
Act now 0% risk.
This is not spam!
No catch
Win $$ Promise you
No strings are attached
Save big
Please read
You can’t live without a cash bonus
8. Optimize Your Image-To-Text Ratio
When spam filters were first built to detect spam phrases, spammers got around this by creating image-only emails. As a result, if your newsletter template has more images than text, it’s more likely to land straight in the spam folder. Many email clients (for example, Outlook and Gmail) don’t display images by default unless the recipient sets images to display by default or adds the sender to their address book. Spam filters can vary from client to client, but to ensure maximum deliverability, keep your image-to-text ratio around 70-30 in favor of text.
9. Check Your Link Quality
Every domain you link to in an email has a reputation. If you link to a domain with a bad reputation, it will impact your sender’s reputation. This is because the sender’s reputation is primarily determined by domain reputation. So when you link to dubious external sites, your sender reputation is influenced by association.
To protect your link quality:
Link only to legitimate sites with reputable domains
Don’t use link shorteners like bit.ly and TinyURL
Check your affiliate links to ensure that they’re above board
Enable double opt-in on your signup forms—turn bots away at the door by enabling double opt-in on your sign-up forms
List of link quality checkers:
Norton SafeWeb
Google Transparency Report
URLVoid
Linkody
10. Test Your Emails Before Sending
The best way to understand your customer’s email experience is by sending me the same email beforehand. Even if you created your newsletter using a template, sending a test email is always good. Sending myself test emails allows me to review the campaign’s layout and readability. It also lets me see if my campaign lands in the promotions folder or spam. To find out why my email is going to spam instead of inbox, I can use a newsletter checker like Inbox Insights from MailerCheck to find out precisely what is increasing my spam score. Instead of manually checking for hundreds of spam words and other factors, Inbox Insights does the job for me. Inbox insights provide an inside look into my newsletter metrics before I send it. I can tweak precisely what needs to be adjusted rather than overhauling my email marketing campaign.
11. Never Use Purchased Lists!
Purchased lists are like ticking time bombs. Sooner or later, they will destroy your reputation. Filled with non-existing email addresses and spam traps, they quickly inform mailbox providers that you like to break the rules by sending unsolicited emails. Your messages will end up in junk folders. Even worse, you may be marked as a spammer. To send an email using MailerLite, the recipient must be someone specifically asked to receive your emails by opting in or signing up. If you are an online business, it can also be someone who has bought a product or service from you in the past 18 months. That's what we call implied consent–and while implied consent is legal, explicit consent is the best way to avoid spam reports.
12. Let People Unsubscribe
When people unsubscribe from your newsletter, it's always a little disappointing. You must let people unsubscribe by offering a clear link to every newsletter. If you don't, you risk the chance that people will mark your email as spam because they don't see any other way to unsubscribe from your emails. So be a good human and ensure the unsubscribe link is part of your newsletter layout. It'll be worth it. Turn unsubscribes into something positive. Sure, I'll end up with one fewer subscriber on my list, but I can give unsubscribes a positive twist. When I add a survey to my unsubscribe page, I can collect feedback and take notes on why people are no longer interested in my emails. With each unsubscribe, I now at least get the opportunity to improve my email marketing.
13. Put Some Thought Into Your Subject Line
Your email subject line is crucial for your open rate and for reducing spam marks. People can take a quick look at your subject line and decide to mark it as spam, so we advise you to consider it. You can use the tips mentioned earlier (avoid all caps, fishy phrases, and excessive use of exclamation marks) to create a risk-free subject line. If you’re unsure what to include in your subject line, let AI help! MailerLite’s AI subject line generator will provide a list of targeted subject lines in seconds based on your keywords.
14. Clean Your Email List Regularly
The most effective way to optimize your email deliverability is to keep a healthy email list of valid and engaged subscribers.
To maintain a high-quality email list, start using these four strategies:
Send ultra-relevant emails using groups (aka email tagging): By only sending subscribers newsletters they want to read, your overall engagement will increase
Re-engage inactive subscribers with win-back email campaigns: Give your subscribers one last chance to engage with your content. If they’re still uninterested, delete them from your list and make room for more engaged subscribers.
Enable double opt-in on your signup forms: Turn bots away at the door by enabling double opt-in on your sign-up forms.
Regularly clean your email list using a mail tester (we love MailerCheck): This ensures all invalid email addresses, like hard bounces, are filtered out of your list. This is particularly useful for email marketers migrating their address book from another ESP (email service provider) to MailerLite.
A clean list will avoid spam trap hits and reduce the risk of damaging your sender’s reputation.
15. Comply with Anti-spam Laws
The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email. Besides avoiding hefty fines, complying with the regulations in the CAN-SPAM Act can significantly improve your email deliverability.
Some of the main requirements outlined in the CAN-SPAM Act include:
Tell email recipients where you’re located: Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box, or a private mailbox. You can automatically include your company name and address in your email footer in your account settings.
Tell recipients how to opt-out: Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of receiving emails from you in the future. Luckily, MailerLite will remind you if you need to include an unsubscribe link in your newsletter.
Honor opt-out requests promptly: You must honor a recipient’s request within ten business days. Luckily, MailerLite handles this for you by automatically removing subscribers who unsubscribe from your active list. But remember that some subscribers may reply to your newsletter and ask to be removed. You will need to remove these subscribers from your list manually.
16. Work with Email Deliverability Tools
Email deliverability tools offer various features designed to improve your email campaigns' performance and reputation. For example, blocklist monitoring gives you a heads-up if ISPs flag your IP or domain, helping you fix the issue fast and keep your emails flowing. DMARC monitoring tools make sure your emails are legit, cutting down on phishing and spoofing. This cleans up your sender reputation and helps more emails hit the inbox, not the spam folder. There are several email deliverability tools you can use to ensure your emails are hitting the inbox, such as:
MailerCheck
NeverBounce
MailTrap
For help choosing the right email deliverability tool, check out this article comparing the ten best tools for reaching the inbox in 2023.
17. Ask Subscribers to Allowlist You
Allowlisting is when an email recipient adds a sender’s address to a list of approved senders so that emails from that address are never filtered as spam. Instead, when recipients add an email address to their allowlist, they verify that they trust the sender. This instructs the subscriber’s email client to send messages straight to the inbox. When you ask subscribers to whitelist you, send them instructions to make it easy.
Related Reading
• DMARC vs DKIM
• Importance Of DMARC
• What Is a Soft Bounce Email
• Email Deliverability Checklist
• What Affects Email Deliverability
• Why Is Email Deliverability Important
• Email Bounce Rate
• Fix Email Reputation
• Improve Sender Reputation
• Email Hard Bounce
• Email Deliverability Tools
• Email Deliverability Best Practices
• Best Email Domains
Start Buying Domains Now and Setup Your Email Infrastructure Today
Inframail revolutionizes cold email infrastructure with unlimited inboxes at a single flat rate. We provide:
Microsoft-backed deliverability
Dedicated IP addresses
Automated technical setup
It scales its cold email outreach efforts efficiently:
Agencies
Recruiters
SDRs
What are the Benefits of Using Inframail?
The main benefits of using our service:
Automated SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup
Dedicated email servers for each user
16-hour priority support daily
How InfraMail Simplifies Email Infrastructure for Scalable Outreach
Unlike traditional providers that charge per inbox and leave you wrestling with technical configurations, Inframail streamlines the entire process. We handle the complex infrastructure setup while you focus on reaching more prospects.
InfraMail provides a robust email infrastructure without the usual technical headaches and per-inbox costs, whether:
You're an agency looking to scale outreach
A recruiter connecting with candidates
An SDR driving sales
Start buying domains now and set up your email infrastructure today with our email infrastructure tool.
Related Reading
• Email Monitoring Software
• Soft Bounce Reasons
• Check Email Deliverability Score
• Soft Bounce vs Hard Bounce Email
• SalesHandy Alternatives
• GlockApps Alternative
• MailGenius Alternative
• MxToolbox Alternative
• Maildoso Alternatives
Inbox delivery isn’t the most exciting topic, but it can make or break your marketing efforts. No one likes to think their hard work is going to waste, yet that’s precisely what happens when your emails don’t reach your recipients. Instead of boosting engagement, that time-consuming email campaign collects digital dust in someone’s spam folder. How to avoid email going to spam is not as thrilling as crafting the perfect email copy, but it is as equally important. In this article, we’ll explore why emails go to spam and how to avoid it so that you can reliably reach your recipients’ inboxes, boost your engagement rates, and communicate effectively without the fear of being marked as spam.
One way to achieve your goals is to leverage Inframail’s email infrastructure. Ensuring your emails consistently reach recipients’ inboxes can help you improve engagement and even build your sender reputation.
Table of Contents
Why Do Emails Go To Spam Instead Of Inbox?
Emails often land in the spam folder when the recipient's mail service provider detects issues such as flagged keywords, a poor sender reputation, or inadequate authentication settings. Many emails are automatically detected as spam and either deleted immediately or moved to a folder that is most likely never checked.
As a result, your mailing list activity could be much higher. Your subscribers aren’t reading your content or buying your products, which can be highly frustrating, especially if you can't pinpoint the cause.
How to Build and Maintain a Strong Sender Reputation
Unfortunately, the list of problems that flag a spam email gets longer as scammers figure out new ways to send spam emails and avoid getting caught. This makes sending genuinely legitimate emails that may still get flagged increasingly challenging. So, why do my emails go to spam? Because a single factor or multiple factors in your emails seem a little off, email service provider. There could be various causes, but the most common reasons include the following:
Poor Sender Reputation
Maintaining a good sender reputation is crucial to avoid landing in spam folders. To build and maintain trust, include accurate sender information, adhere to FTC regulations, and always include a physical address at the bottom of every email. You can also create an email signature that will automatically append to each of your outgoing emails.
Lack of Email Authentication
Failing to set up email authentication protocols like DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), SPF (Sender Policy Framework), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) can flag your emails as suspicious. This matters more if you're not using a widely-recognized email service like Gmail, as many such services auto-configure these settings.
Use of Spam Trigger Keywords
Avoid using terms like "Free," "Win," or "Exclusive Offer" excessively, as these can be red flags for spam filters. Instead, focus on creating a compelling but straightforward subject line and body text.
Sending to Inactive Email Addresses
Sending to inactive email addresses can negatively impact your sender’s reputation. Periodically clean your mailing list to enhance delivery rates. Before removing unresponsive subscribers, consider sending a re-engagement email. Properly executed, this strategy can gauge continued interest and bolster your overall sender reputation.
You Aren’t Targeting the Right Audience
Irrelevant content can tank engagement rates and increase the risk of getting your emails marked as spam. To boost engagement, segment your list and personalize content according to each group's interests and needs. Low engagement rates affect not only deliverability but also your ROI. Leverage analytics and A/B testing to identify the types of content that resonate with various audience segments, thereby increasing engagement and returns.
Sending Attachments
Including multiple attachments or files that are commonly associated with viruses can trigger spam filters. If you need to include attachments, notify your recipient beforehand and ask for their consent. This significantly increases the chances of your email being opened.
No Unsubscribe Link
Failure to include an easy-to-find unsubscribe link violates CAN-SPAM laws and can lead recipients to mark your emails as spam manually. Always provide a clear option for recipients to opt out of your mailing list. Clicking the unsubscribe link in the email content. Include unsubscribe links within the header or footer of your emails. Also, when someone does unsubscribe, make the process as frictionless as possible to leave a positive last impression.
Other Reasons Emails Go to Spam
Incomplete 'From' information. A vague or missing 'From' field can signal to spam filters that your email may not be legitimate. Always use a recognizable sender name and email address.
Irrelevant or missing subject line. Subject lines that don't match the email content or are missing altogether can trigger spam filters. Make my subject lines accurate and relevant—overuse of capital letters or special characters, emojis.
Excessive use of caps or special characters can look spammy and trigger filters. Use them sparingly and only when appropriate.
Misspelled words, incorrect grammar, and punctuation errors. Errors in spelling and grammar are red flags for spam filters. Always proofread your emails before sending them.
Failing to comply with the latest sender requirements from Google and Yahoo. Most internet service providers (ISPs) have spam filters.
Understanding Email Authentication Protocols and Their Role in Security
These protocols decide whether to accept an incoming message. Though they seem like bad guys, they actually protect us from phishing attacks, spammers, and malicious emails.
How Spam Filters Work
The success of your email campaign is heavily reliant on filter technology. Filters not only block incoming messages but organize them as well. Today, many email service providers and email clients break down your messages by:
Social
Commercial
Newsletters
Other categories
They leverage specific criteria to evaluate an incoming message and place it into the relevant folder. Spam filters work similarly and assign a spam score to the message. If the score meets a certain threshold, the email will be inboxed. Otherwise, you’ll find it in the spam folder. There is a long list of spam criteria that gets modified and adapted daily. The filtering practices are usually undisclosed for security purposes, but we still have a general understanding of what they do and don’t like.
Types of Spam Filters
In general, several different spam filters have different approaches to catching spam.
Blacklists
These filters monitor different Denylist/Blacklist databases globally and will stop emails coming from IPs listed in such blacklists. Denylists (blacklists) are databases containing lists of domains and server addresses that have been reported as regular senders of spam content.
Content Filters
Content filters go through the email message and look for specific words and language that could suggest that the email is clickbait, phishing, or other types of spam. Most content filters look for similar things: bad words used multiple times, such as “offers,” “limited-time,” sexual language, and others.
They also watch out for common scams such as the “419 scam”, best known when impersonated by a Nigerian prince asking for money against the promise to return a more significant sum in the future.
Header Filters
These filters are focused on reading the information transmitted via the email header, such as the source IP if the email is sent to a group of recipients and more, and aim to ban messages from bad sources, such as IPs known to be used by spammers.
Language Filters
Some Email service providers monitor the language of emails, and if that language differs from the recipient’s country language, they might stop the messages. These filters may be set differently, but generally, they aim to protect recipients from content not tailored to their needs.
Rule-Based Filters
Email service providers and users alone can use a filter to set up specific rules for all incoming emails. For example, you can set the filter to stop all emails from one specific sender or look for specific words or phrases in the body or header of the incoming emails. The message gets sent to the spam folder if such words or phrases are detected.
Bayesian Filter
The Bayesian filters monitor the recipients’ preferences by examining the emails they send to spam and set rules based on the patterns they detect to flag similar emails automatically in the future.
AI Filters
AI is being increasingly used to fight spam. It aims to detect patterns in emails, sender behavior, and other suspicious content to help spam filters flag messages more accurately through the network. AI is trained on the network's incoming and outgoing content, using real messages to learn what is good and what is bad, and its contribution to this fight is becoming increasingly valuable.
How do Spam Filters Calculate the Spam Score?
The Email Service providers constantly update their spam filters’ rules in response to the ever-changing and inventive ways spammers find to catch email users off guard. But even so, there are a few essential and standard criteria that all spam filters consider when forming the spam score of your emails.
Sender Reputation
The first thing spam filters do, no matter what, is check the sender’s reputation. As discussed in detail in our article on Email deliverability, this refers to the credibility of your sender IP. If your IP is listed in any Denylists/Blacklists, your emails will be flagged as spam.
Domain Reputation
Let’s assume your IP is clean, but your domain has a bad history and is known to be sending spam. Again, this information may be recorded in the recipient’s email provider’s public denylists or private databases. Unlike the sender reputation, where responsibility is shared with your ESP, the domain reputation is something you are personally responsible for, and you should monitor it carefully.
Email Content Quality
Email content quality is fundamental for user engagement and spam filter avoidance. High-quality content is relevant, well-written, and provides value to the recipient. When creating email campaigns, email marketers should learn to avoid “spam trigger words”—specific words or phrases that can activate spam filters. You don’t have to overthink it, but as a rule of thumb, these words are often associated with deceptive or aggressive marketing practices.
Related Reading
• Why Are My Emails Going To Spam
• Email Deliverability Rate
• Email Monitoring
• Email Deliverability Issues
• Email Quality Score
• Bounce Rate in Email Marketing
• Why Do Emails Bounce
• SPF or DKIM
• How To Check If Your Emails Are Going To Spam
How To Avoid Email Going To Spam (17 Actionable Strategies)
1. Send Newsletters From Your Domain
Email your friend or colleague from domains like @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @hotmail.com, etc. When it comes to bulk email delivery, it is not a good idea. To prevent emails from going to spam, you should always send newsletters from your domain email that match your website domain name.
Why? Because MailerLite works closely with email clients, such as Gmail and Yahoo Mail, to whitelist your domain or IP address.
Best Practices for Choosing an Email Sender Address
If you send bulk emails from other domains, you risk sending your newsletters straight to the junk pile or landing on a block list. Spammers will send phishing emails from domains that aren’t their own. So, if email client algorithms can’t determine your identity, they may assume you’re sending spam emails.
You should also avoid frequently changing your “From” field names and using strange names like “8wqq823o@yourdomain.com”. Use clear and reliable names like:
“newsletter@”
“contact@”
“feedback@”
The best approach is to personalize your address using a real name, e.g., tom@yourdomain.com. It’s much more engaging than something uninviting like “noreply@yourdomain.com”.
2. Authenticate Your Domain
Domain authentication is a method to legitimize your bulk-sending domain with our servers so they can send emails on your behalf. You can authenticate your domain by adding new DKIM and SPF records to your DNS panel. This helps email spam filters tolerate your bulk mailing and validate your domain. Domain authentication is a surefire way to prove to email accounts that you’re sending legitimate emails.
3. Maintain a Strong Sender Reputation
Sender reputation is a score given to a sending domain based on the quality of email campaigns, their frequency, size, and subscriber engagement. To put it simply, your sender reputation is like your Uber rating. You get five stars if you’re polite and follow all the rules. If you’re rude or make a mess, your rating goes down.
Three key events that negatively impact your sender’s reputation include:
Spam complaints: When users report or mark your email as spam
Email bounces (hard and soft): When recipients on your email list don’t exist, don’t provide permission to receive emails from your domain.
Spam traps: Email addresses used for the sole purpose of catching spammers. Any messages sent to these addresses are considered unsolicited.
Tip: The best way to maintain a high email sender reputation is to follow the practices outlined in this article.
4. Choose the Right ESP
The email platform you choose can significantly impact whether your emails hit the inbox. Choose an ESP that prioritizes deliverability to ensure your subscribers see your messages.
A key factor to look out for includes:
A good reputation: Any ESP with a marketing budget can become ‘well known.’ But when it comes to sending reputations, the numbers don’t lie. Choose an ESP with a proven track record of good deliverability. Email Tool Tester runs bi-annual tests to determine the deliverability rates of leading ESPs.
Engagement-focused features: Inbox providers look at email engagement when deciding what is spam. Emails sent from domains with consistently low opens and replies are more likely to land in the junk folder. With this in mind, choose an ESP with features like A/B testing, dynamic content personalization, and advanced segmentation that can help you create more engaging emails.
User-friendly design tools: ESPs should offer intuitive design tools to create professional and engaging emails. Effective design can enhance the user experience and positively impact email deliverability. The easier it is for you to design compelling, well-structured emails, the more likely they will avoid the spam folder and reach the inbox.
5. Consider Your IP Reputation
While we’re on the topic of comparing ESPs, make sure you consider how they manage and maintain the reputation of their servers. For example, at MailerLite, we review all accounts before they’re cleared for sending and continuously monitor activity on our servers to ensure that they’re optimized for deliverability. This is partly why we rank first in email deliverability among our competitors. When using an Email Service Provider (ESP) like MailerLite, users use a shared IP or a dedicated IP. The benefit of using a dedicated IP address is that no user activity (besides your own) affects the IP reputation. Dedicated IPs require “warming up,” which involves sending a low volume of emails from your dedicated IP and systematically increasing your email volume over time. The IP reputation will suffer if the sending volume decreases below 50,000 weekly emails. The benefit of shared IP addresses (using default ESP servers) is that the onus isn’t on you to maintain the heavy sending volume required to keep a good reputation. You can send a single email monthly and maintain a good IP reputation.
6. Optimize Your Newsletter Copy
Spam filters don’t have the human ability to analyze email copy in context, so they flag any spam-associated email characteristics.
How to optimize your email copy to avoid spam filters:
Keep it short (mostly). There isn't a perfect newsletter length–and some highly long newsletters have found raging success. That doesn't mean you should stuff emails full of padding—spam filters like engagement. Every paragraph should be as valuable as the last. If the reader has to work hard to get through it, shorten it
Use only a few exclamation points.
Avoid writing text in red.
Make sure you are not writing in all caps
Use spell check to ensure your email is written correctly.
7. Avoid Spam Trigger Words
While there are no magic keywords to improve your email deliverability, you can limit risky words to reduce the chance of emails going to spam.
The main thing you want to avoid when writing emails is sounding:
Desperate
Pushy
Outlandish (too-good-to-be-true)
Desperate Pushy Outlandish
Please click here
Action required 100% free
Don’t miss this!
Act now 0% risk.
This is not spam!
No catch
Win $$ Promise you
No strings are attached
Save big
Please read
You can’t live without a cash bonus
8. Optimize Your Image-To-Text Ratio
When spam filters were first built to detect spam phrases, spammers got around this by creating image-only emails. As a result, if your newsletter template has more images than text, it’s more likely to land straight in the spam folder. Many email clients (for example, Outlook and Gmail) don’t display images by default unless the recipient sets images to display by default or adds the sender to their address book. Spam filters can vary from client to client, but to ensure maximum deliverability, keep your image-to-text ratio around 70-30 in favor of text.
9. Check Your Link Quality
Every domain you link to in an email has a reputation. If you link to a domain with a bad reputation, it will impact your sender’s reputation. This is because the sender’s reputation is primarily determined by domain reputation. So when you link to dubious external sites, your sender reputation is influenced by association.
To protect your link quality:
Link only to legitimate sites with reputable domains
Don’t use link shorteners like bit.ly and TinyURL
Check your affiliate links to ensure that they’re above board
Enable double opt-in on your signup forms—turn bots away at the door by enabling double opt-in on your sign-up forms
List of link quality checkers:
Norton SafeWeb
Google Transparency Report
URLVoid
Linkody
10. Test Your Emails Before Sending
The best way to understand your customer’s email experience is by sending me the same email beforehand. Even if you created your newsletter using a template, sending a test email is always good. Sending myself test emails allows me to review the campaign’s layout and readability. It also lets me see if my campaign lands in the promotions folder or spam. To find out why my email is going to spam instead of inbox, I can use a newsletter checker like Inbox Insights from MailerCheck to find out precisely what is increasing my spam score. Instead of manually checking for hundreds of spam words and other factors, Inbox Insights does the job for me. Inbox insights provide an inside look into my newsletter metrics before I send it. I can tweak precisely what needs to be adjusted rather than overhauling my email marketing campaign.
11. Never Use Purchased Lists!
Purchased lists are like ticking time bombs. Sooner or later, they will destroy your reputation. Filled with non-existing email addresses and spam traps, they quickly inform mailbox providers that you like to break the rules by sending unsolicited emails. Your messages will end up in junk folders. Even worse, you may be marked as a spammer. To send an email using MailerLite, the recipient must be someone specifically asked to receive your emails by opting in or signing up. If you are an online business, it can also be someone who has bought a product or service from you in the past 18 months. That's what we call implied consent–and while implied consent is legal, explicit consent is the best way to avoid spam reports.
12. Let People Unsubscribe
When people unsubscribe from your newsletter, it's always a little disappointing. You must let people unsubscribe by offering a clear link to every newsletter. If you don't, you risk the chance that people will mark your email as spam because they don't see any other way to unsubscribe from your emails. So be a good human and ensure the unsubscribe link is part of your newsletter layout. It'll be worth it. Turn unsubscribes into something positive. Sure, I'll end up with one fewer subscriber on my list, but I can give unsubscribes a positive twist. When I add a survey to my unsubscribe page, I can collect feedback and take notes on why people are no longer interested in my emails. With each unsubscribe, I now at least get the opportunity to improve my email marketing.
13. Put Some Thought Into Your Subject Line
Your email subject line is crucial for your open rate and for reducing spam marks. People can take a quick look at your subject line and decide to mark it as spam, so we advise you to consider it. You can use the tips mentioned earlier (avoid all caps, fishy phrases, and excessive use of exclamation marks) to create a risk-free subject line. If you’re unsure what to include in your subject line, let AI help! MailerLite’s AI subject line generator will provide a list of targeted subject lines in seconds based on your keywords.
14. Clean Your Email List Regularly
The most effective way to optimize your email deliverability is to keep a healthy email list of valid and engaged subscribers.
To maintain a high-quality email list, start using these four strategies:
Send ultra-relevant emails using groups (aka email tagging): By only sending subscribers newsletters they want to read, your overall engagement will increase
Re-engage inactive subscribers with win-back email campaigns: Give your subscribers one last chance to engage with your content. If they’re still uninterested, delete them from your list and make room for more engaged subscribers.
Enable double opt-in on your signup forms: Turn bots away at the door by enabling double opt-in on your sign-up forms.
Regularly clean your email list using a mail tester (we love MailerCheck): This ensures all invalid email addresses, like hard bounces, are filtered out of your list. This is particularly useful for email marketers migrating their address book from another ESP (email service provider) to MailerLite.
A clean list will avoid spam trap hits and reduce the risk of damaging your sender’s reputation.
15. Comply with Anti-spam Laws
The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email. Besides avoiding hefty fines, complying with the regulations in the CAN-SPAM Act can significantly improve your email deliverability.
Some of the main requirements outlined in the CAN-SPAM Act include:
Tell email recipients where you’re located: Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box, or a private mailbox. You can automatically include your company name and address in your email footer in your account settings.
Tell recipients how to opt-out: Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of receiving emails from you in the future. Luckily, MailerLite will remind you if you need to include an unsubscribe link in your newsletter.
Honor opt-out requests promptly: You must honor a recipient’s request within ten business days. Luckily, MailerLite handles this for you by automatically removing subscribers who unsubscribe from your active list. But remember that some subscribers may reply to your newsletter and ask to be removed. You will need to remove these subscribers from your list manually.
16. Work with Email Deliverability Tools
Email deliverability tools offer various features designed to improve your email campaigns' performance and reputation. For example, blocklist monitoring gives you a heads-up if ISPs flag your IP or domain, helping you fix the issue fast and keep your emails flowing. DMARC monitoring tools make sure your emails are legit, cutting down on phishing and spoofing. This cleans up your sender reputation and helps more emails hit the inbox, not the spam folder. There are several email deliverability tools you can use to ensure your emails are hitting the inbox, such as:
MailerCheck
NeverBounce
MailTrap
For help choosing the right email deliverability tool, check out this article comparing the ten best tools for reaching the inbox in 2023.
17. Ask Subscribers to Allowlist You
Allowlisting is when an email recipient adds a sender’s address to a list of approved senders so that emails from that address are never filtered as spam. Instead, when recipients add an email address to their allowlist, they verify that they trust the sender. This instructs the subscriber’s email client to send messages straight to the inbox. When you ask subscribers to whitelist you, send them instructions to make it easy.
Related Reading
• DMARC vs DKIM
• Importance Of DMARC
• What Is a Soft Bounce Email
• Email Deliverability Checklist
• What Affects Email Deliverability
• Why Is Email Deliverability Important
• Email Bounce Rate
• Fix Email Reputation
• Improve Sender Reputation
• Email Hard Bounce
• Email Deliverability Tools
• Email Deliverability Best Practices
• Best Email Domains
Start Buying Domains Now and Setup Your Email Infrastructure Today
Inframail revolutionizes cold email infrastructure with unlimited inboxes at a single flat rate. We provide:
Microsoft-backed deliverability
Dedicated IP addresses
Automated technical setup
It scales its cold email outreach efforts efficiently:
Agencies
Recruiters
SDRs
What are the Benefits of Using Inframail?
The main benefits of using our service:
Automated SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup
Dedicated email servers for each user
16-hour priority support daily
How InfraMail Simplifies Email Infrastructure for Scalable Outreach
Unlike traditional providers that charge per inbox and leave you wrestling with technical configurations, Inframail streamlines the entire process. We handle the complex infrastructure setup while you focus on reaching more prospects.
InfraMail provides a robust email infrastructure without the usual technical headaches and per-inbox costs, whether:
You're an agency looking to scale outreach
A recruiter connecting with candidates
An SDR driving sales
Start buying domains now and set up your email infrastructure today with our email infrastructure tool.
Related Reading
• Email Monitoring Software
• Soft Bounce Reasons
• Check Email Deliverability Score
• Soft Bounce vs Hard Bounce Email
• SalesHandy Alternatives
• GlockApps Alternative
• MailGenius Alternative
• MxToolbox Alternative
• Maildoso Alternatives
Inbox delivery isn’t the most exciting topic, but it can make or break your marketing efforts. No one likes to think their hard work is going to waste, yet that’s precisely what happens when your emails don’t reach your recipients. Instead of boosting engagement, that time-consuming email campaign collects digital dust in someone’s spam folder. How to avoid email going to spam is not as thrilling as crafting the perfect email copy, but it is as equally important. In this article, we’ll explore why emails go to spam and how to avoid it so that you can reliably reach your recipients’ inboxes, boost your engagement rates, and communicate effectively without the fear of being marked as spam.
One way to achieve your goals is to leverage Inframail’s email infrastructure. Ensuring your emails consistently reach recipients’ inboxes can help you improve engagement and even build your sender reputation.
Table of Contents
Why Do Emails Go To Spam Instead Of Inbox?
Emails often land in the spam folder when the recipient's mail service provider detects issues such as flagged keywords, a poor sender reputation, or inadequate authentication settings. Many emails are automatically detected as spam and either deleted immediately or moved to a folder that is most likely never checked.
As a result, your mailing list activity could be much higher. Your subscribers aren’t reading your content or buying your products, which can be highly frustrating, especially if you can't pinpoint the cause.
How to Build and Maintain a Strong Sender Reputation
Unfortunately, the list of problems that flag a spam email gets longer as scammers figure out new ways to send spam emails and avoid getting caught. This makes sending genuinely legitimate emails that may still get flagged increasingly challenging. So, why do my emails go to spam? Because a single factor or multiple factors in your emails seem a little off, email service provider. There could be various causes, but the most common reasons include the following:
Poor Sender Reputation
Maintaining a good sender reputation is crucial to avoid landing in spam folders. To build and maintain trust, include accurate sender information, adhere to FTC regulations, and always include a physical address at the bottom of every email. You can also create an email signature that will automatically append to each of your outgoing emails.
Lack of Email Authentication
Failing to set up email authentication protocols like DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), SPF (Sender Policy Framework), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) can flag your emails as suspicious. This matters more if you're not using a widely-recognized email service like Gmail, as many such services auto-configure these settings.
Use of Spam Trigger Keywords
Avoid using terms like "Free," "Win," or "Exclusive Offer" excessively, as these can be red flags for spam filters. Instead, focus on creating a compelling but straightforward subject line and body text.
Sending to Inactive Email Addresses
Sending to inactive email addresses can negatively impact your sender’s reputation. Periodically clean your mailing list to enhance delivery rates. Before removing unresponsive subscribers, consider sending a re-engagement email. Properly executed, this strategy can gauge continued interest and bolster your overall sender reputation.
You Aren’t Targeting the Right Audience
Irrelevant content can tank engagement rates and increase the risk of getting your emails marked as spam. To boost engagement, segment your list and personalize content according to each group's interests and needs. Low engagement rates affect not only deliverability but also your ROI. Leverage analytics and A/B testing to identify the types of content that resonate with various audience segments, thereby increasing engagement and returns.
Sending Attachments
Including multiple attachments or files that are commonly associated with viruses can trigger spam filters. If you need to include attachments, notify your recipient beforehand and ask for their consent. This significantly increases the chances of your email being opened.
No Unsubscribe Link
Failure to include an easy-to-find unsubscribe link violates CAN-SPAM laws and can lead recipients to mark your emails as spam manually. Always provide a clear option for recipients to opt out of your mailing list. Clicking the unsubscribe link in the email content. Include unsubscribe links within the header or footer of your emails. Also, when someone does unsubscribe, make the process as frictionless as possible to leave a positive last impression.
Other Reasons Emails Go to Spam
Incomplete 'From' information. A vague or missing 'From' field can signal to spam filters that your email may not be legitimate. Always use a recognizable sender name and email address.
Irrelevant or missing subject line. Subject lines that don't match the email content or are missing altogether can trigger spam filters. Make my subject lines accurate and relevant—overuse of capital letters or special characters, emojis.
Excessive use of caps or special characters can look spammy and trigger filters. Use them sparingly and only when appropriate.
Misspelled words, incorrect grammar, and punctuation errors. Errors in spelling and grammar are red flags for spam filters. Always proofread your emails before sending them.
Failing to comply with the latest sender requirements from Google and Yahoo. Most internet service providers (ISPs) have spam filters.
Understanding Email Authentication Protocols and Their Role in Security
These protocols decide whether to accept an incoming message. Though they seem like bad guys, they actually protect us from phishing attacks, spammers, and malicious emails.
How Spam Filters Work
The success of your email campaign is heavily reliant on filter technology. Filters not only block incoming messages but organize them as well. Today, many email service providers and email clients break down your messages by:
Social
Commercial
Newsletters
Other categories
They leverage specific criteria to evaluate an incoming message and place it into the relevant folder. Spam filters work similarly and assign a spam score to the message. If the score meets a certain threshold, the email will be inboxed. Otherwise, you’ll find it in the spam folder. There is a long list of spam criteria that gets modified and adapted daily. The filtering practices are usually undisclosed for security purposes, but we still have a general understanding of what they do and don’t like.
Types of Spam Filters
In general, several different spam filters have different approaches to catching spam.
Blacklists
These filters monitor different Denylist/Blacklist databases globally and will stop emails coming from IPs listed in such blacklists. Denylists (blacklists) are databases containing lists of domains and server addresses that have been reported as regular senders of spam content.
Content Filters
Content filters go through the email message and look for specific words and language that could suggest that the email is clickbait, phishing, or other types of spam. Most content filters look for similar things: bad words used multiple times, such as “offers,” “limited-time,” sexual language, and others.
They also watch out for common scams such as the “419 scam”, best known when impersonated by a Nigerian prince asking for money against the promise to return a more significant sum in the future.
Header Filters
These filters are focused on reading the information transmitted via the email header, such as the source IP if the email is sent to a group of recipients and more, and aim to ban messages from bad sources, such as IPs known to be used by spammers.
Language Filters
Some Email service providers monitor the language of emails, and if that language differs from the recipient’s country language, they might stop the messages. These filters may be set differently, but generally, they aim to protect recipients from content not tailored to their needs.
Rule-Based Filters
Email service providers and users alone can use a filter to set up specific rules for all incoming emails. For example, you can set the filter to stop all emails from one specific sender or look for specific words or phrases in the body or header of the incoming emails. The message gets sent to the spam folder if such words or phrases are detected.
Bayesian Filter
The Bayesian filters monitor the recipients’ preferences by examining the emails they send to spam and set rules based on the patterns they detect to flag similar emails automatically in the future.
AI Filters
AI is being increasingly used to fight spam. It aims to detect patterns in emails, sender behavior, and other suspicious content to help spam filters flag messages more accurately through the network. AI is trained on the network's incoming and outgoing content, using real messages to learn what is good and what is bad, and its contribution to this fight is becoming increasingly valuable.
How do Spam Filters Calculate the Spam Score?
The Email Service providers constantly update their spam filters’ rules in response to the ever-changing and inventive ways spammers find to catch email users off guard. But even so, there are a few essential and standard criteria that all spam filters consider when forming the spam score of your emails.
Sender Reputation
The first thing spam filters do, no matter what, is check the sender’s reputation. As discussed in detail in our article on Email deliverability, this refers to the credibility of your sender IP. If your IP is listed in any Denylists/Blacklists, your emails will be flagged as spam.
Domain Reputation
Let’s assume your IP is clean, but your domain has a bad history and is known to be sending spam. Again, this information may be recorded in the recipient’s email provider’s public denylists or private databases. Unlike the sender reputation, where responsibility is shared with your ESP, the domain reputation is something you are personally responsible for, and you should monitor it carefully.
Email Content Quality
Email content quality is fundamental for user engagement and spam filter avoidance. High-quality content is relevant, well-written, and provides value to the recipient. When creating email campaigns, email marketers should learn to avoid “spam trigger words”—specific words or phrases that can activate spam filters. You don’t have to overthink it, but as a rule of thumb, these words are often associated with deceptive or aggressive marketing practices.
Related Reading
• Why Are My Emails Going To Spam
• Email Deliverability Rate
• Email Monitoring
• Email Deliverability Issues
• Email Quality Score
• Bounce Rate in Email Marketing
• Why Do Emails Bounce
• SPF or DKIM
• How To Check If Your Emails Are Going To Spam
How To Avoid Email Going To Spam (17 Actionable Strategies)
1. Send Newsletters From Your Domain
Email your friend or colleague from domains like @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @hotmail.com, etc. When it comes to bulk email delivery, it is not a good idea. To prevent emails from going to spam, you should always send newsletters from your domain email that match your website domain name.
Why? Because MailerLite works closely with email clients, such as Gmail and Yahoo Mail, to whitelist your domain or IP address.
Best Practices for Choosing an Email Sender Address
If you send bulk emails from other domains, you risk sending your newsletters straight to the junk pile or landing on a block list. Spammers will send phishing emails from domains that aren’t their own. So, if email client algorithms can’t determine your identity, they may assume you’re sending spam emails.
You should also avoid frequently changing your “From” field names and using strange names like “8wqq823o@yourdomain.com”. Use clear and reliable names like:
“newsletter@”
“contact@”
“feedback@”
The best approach is to personalize your address using a real name, e.g., tom@yourdomain.com. It’s much more engaging than something uninviting like “noreply@yourdomain.com”.
2. Authenticate Your Domain
Domain authentication is a method to legitimize your bulk-sending domain with our servers so they can send emails on your behalf. You can authenticate your domain by adding new DKIM and SPF records to your DNS panel. This helps email spam filters tolerate your bulk mailing and validate your domain. Domain authentication is a surefire way to prove to email accounts that you’re sending legitimate emails.
3. Maintain a Strong Sender Reputation
Sender reputation is a score given to a sending domain based on the quality of email campaigns, their frequency, size, and subscriber engagement. To put it simply, your sender reputation is like your Uber rating. You get five stars if you’re polite and follow all the rules. If you’re rude or make a mess, your rating goes down.
Three key events that negatively impact your sender’s reputation include:
Spam complaints: When users report or mark your email as spam
Email bounces (hard and soft): When recipients on your email list don’t exist, don’t provide permission to receive emails from your domain.
Spam traps: Email addresses used for the sole purpose of catching spammers. Any messages sent to these addresses are considered unsolicited.
Tip: The best way to maintain a high email sender reputation is to follow the practices outlined in this article.
4. Choose the Right ESP
The email platform you choose can significantly impact whether your emails hit the inbox. Choose an ESP that prioritizes deliverability to ensure your subscribers see your messages.
A key factor to look out for includes:
A good reputation: Any ESP with a marketing budget can become ‘well known.’ But when it comes to sending reputations, the numbers don’t lie. Choose an ESP with a proven track record of good deliverability. Email Tool Tester runs bi-annual tests to determine the deliverability rates of leading ESPs.
Engagement-focused features: Inbox providers look at email engagement when deciding what is spam. Emails sent from domains with consistently low opens and replies are more likely to land in the junk folder. With this in mind, choose an ESP with features like A/B testing, dynamic content personalization, and advanced segmentation that can help you create more engaging emails.
User-friendly design tools: ESPs should offer intuitive design tools to create professional and engaging emails. Effective design can enhance the user experience and positively impact email deliverability. The easier it is for you to design compelling, well-structured emails, the more likely they will avoid the spam folder and reach the inbox.
5. Consider Your IP Reputation
While we’re on the topic of comparing ESPs, make sure you consider how they manage and maintain the reputation of their servers. For example, at MailerLite, we review all accounts before they’re cleared for sending and continuously monitor activity on our servers to ensure that they’re optimized for deliverability. This is partly why we rank first in email deliverability among our competitors. When using an Email Service Provider (ESP) like MailerLite, users use a shared IP or a dedicated IP. The benefit of using a dedicated IP address is that no user activity (besides your own) affects the IP reputation. Dedicated IPs require “warming up,” which involves sending a low volume of emails from your dedicated IP and systematically increasing your email volume over time. The IP reputation will suffer if the sending volume decreases below 50,000 weekly emails. The benefit of shared IP addresses (using default ESP servers) is that the onus isn’t on you to maintain the heavy sending volume required to keep a good reputation. You can send a single email monthly and maintain a good IP reputation.
6. Optimize Your Newsletter Copy
Spam filters don’t have the human ability to analyze email copy in context, so they flag any spam-associated email characteristics.
How to optimize your email copy to avoid spam filters:
Keep it short (mostly). There isn't a perfect newsletter length–and some highly long newsletters have found raging success. That doesn't mean you should stuff emails full of padding—spam filters like engagement. Every paragraph should be as valuable as the last. If the reader has to work hard to get through it, shorten it
Use only a few exclamation points.
Avoid writing text in red.
Make sure you are not writing in all caps
Use spell check to ensure your email is written correctly.
7. Avoid Spam Trigger Words
While there are no magic keywords to improve your email deliverability, you can limit risky words to reduce the chance of emails going to spam.
The main thing you want to avoid when writing emails is sounding:
Desperate
Pushy
Outlandish (too-good-to-be-true)
Desperate Pushy Outlandish
Please click here
Action required 100% free
Don’t miss this!
Act now 0% risk.
This is not spam!
No catch
Win $$ Promise you
No strings are attached
Save big
Please read
You can’t live without a cash bonus
8. Optimize Your Image-To-Text Ratio
When spam filters were first built to detect spam phrases, spammers got around this by creating image-only emails. As a result, if your newsletter template has more images than text, it’s more likely to land straight in the spam folder. Many email clients (for example, Outlook and Gmail) don’t display images by default unless the recipient sets images to display by default or adds the sender to their address book. Spam filters can vary from client to client, but to ensure maximum deliverability, keep your image-to-text ratio around 70-30 in favor of text.
9. Check Your Link Quality
Every domain you link to in an email has a reputation. If you link to a domain with a bad reputation, it will impact your sender’s reputation. This is because the sender’s reputation is primarily determined by domain reputation. So when you link to dubious external sites, your sender reputation is influenced by association.
To protect your link quality:
Link only to legitimate sites with reputable domains
Don’t use link shorteners like bit.ly and TinyURL
Check your affiliate links to ensure that they’re above board
Enable double opt-in on your signup forms—turn bots away at the door by enabling double opt-in on your sign-up forms
List of link quality checkers:
Norton SafeWeb
Google Transparency Report
URLVoid
Linkody
10. Test Your Emails Before Sending
The best way to understand your customer’s email experience is by sending me the same email beforehand. Even if you created your newsletter using a template, sending a test email is always good. Sending myself test emails allows me to review the campaign’s layout and readability. It also lets me see if my campaign lands in the promotions folder or spam. To find out why my email is going to spam instead of inbox, I can use a newsletter checker like Inbox Insights from MailerCheck to find out precisely what is increasing my spam score. Instead of manually checking for hundreds of spam words and other factors, Inbox Insights does the job for me. Inbox insights provide an inside look into my newsletter metrics before I send it. I can tweak precisely what needs to be adjusted rather than overhauling my email marketing campaign.
11. Never Use Purchased Lists!
Purchased lists are like ticking time bombs. Sooner or later, they will destroy your reputation. Filled with non-existing email addresses and spam traps, they quickly inform mailbox providers that you like to break the rules by sending unsolicited emails. Your messages will end up in junk folders. Even worse, you may be marked as a spammer. To send an email using MailerLite, the recipient must be someone specifically asked to receive your emails by opting in or signing up. If you are an online business, it can also be someone who has bought a product or service from you in the past 18 months. That's what we call implied consent–and while implied consent is legal, explicit consent is the best way to avoid spam reports.
12. Let People Unsubscribe
When people unsubscribe from your newsletter, it's always a little disappointing. You must let people unsubscribe by offering a clear link to every newsletter. If you don't, you risk the chance that people will mark your email as spam because they don't see any other way to unsubscribe from your emails. So be a good human and ensure the unsubscribe link is part of your newsletter layout. It'll be worth it. Turn unsubscribes into something positive. Sure, I'll end up with one fewer subscriber on my list, but I can give unsubscribes a positive twist. When I add a survey to my unsubscribe page, I can collect feedback and take notes on why people are no longer interested in my emails. With each unsubscribe, I now at least get the opportunity to improve my email marketing.
13. Put Some Thought Into Your Subject Line
Your email subject line is crucial for your open rate and for reducing spam marks. People can take a quick look at your subject line and decide to mark it as spam, so we advise you to consider it. You can use the tips mentioned earlier (avoid all caps, fishy phrases, and excessive use of exclamation marks) to create a risk-free subject line. If you’re unsure what to include in your subject line, let AI help! MailerLite’s AI subject line generator will provide a list of targeted subject lines in seconds based on your keywords.
14. Clean Your Email List Regularly
The most effective way to optimize your email deliverability is to keep a healthy email list of valid and engaged subscribers.
To maintain a high-quality email list, start using these four strategies:
Send ultra-relevant emails using groups (aka email tagging): By only sending subscribers newsletters they want to read, your overall engagement will increase
Re-engage inactive subscribers with win-back email campaigns: Give your subscribers one last chance to engage with your content. If they’re still uninterested, delete them from your list and make room for more engaged subscribers.
Enable double opt-in on your signup forms: Turn bots away at the door by enabling double opt-in on your sign-up forms.
Regularly clean your email list using a mail tester (we love MailerCheck): This ensures all invalid email addresses, like hard bounces, are filtered out of your list. This is particularly useful for email marketers migrating their address book from another ESP (email service provider) to MailerLite.
A clean list will avoid spam trap hits and reduce the risk of damaging your sender’s reputation.
15. Comply with Anti-spam Laws
The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email. Besides avoiding hefty fines, complying with the regulations in the CAN-SPAM Act can significantly improve your email deliverability.
Some of the main requirements outlined in the CAN-SPAM Act include:
Tell email recipients where you’re located: Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box, or a private mailbox. You can automatically include your company name and address in your email footer in your account settings.
Tell recipients how to opt-out: Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of receiving emails from you in the future. Luckily, MailerLite will remind you if you need to include an unsubscribe link in your newsletter.
Honor opt-out requests promptly: You must honor a recipient’s request within ten business days. Luckily, MailerLite handles this for you by automatically removing subscribers who unsubscribe from your active list. But remember that some subscribers may reply to your newsletter and ask to be removed. You will need to remove these subscribers from your list manually.
16. Work with Email Deliverability Tools
Email deliverability tools offer various features designed to improve your email campaigns' performance and reputation. For example, blocklist monitoring gives you a heads-up if ISPs flag your IP or domain, helping you fix the issue fast and keep your emails flowing. DMARC monitoring tools make sure your emails are legit, cutting down on phishing and spoofing. This cleans up your sender reputation and helps more emails hit the inbox, not the spam folder. There are several email deliverability tools you can use to ensure your emails are hitting the inbox, such as:
MailerCheck
NeverBounce
MailTrap
For help choosing the right email deliverability tool, check out this article comparing the ten best tools for reaching the inbox in 2023.
17. Ask Subscribers to Allowlist You
Allowlisting is when an email recipient adds a sender’s address to a list of approved senders so that emails from that address are never filtered as spam. Instead, when recipients add an email address to their allowlist, they verify that they trust the sender. This instructs the subscriber’s email client to send messages straight to the inbox. When you ask subscribers to whitelist you, send them instructions to make it easy.
Related Reading
• DMARC vs DKIM
• Importance Of DMARC
• What Is a Soft Bounce Email
• Email Deliverability Checklist
• What Affects Email Deliverability
• Why Is Email Deliverability Important
• Email Bounce Rate
• Fix Email Reputation
• Improve Sender Reputation
• Email Hard Bounce
• Email Deliverability Tools
• Email Deliverability Best Practices
• Best Email Domains
Start Buying Domains Now and Setup Your Email Infrastructure Today
Inframail revolutionizes cold email infrastructure with unlimited inboxes at a single flat rate. We provide:
Microsoft-backed deliverability
Dedicated IP addresses
Automated technical setup
It scales its cold email outreach efforts efficiently:
Agencies
Recruiters
SDRs
What are the Benefits of Using Inframail?
The main benefits of using our service:
Automated SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup
Dedicated email servers for each user
16-hour priority support daily
How InfraMail Simplifies Email Infrastructure for Scalable Outreach
Unlike traditional providers that charge per inbox and leave you wrestling with technical configurations, Inframail streamlines the entire process. We handle the complex infrastructure setup while you focus on reaching more prospects.
InfraMail provides a robust email infrastructure without the usual technical headaches and per-inbox costs, whether:
You're an agency looking to scale outreach
A recruiter connecting with candidates
An SDR driving sales
Start buying domains now and set up your email infrastructure today with our email infrastructure tool.
Related Reading
• Email Monitoring Software
• Soft Bounce Reasons
• Check Email Deliverability Score
• Soft Bounce vs Hard Bounce Email
• SalesHandy Alternatives
• GlockApps Alternative
• MailGenius Alternative
• MxToolbox Alternative
• Maildoso Alternatives
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© Inframail LLC. 2023
228 Park Ave S.
PMB 166934
New York, New York 10003-1502
© Inframail LLC. 2023
228 Park Ave S.
PMB 166934
New York, New York 10003-1502
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