Email marketing remains powerful and cost-effective in 2020. Of course, your well-crafted email won’t do your business any good if it never reaches the intended audience. Spam filters have a long and evolving set of reasons for designating a message as spam, but it all comes down to one thing. Reputation, reputation, reputation. To maintain a good reputation with the spam filters, avoid sending content that looks like spam, improve your subscriber engagement, and stay in compliance with anti-spam laws.
Don’t Look Like Spam
As spam filters learned what unwanted messages tend to look like, certain kinds of content were aggressively filtered out. Putting the word “FREE” in your subject line is an example of the type of recognizably spammy tactic that filters are designed to detain. A high ratio of image-to-text is also questionable because spammers use this tactic to get around filters reading their text. Emails that are not optimized for mobile devices will also go straight to the spam filter.
Send Quality Content That Engages Subscribers
Spam filters are paying attention to how often people open your emails. Having very low engagement makes it very likely you will be aggressively filtered out. That’s why buying an email list is so counterproductive. You should build your list from organic interest, like website sign-up pages. Improve engagement by sending e-mails that are relevant and valuable, such as information or discounts. Segment your lists to further ensure you’re targeting the right audience with each message.
Follow All Spam Regulations
The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 was passed to protect consumers from potentially harmful unsolicited messages. Spam filters are extremely serious about enforcing these rules, as they should be. To stay in compliance, don’t hide or misrepresent your originating domain name, identity, or email address. Include an explicit link to opting out of future messages, and make sure you honor those requests. The law also requires your email to add a physical mailing address.
Maintaining a good reputation with ISP providers and spam filters will ensure you can continue to get the most out of your email campaigns. Contact us to learn much more about email marketing.