Avoiding Spam Filters
When crafting an email to your members, there are many things you can do to ensure that the content does not cause the email to get caught by spam filters. Read below for more information on how spam filters work and 9 tips to help you avoid them! The following includes excerpts from a Mailchimp report on spam filters and tips from a Woorank blog.
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How Spam Filters Work:
Spam filters look at a long list of criteria to decide whether your email is junk. They might look for spammy phrases like “CLICK HERE!” or “FREE! BUY NOW!” They’ll assign points every time they see one of those phrases. Certain criteria get more points than others. Here’s a sample of criteria from SpamAssassin:
If your campaign’s total “spam score” exceeds a certain threshold, then your email goes to the junk folder. You’re probably thinking, “What’s the threshold I need to stay under?” Sorry, but the number is different for every server.
As for that list of “spammy” criteria, it’s constantly growing and adapting, because spam filters learn more about junk every time someone clicks the spam button in their email program.
Spam filters even sync up with each other to share what they’ve learned. Although there's no magic formula, we can help you avoid common mistakes that send newsletters to junk folders.
Avoid These Common Mistakes:
These are common mistakes that result in accidental spam filtering:
Follow these best practices:
Spam filters look at a long list of criteria to decide whether your email is junk. They might look for spammy phrases like “CLICK HERE!” or “FREE! BUY NOW!” They’ll assign points every time they see one of those phrases. Certain criteria get more points than others. Here’s a sample of criteria from SpamAssassin:
- Talks about lots of money (.193 points)
- Describes some sort of breakthrough (.232 points)
- Looks like mortgage pitch (.297 points)
- Contains urgent matter (.288 points)
- Money back guarantee (2.051 points)
If your campaign’s total “spam score” exceeds a certain threshold, then your email goes to the junk folder. You’re probably thinking, “What’s the threshold I need to stay under?” Sorry, but the number is different for every server.
As for that list of “spammy” criteria, it’s constantly growing and adapting, because spam filters learn more about junk every time someone clicks the spam button in their email program.
Spam filters even sync up with each other to share what they’ve learned. Although there's no magic formula, we can help you avoid common mistakes that send newsletters to junk folders.
Avoid These Common Mistakes:
These are common mistakes that result in accidental spam filtering:
- Using spammy phrases, like “Click here!” or “Once in a lifetime opportunity!”
- Going crazy with exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- USING ALL CAPS, WHICH IS LIKE SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS VIA EMAIL (especially in the subject line)
- Coloring fonts bright red or green
- Coding sloppy HTML, usually from converting a Microsoft Word file to HTML
- Do not use exclamation signs or other punctuation marks more than once.
- Do not use excessive symbols, use descriptive words instead. When you use dollar signs, make sure you do not overdo it ($$$).
- Do not use overly prominent call-to-action buttons, for example, with loud colors or capitalization. Words such as ‘CLICK HERE’ are spam triggers and capitalizing them makes it worse.
- Do not use bulky attachments in emails. If you attach files in .jpg, .gif, .png and .pdf make sure the email also contains text content. Do not send emails attached with executable file types, such as .exe, .zip, .swf and so on.
Follow these best practices:
- Always include your physical mailing address and a phone number in the emails.
- Keep your email size under 30kb. Avoid unnecessary text and images.