Why Emails Get Spammed and What to Do About It: Detailed Guide on How to Write Effective Emails

One of the worst nightmares in email marketing is if your emails keep getting spammed. What’s the point in investing all that effort if the emails can’t get past the spam filters? Luckily, there are ways that you can avoid this inconvenience.

Mostly, the problem is that businesses don’t give it much thought. They don’t think about whether the reason why somebody didn’t respond is that they never got the email. Don’t make the same mistake and eliminate any chance of getting your emails spammed. This detailed guide will give you all the info that you need about how to write an effective email that will pass any test.

Why emails get spammed?

In order to avoid spam filters, you need to understand how the system works. There are certain regulations that form spam filters and turn them into this selecting tool.

Let’s start with the very basic. CAN-SPAM act clearly states that you mustn’t buy lists with email addresses. First, you need to get permission.

To attain permission by having an opt-in form on your website that shows that you got the emails from your subscribers.

Some other reasons why emails get spammed are:

• If you have a low read rate and/or low open rate (in 2018, the average read rate across all industries was 24.8%)
• You have misleading subject lines
• If your subscribers often report your emails as spam
• Your email list is full of inactive email accounts
• If you don’t have an unsubscribe link
• Your IP address was once used for spam
• If you don’t have a physical address (it’s your legal obligation to include a valid address)

Now that we have covered what can make your emails spam-worthy, let’s turn to different ways that will help you to create effective and approved emails.

Ask subscribers to whitelist you

Your regular welcome email should have a small addition – ask your subscribers to whitelist you.

Being whitelisted means that the recipients agree to receive emails from you. When you whitelist someone, you want their emails to end up in your inbox every time.

It will improve your sender reputation and help you to pass the spam filters.

If you want to get detailed whitelisting instructions, you can check them out for free at the Institute for Social Internet Public Policy website.

Write a clear and relevant subject line

A survey by Litmus and Fluent proved that over 50% of recipients claim that they have felt cheated, tricked or deceived into opening a promotional email by that email’s subject line.

This proves how important the subject line is. You may think that writing an attractive subject line will improve your open rate. But, if it has nothing to do with email’s content, the email can easily get marked as spam.

The crucial thing is to stay far away from deceptive subject lines.

Write subject lines that clearly indicate what the recipient can expect from the body of an email.

In case you are having trouble with writing effective yet relevant subject lines, you can always turn to writing services such as Trust My Paper or Best Essay Education. They can help you reflect the email’s content.

Besides that, make sure that your subject lines are always proofread. You can use editing tools like Grammarly or Hemingway Editor for that purpose.

Avoid spam trigger words

Certain words signal spam filter that the email is a commercial promotion and isn’t relevant enough to end up in the recipient’s inbox.

Even though there isn’t a list with every single spam trigger word, here are some of the most common ones:

• $$$
• click here
• congratulations
• free
• great offer
• order now
• risk-free
• special promotion
• winner
• this is not spam

These words should be avoided in subject line especially, but try not to use them in the body as well.

Experts like Gregory Davis, stress how important it is to pay attention to these words. “Trigger words have immense power. You can do everything right but if you use some of these words in a wrong contest, everything will fall through,” shares Gregory, a digital marketer at Grab My Essay writing service.

Brand your emails

Make your emails easily connectable with your brand. Meaning that they should be recognizable to your usual presentation and matching to your website

Use a similar tone, style, colours, design, visuals, etc.

Don’t forget that the “From” line includes a sender whose name they will recognize. Let’s say that your companies name is “Lucky.” If your email address is “john.fanofgot@email.com” it won’t ring any bell.

The important thing is that you keep your emails consistent and relatable to your brand. For example, if your customers are used to seeing emojis on your website, feel free to include them in your writing communication.

Limit your emails

Recipients report that getting emails too often is the most annoying tactic by a marketer.

Don’t overcrowd subscribers’ inbox by sending them emails too often. They won’t hesitate to mark you as spam in order to keep you away.

Send your emails sparingly. The key is to find balance. Send them often enough so that they remember you, but not too often so they mark you as spam. One email per week (at most) is the frequency you should aim for.

Use spam checkers

Everything is so much easier with the help of technology. It comes as no surprises that some clever minds have come up with spam checkers.

Spam checkers test your emails and let you know if there are any issues that could get your emails into trouble.

Jessica Kowalski, a marketer at Studicus that specialized in email marketing says, “Spam checkers make our job so much easier. Instead of wrapping my head around whether I overlooked something, spam filter testing does it all for me.”

Take a look at the following examples of spam checkers that can help you out:

• Mail-Tester
• Litmus
• IsNotSpam

Write relevant emails

Your email’s content needs to be valuable and relevant to the recipient if you want them to appreciate your email campaign.

Nothing will help you out if the recipient realizes that there is no use of the emails. The quickest getaway is to mark you as spam and get it over it.

Before you send any email always ask yourself: Am I providing value to the subscribers with this email?

Only send meaningful emails that are related to your business. Your subscribers gave you their email addresses because they have certain expectations and you need to deliver.

Some final thoughts

Writing emails that will be marked as spammed is a huge waste of time. If you are ready to master your email marketing strategy, ensuring the credibility of your emails should be the first thing on your list. This simple guide gives you clear pointers on what you should and shouldn’t do when it comes to writing emails. Keep these tips in mind and get to improving your email tactic.