You have meticulously crafted an email for your target audience for gaining high CTR (Click-through-rate), but what happens when your audience does not read the same?
Worse Part – What happens if your email is marked as Spam mail and reaches the Spam folder rather than the inbox?
In email marketing, the biggest challenge is to pass through these spam filters, spam blocks, and spam trigger words and traps.
These email spam filters are culprits for blocking your email marketing campaigns, and hence, it’s pivotal to craft an email in such a manner that it does not land in the spam folder.
What are Email Spam Filters & How do they Work?
Since the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are at war with spammers and are working hard to minimize spam entries in the inbox, it is essential to know what spam filters are and how they function.
Spam filters distinguish unwanted, suspicious, and malicious emails and prevent them from entering your email inboxes.
Spam filters use analytical methods, wherein an email is passed through multiple algorithms. These predefined algorithms (rules) assign a numerical outcome that indicates the email’s prospect being termed as spam. If the number score crosses a specific threshold limit, the email is tapered off as a spam email and is blocked.
Filters are put on the content of the email, headers, blacklisted IP addresses, blocked words or specific senders, etc. These spam filters act as a barrier to prevent compromised content and malicious links from entering the network.
But lately, it has been noticed that some good email dispensers are also dragged into the picture due to lack of luck, experience, and non-compliance with governmental laws. Expelling nasty stuff is easy, but ensuring that the good stuff is not diverted is tough.
This article will discuss some leading email deliverability practices that will help in skipping the spam filter.
Best Email Deliverability Practices to Avoid the Spam Filter:
1. Use SSL Certificates:
The use of SSL certificates for secure communication is not a secret anymore. SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates use encryption security to safeguard browser-server communication, and they help improve email reliability when installed on the email server. They provide end-to-end encryption security and hence secure the entire process.
SMIME certificates (email certificates) are used to encrypt email messages. So, when an email is encrypted using an SMIME certificate, it can be decrypted by the intended recipient only.
Buying an Wildcard SSL certificate from a reliable SSL service provider like GlobalSign, DigiCert helps increase email credibility. Such providers keep various SSL certificates (standard SSL certificate, multi-domain, wildcard SSL certificate, code signing certificate) for catering to multiple purposes.
One more positive of the SMIME certificate is that it ensures that users securely log in to their emails.
2. Use a Familiar Name:
The “From” name is pivotal in your email campaigns. A majority of the subscribers open the mail depending on the “From” name.
The key to the issue is selecting a “From” name that connects with the subscribers and is recognizable.
Example: You have subscribed to “News laundry,” and you expect monthly emails for the same. Even if the sender is a Mr. Dominick who is sending emails and campaigning for the same, the name “From News laundry” will appeal better, rather than the sender’s name.
3. Create your Email List:
Data privacy is essential, and with the ever-changing ISP algorithms, I would suggest you invest in creating your email list rather than buying the same.
Lists that are built by collecting email ids in a legit way are bound to reduce spam complaints.
This gives a better chance of reachability to the subscriber audience through their inboxes.
Good incentives and attractive offers help create a strong email list that encourages subscribers to subscribe to your list.
4. Segment the Email List:
The secret to better email deliverability is to segment the email list into groups based on interests and characteristics.
When emails are forwarded to an interested audience, it makes a relevant connection with the subscribers, engaging them and positively affecting your email campaigning. This move will increase recipients’ count of opening your email and reduce the count of persons deleting the same.
This, in turn, will show a good deliverability count to the senders and help in creating a positive image about the validity of their emails.
5. Eliminate the Road Blocks:
It’s challenging to pass through the spam filters, phishing phrases, and ISP algorithms. They are gatekeepers who block spammy content reaching our inboxes and guide them directly to the Spam folder.
Gatekeeping of spammy content is an automatic process, and if you can identify the roadblocks, you can quickly eliminate them.
Few Tips:
- Checkout for the algorithm rules and their functioning to detect the abnormalities and design the content to pass the ISP algorithm.
- Install SMIME certificate to secure and encrypt your email content.
- Try to avoid spammy words like sale, free, discount, sex, etc.
- Avoid misleading and illusionary subject lines
- Balance your email content and images
6. Update your Email Lists:
It’s essential to update your email lists regularly to remove the uninterested subscribers and add the interested ones. Remove the subscribers who have unsubscribed your email or marked you as spam.
This will help reduce the bounce back ratio because a high bounce back ratio may cause suspicion to the ISP, who may mark you as a spammer.
7. Always include Unsubscribe Link:
Rather than focusing on the number of emails sent, it is better to focus on the subscribers interested in your products. Some are uninterested and hence ensure that they can safely opt-out by clicking the unsubscribe link.
8. Select a Reliable ESP (Email Service Provider):
In email marketing, it is essential to have a clear vision of your requirements. They include:
- Budget
- Sending volume
- Nature of Content
Choose your good email service provider depending on your needs and ensure that they comply with email practices.
Since the ESP’s are the ones that issue a shared IP address, it is essential that they cater to your needs and are not blacklisted by IPs so that they don’t directly enter the Spam folder.
9. Choose the Email Content Wisely:
The message content will decide whether the email will enter the inbox or the spam folder. Apart from restricting keywords (drugs, discounts, etc.), spam filters also grab rich media content. Avoid putting messy videos, which will lead your email directly to the spam filter.
Important videos should be put on the website, and their link should be attached to the email.
Avoid numerous external links and spelling and grammatical errors to prevent your email from getting spammed.
10. Maintain Email Frequency:
Fewer emails are forgotten, and numerous emails are irritating. Maintain the right frequency of sending emails, which helps you to identify inactive email recipients. Inactive contacts can affect the CTR rate. They should be deleted from the mailing list before they turn into spam traps.
11. Be Updated with Spam Filter Technology & Anti-Spam Laws and Regulations:
It’s sensible to stay updated with the latest spam filter technologies and ISP rules and regulations to enhance email deliverability and avoid spam filters.
Wrapping Up:
The double opt-in process and a strong focus on spam filters will benefit your email marketing campaigns and your business’s growth. The only hitch in email marketing is a spam filter, which is loved by subscribers but hated by senders.
Ensure to follow these tips to improve your click-through-rates, and blossom your business.
