Keeping Out of The Spam Folder

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In a world where we are overwhelmed with information to the point that “information overload” has become a genuine issue, gaining the attention and trust of your audience has never been more important, yet the first step in the process isn’t quite as nuanced as the ability to gain trust.

The first step is to ensure you don’t end up in the spam folders of your customers, which you might not always feel in control over and in reality you are not, but there are ways can mitigate being placed in the spam folder and optimise open rates from your subscriber list.

You probably already know that email marketing is one of the most essential ways to communicate with your customer today, and having an automated email system such that utilises a commercially attractive email address isn’t a “nice to have” anymore… it’s an essential.

Yet, despite your best efforts and no matter how many online courses you take, it can be notoriously difficult to get through to customers using email marketing, as often commercial emails either end up in the spam folder or are simply ignored by would-be readers.

In many ways, it can be likened to the sperm and egg metaphor, where so many others are competing to get the attention of that one prospect you have to swim hard and fast in a cutthroat landscape in order to get the result you desire.

That said, whilst it’s competitive, there are strategies you can utilise to ensure you optimise your chance of mailbox success, many of which are shared at https://www.digitalhitmen.com.au/email-marketing/ which is particularly helpful for those that find it so hard to fathom they would like a helping hand.

The basic point is that with the use of a few simple yet effective strategies you can find ethical ways to reduce the chance that your emails will end up in the spam folder, and optimise your chance of being opened.

If you’re familiar with the world of internet marketing, from a consumer’s perspective then you’ll notice that marketers are resorting to more and more novel tactics in terms of email titles, which whilst effective in the short term, can be avoided by building an association of value and trust.

Indeed, if you really want people to open your emails then you need to create such valuable content that your recipients WANT to open your emails; not out of curiosity because you’ve used a bizarre and intriguing title, but because they associate you and/or your company with such valuable insight that they naturally want to open your emails and put you in their “safe list”.

See, people don’t tend to open your emails based on a fancy title or the fact you have a good rating with email moderators – they care about one thing and one thing only; whether you are able to provide value in the sense of solving a particular problem or challenge they face… meaning, their return on energetic investment of opening your email and reading the contents is, subconsciously, worthwhile to them based on a pattern of experience where each time they open your email they feel positive about investing the time required, as they derive tangible value from the content.

Therefore, in addition to the suggestions listed below, nothing beats the factor of creating value to your customer.

Now, let’s take a look at five ways of keeping your out of the spam folder!

1. Avoid Purchased Lists

Purchase lists, as you might already know, are when people buy a list of target leads for a ludicrously small amount of money that is testament to the low value these lists provide.  For instance, you will often see adverts for these on social media, or perhaps, spammers will email you via your website email – which they get from looking into your domain ownership details.

Essentially, you want to avoid purchase lists at all costs as they will be full of email addresses which either do no exist or they will be sent to people who will immediately unsubscribe; demonstrating to the email provider that you are sending unsolicited emails that will put you on a blacklist.

2. Use A Reliable ESP

Email Service Providers (ESP) tend to use the sender’s IP address to evaluate their reputation in terms of trustworthiness, akin to that of a credit score.

3. Consider Your “From” Field

You need to avoid using email addresses that seem suspicious, for instance noreply@domain.com and opt for more trustworthy email addresses that feature words like contact@ and support@ or even newsletter@ rather than noreply, or much worse would be a combination of random letters and numbers.

The name will asser the fact it’s a trustworthy and legitimate account that is sending the emails.  Yahoo! Mail seem to pay particular attention to who has sent the email, and as many consumers use these addresses, it’s imperative you send your email from an email address that sounds credible rather than suspicious.

4. Stay In Touch!

Of course, you don’t want to bombard people with regular emails, to the point they start unsubscribing, but sending emails every couple of months, for instance, can be just as detrimental as sending daily emails.

The reason behind this is that your subscribers might fail to recognise who you are and therefore delete your message – thus it’s better to maintain a steady flow of regular emails to your subscribers rather than sending out emails that are few and far between.

5.  Don’t Get Blacklisted

On the basis that one in six emails don’t make it past the spam filter it’s imperative you don’t end up on a blacklist.  The way you will find yourself blacklisted is if a high proportion of recipients report our email as spam.  

Therefore, be very positive that the people receiving your email ‘want’ to be receiving your communication – as even if people have opted in to your mailing list, the onus is on you to provide relevant content that isn’t tangential to their initial interest.