Tips to Keep Your Emails Out of the Spam Folder

An email is still an effective form of communication from brands to consumers. But only if you make it into the inbox. Emails that land directly in spam folders may as well have been sent into a black hole.   

The last thing you want to be perceived as is spam – so make sure to take steps to keep your emails out of the spam folder!  

The Golden Rule: Only send info that your customers want to engage with  

Emails that are opened and clicked on are emails that stay out of spam. So, when an email address consistently sends engaging emails, the address will be seen as a priority by email platforms.   

The most important thing you can do is not overload your contacts with pointless emails. Always make sure to ask:  

“Do my readers really want to see this?”  

If the answer is yes, then hit send! If your content isn’t worth its own email, hold off and include it in a future one. When people trust that opening your emails is worth their time, your emails are seen as valuable by inboxes as well.  

Set up an email under a domain name  

Nobody will trust an email like “business@aol.com.”   

This is an easy win for those who haven’t already taken this step! You can create a public email address under your domain name to establish to people (and inboxes) that content is coming from a legitimate business. Even from a purely aesthetic standpoint, an email created using the website domain looks cleaner and more professional.  

So creating an email like “hello@business.com” will strengthen trust among those who receive your emails.   

Creating an email from a secured domain is also a very important aspect of this process.   

Verify the email on the email platform you’re using  

Many email send platforms recently started asking to verify email addresses via their website. Taking the steps to help your email creation and scheduling platform establish your email address as trustworthy will keep your email from getting dinged or marked as suspicious later on.  

For Mailchimp, this email domain verification process is only available for domain-based emails – another reason to use a domain-based email! This process is incredibly quick but very helpful in reaching the right inbox.  

Make sure your email address is established  

Did you know that many spam filters block email from new email addresses? Emails younger than 14 days are deemed “suspicious.” Many email platforms even suggest waiting 3-4 months to use a new email address for mass sends.  

It may seem counterintuitive to not use your address right off the bat. But taking this step will seriously minimize the chances of your address being marked as suspicious. The fewer times your email is dinged, the more faces your emails reach!  

Now that you have a beautiful, verified email, make sure it has a couple of laps around the track before it enters the race!  

During this development phase, the best way to break in your new email address and establish it as trustworthy is to send emails to a very select group of contacts. For the first few weeks after creation, send emails from this address to coworkers, friends, and close supporters that are sure to open, click on, and reply to your content.   

Try testing your email  

Have a sneaky feeling that your email is being dinged as suspicious? You can test it out using an online email testing tool. Pictured above is a great option – Email Tester.    

These tools will take into account domain/email address age, reputation, content linked in the copy, and any hidden HTML. Websites like email tester will allow you to send an email to an auto-generated address that will find and report any red flags in your strategy.   

Make sure your email marketing strategy isn’t DOA. Once you reach the right inbox, the real fun begins! If you need more help answering your most difficult marketing questions, reach out to our team!