How to avoid having your newsletter marked as spam
Spam filters first came into effect out of necessity. While
computer based communication had existed for a long time,
in the 1990s it became extremely prevalent for emails to
be met with scores of unsolicited and unwanted email, often
containing viruses, scams, and otherwise harming the users
online experience. The solution was to use basic characteristics
of spam to prevent it entering the email box. Unfortunately,
the spammers got more sophisticated, so now the mail that
gets marked as junk mail is much more likely to be a mixture
of spam and actual email. Because of this, it is important
to know how to avoid getting relegated to the spam filter.
You should also remember that keeping compliant with the
Can-Spam Act is legally mandated, so you should look into
its requirements before you start sending email. Part of
this is that you should never, under any circumstances,
send email to someone that did not sign up for your email
list. Do not buy email lists, do not attempt to gather emails
through tricks, you may break the law, and you won't be
emailing a potential customer. As well, you should mention
on your signup form that recipients should add your email
address to their safe-list, these recipients will therefore
never put your email in the spam folder. In the same vein,
you must have a simple opt out system, which most mailing
list managers will provide due to the Can-Spam Act's requirements.
By allowing customers to opt out, it is less likely your
domain will be recognized as spam.
You should always include a plain text version of your
email, as much spam is HTML formatted and delivered without
a plain text version. Because of this, some email users
only accept plain text email. If your email uses language
similar to spammers, talking about pornography, money making
schemes, etc, you will likely be relegated to the spam folder.
Instead, you should focus on improving the personalization
of your email, making it so the user can spot your emails
even if they do wind up in the spam filter. Don't include
attachments, instead link to files for download. Attachments
are a kiss of death for mass marketing email. Images are
also harmful when used excessively, try to keep images to
a minimum.
Developing a relationship with your customers and never
sending unsolicited mail will generally keep your domain
name clean, but if you are using shared hosting, it is possible
your servers are also being used to deliver spam by someone
else. Because of this, you may need to get a dedicated platform
to send your email, but this is only in extreme cases. If
you find most of your emails are being marked spam, it is
time to consider this option.
In the end, the key to keeping your email out of the spam
folder is to write the best marketing copy you can and not
try to use too many bells and whistles. An email addressed
to the customer that has a plain text and an HTML version
and no attachments is going to be much better received than
one that makes any of the above mistakes! If you notice
constant problems, try to experiment with new ways of writing
your emails to see if you can improve your copy on your
own. If you are worried about your server being associated
with spam, you should definitely consider using an email
relay server.