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You are not a spammer.
You value customer relationships and work hard to build trust with your customer base. You know that spam-free email marketing is possible, and you're careful not to spam your subscribers.
But despite all the work you do, you still see a handful of spam complaints when sending out your email marketing campaigns and may be wondering how to prevent your email from being marked as spam.
Don't worry – in this article I'll explain why your emails might end up in spam and give my best advice on how to prevent emails from ending up in spam.
Why are my emails ending up in spam?
In 2023, 45.6 percent of emails were identified as spam. You don’t want your marketing emails to suffer the same fate. Therefore, it is important to use a trustworthy email provider that improves the deliverability of your emails.
Email deliverability is the percentage of emails you send that are successfully delivered to your subscribers' inboxes. You should use an email marketing platform like Constant Contact that works with internet service providers and monitors various email clients to ensure the best possible deliverability of your emails.
Aside from email deliverability, there are some simple things you can do to prevent your emails from ending up in spam. Let’s take a look at my top 6 recommendations below.
6 tips on how to prevent emails from ending up in spam
Because email spam reports are often a matter of perspective—someone receives your email, decides it's unwanted, and clicks “Report as Spam”—it can be difficult to figure out what you're doing wrong.
While there's no foolproof system to prevent emails from ending up in spam entirely, there are certain warning signs you can look out for as you prepare to send out your next email campaign.
Let's take a look at 6 common do's and don'ts to prevent emails from ending up in spam.
1. DO: Always ask permission
People open emails from people they know and delete or mark as spam emails from people they don't know. It is really that easy.
Permission-based email marketing is the best way to build long-term email marketing relationships. Asking for permission can help you create a list of people who are interested in your business and excited to hear from you. They are more likely to open your email, less likely to mark it as spam, and stay with you longer than contacts added without consent.
In addition, when you ask for permission, you are complying with laws such as the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-Spam), the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) and the GDPR.
2. DON’T: Hide your identity
Even if you ask for permission, if other people don't recognize that your emails come from you, they might still mark your emails as spam.
A simple solution to this problem is to use a known sender name and email address. If you have an email address that includes your company's website, choose that address instead of an address from a personal account.
Another easy solution is to add your branding to the emails you send. Place your logo prominently at the top of your email and choose colors that represent your company.
3. DON’T: Send irrelevant content
Your email content doesn't have to be bad or offensive to be marked as spam. Often the worst offense you can commit is including content that simply isn't interesting or relevant to the people you're trying to reach.
Even if people don't mark your emails as spam, if they're not interested in what you're sending, it's likely that they'll trash your emails without thinking about it.
Pay attention to what resonates with your audience. Look at your email reports to see what content is getting the most clicks. If you're still not sure what people are interested in, ask them! You can use an online survey to collect feedback from your audience or update your signup form to add options for people to choose when signing up.
And you'll probably find that not all of your subscribers are interested in the same content. In this case, you'll learn how to segment an email list into multiple groups so that you can send each group the content that is most relevant to them. Do not worry! Segmenting a list is easy when you use a marketing platform like Constant Contact.
4. DO: Keep your promises
When someone signs up to receive your email communications, they do so with the expectation of receiving something valuable. If you don't clearly communicate what that value is – or if they sign up for one thing and get something else – you could be putting yourself at risk.
Give subscribers clear expectations before they reveal their email address. Let them know how often they hear from you, what type of information they get, and why it's a good idea to sign up.
Then set up a welcome email series to reaffirm their decision and remind them of what they're about to receive.
5. DON’T: Overwhelm your audience
Selling your products or services is an important part of email marketing, but if you send out too much promotional material, you could turn some people off.
This is why it's so important to find a balance in the type of content you send. As a standard, we recommend 80 percent helpful/informative content and 20 percent advertising.
If you include promotional content, make sure it is current and relevant to the person you are trying to reach. People are much more receptive to promotions if they help them solve a problem they are currently facing.
Finally, keep an eye on overall sending frequency. Even emails that are packed with helpful content can be viewed as spam if you send them too frequently.
6. DO: Make it easy to unsubscribe or unsubscribe
That’s right – you want to make it easy for subscribers to unsubscribe from your emails. Of course, you'd prefer if they didn't unsubscribe, but at the end of the day, unsubscribing is much better than having someone mark your email as spam.
And often people mark emails as spam because they simply want to unsubscribe from a list.
While it can be difficult to let go, if you have people who aren't interested in receiving your emails, it's better to give them the option to unsubscribe than to try to keep them on your email -List to keep.
If you are a Constant Contact customer, you will find an unsubscribe link in every email you send. Also, be sure to monitor the inbox of the address you use to send your email campaigns, as many people will respond to your email asking to be removed from your list.
If you focus on providing value to your email audience and take the right steps to get permission, you're already on the right track to avoiding spam complaints.
Hopefully these tips will help you avoid emails ending up in spam
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Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
