How To Avoid Spam Folders: 9 Tried and True Tips

The spam folder is every email marketer's worst nightmare. You can spend time planning, writing, and executing an email campaign just for it to land in spam. That is a lot of time, money, and brainpower washed down the drain.

But how do you get your email away from spam folders and straight to the inbox?

In this post, you'll learn my nine (9) proven tips to keep your messages away from spam.

9 Proven Strategies to Keep Your Emails Away from the Spam Folder and in the Inbox

Use these tried and true techniques to improve your emails' chances of landing in subscribers' inboxes and driving desired results.

1. Build Your Own Email List

Building your email list by yourself is not the easiest thing to do. But it’s the most profitable strategy you could leverage. It guarantees the golden rule of “sending emails only to people who opted -in”.

However, some people resort to buying, renting, sharing, or scraping emails for their email marketing.

You shouldn't do that because these blackhat strategies are unethical and can have serious consequences. They can lead to legal action and damage to your reputation. Even worse, they boost your chances of landing straight in the spam folder.

Instead, build an authentic email list of people interested in your business. You want a list of people eager to hear from you. Building your email list from scratch may consume more time, but it’s a more rewarding long-term strategy for your email marketing campaign.

2. Use Double Opt-Ins

Using Double opt-in is crucial to building a healthy, sustainable email list. It's a way of asking subscribers to consent to receive your emails. This way you can verify your subscribers are really into what you’ll be offering via email.

Additionally, when they take an extra step to confirm their subscription, your emails can have a higher chance of landing in the inbox than spam.

3. Clean Your Email List Regularly

Some people value the number of contacts on their email list above the overall quality. You see, people can genuinely sign up to receive your emails just to not want to later on. And that’s okay.

The next step is usually to unsubscribe but many subscribers would rather ignore or mark you as spam. If they unsubscribe voluntarily, it's fine. The problem is always with the people who do not interact with your content or, even worse, mark you as spam.

There are several ways to tackle these. Here are some;

• Segment low-engagement or inactive subscribers and run a re-engagement campaign.
• Remove hard bounces.
• Identify and remove inactive subscribers from your list.
• Turn on double opt-in on your sign-up forms.
• Etc.

A clean email list means a more engaged audience. Which in turn improves inbox delivery and your sending reputation.

4. Keep A Moderate And Consistent Email-Sending Frequency

Send emails consistently but not too much. Sending too many emails too many times can be sensed as spam-like behavior. You have to be moderate in your sending behavior.

Sometimes it may not be the email server bots. Remember it’s a human being receiving your emails. Plus, how easy they can be spoked off if they feel you’re becoming unnecessarily disturbing.

The deal here is to focus on sending relevant marketing emails consistently and at a moderate frequency to avoid being marked as spam.

5. Track Email Metrics

Email metrics give you a glimpse of how your subscribers interact with your emails. Monitoring email metrics helps avoid the spam folder by identifying and addressing issues that affect your sender's reputation.

For a start, here are some email metrics you should look out for.

• Open Rates: High open rates signal to email providers that recipients find your emails valuable. Which in turn reduces the likelihood of your emails being marked as spam.
• Click-Through Rates (CTR): A healthy CTR shows engagement and relevance, which email providers interpret as a positive signal.
• Bounce Rates: Tracking bounces (especially hard bounces) helps you identify invalid email addresses and remove them from your list.
• Spam Complaints: Watching for complaints allows you to remove uninterested subscribers to avoid being marked as spam.
• Unsubscribe Rates: High unsubscribe rates indicate content or frequency issues. So you can adjust to retain engaged subscribers and avoid being flagged.

6. Authenticate Your Email

Authenticating your email legitimizes your ID to the email providers and prevents you from being perceived as spam. It involves setting up security protocols (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) that verify your emails are really from you and not a spammer.

Let me break this down:

• SPF (Sender Policy Framework): SPF verifies that emails sent from your domain come from an authorized server. This checks the IP address of the sender against a list you create to ensure emails are genuinely from your domain.
• DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): DKIM adds a digital signature to your emails, like a fingerprint. This signature proves that the email hasn’t been altered and is indeed from you, this way, helping email providers trust your message.
• DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance): DMARC tells email providers what to do if SPF and DKIM fail (like sending the message to spam). It also provides reports, so you can monitor any issues with your email delivery and stop spammers from impersonating your domain.

These protocols build trust with email services like Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Completing your email authentication helps your messages reach the inbox instead of spam.

7. Avoid Spam Trigger Words

You have to avoid the temptation of using pushy or misleading words in your emails. Sounding 'too good to be true' can flag your content and ruin your campaign efforts.

Trust me, I do not know any magic keyword that’s proven to enhance deliverability. But I know some phrases that could increase your risk of going straight to spam.

For instance, using phrases like:

• "100% guaranteed"
• "Risk-free"
• "Act now"
• "Free"
• “Hurry up”
• “Credit card required”
• “This is not spam”

Worse, is combining them with deceptive tactics such as using “ALL CAPS” and excessive use of exclamations or symbols.

My solution to this challenge is to focus on using clear, honest, and relevant language in your email and avoid making unrealistic promises.

8. Follow Anti-Spam Laws

However, compliance with internet laws does not directly affect deliverability. But sticking to the rules can help you overcome some internet service provider (ISP) hurdles that can land you in spam.

Anti-spam laws generally protect consumers from unsolicited marketing emails and encourage responsible email practices.

For instance, the CAN-SPAM Act in the US requires businesses to provide accurate sender information (including a physical address) and offer a clear opt-out method. Canada has CASL, and in Europe, GDPR.

Complying with these rules keeps businesses legally compliant. And also plays an important supportive role in building trust both with your audience and ISPs.

9. Test Your Emails Before Sending

With the level of security measures to protect consumers, spam filtering systems are getting better by the day. Thus, you shouldn’t assume your emails are clean and clear of spam triggers.

You may never know; your email might contain a link, piece of code, image, or even a subject line that triggers spam filters right away.

Testing your emails saves you from wasting your hard work down the drain.

Bonus: Give People An Option To Unsubscribe

Giving an "Unsubscribe Option" can help keep a healthy email list that's free from being flagged. Including an unsubscribe option gives email recipients an easy way to opt-out.

Plus, it shows email providers that you’re following best practices.