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What Causes Email to Go to Spam?

The spam folder can be your company’s worst enemy. According to Forbes, about 85% of emails end up in spam, as opposed to your audience members’ inboxes. When you take time to craft your messages to serve your customers, how do you make sure you reach them?

If your emails are constantly sent to the dreaded spam folder, it might be:

Your audience | You might feel overwhelmed when your inbox gets crowded. Your customers feel the same way. They might have marked your email as spam to avoid a full inbox, or by accident. And when they mark your content as spam, your mail provider might mark it as spam for other members of your audience.

What you can do: Continue to give your customers your best content and use the other tips below.

Your content | If you use words like “risk-free” or “no cost,” your email is more likely to be marked as spam. Poor punctuation, spelling, grammar, as well as putting words in all caps, can cause trouble too. Spam filters look for this in the subject lines and body of your emails.

What you can do: Proofread your content, make a list of words to avoid, and get creative with your language.

Your mailing list | While your company might want to reach everyone, you only benefit from the right audience. You want to reach those customers who need your product or service.

What you can do: Examine your mailing list and narrow it down to your target audience. Delete any inactive emails.

Your mail service | If you use a third party to send your email newsletters, the “from” field might look like and be marked as spam. When customers don’t see a name they recognize, it’s easy to report the email as spam.

What you can do: Make sure your domain name, business name, or the name of a recognized individual from your business appears in the “from” field.

Email marketing is an essential tool in today’s digital landscape. For your audiences to engage with you, they need to see your email. Seeing it in their inbox means they’re one step closer to opening it.