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Why Do Emails Go To Spam Folder?

By Online President
Digital Entrepreneurship Why Do Emails Go To Spam Folder?
AUG 11, 2020 LISTEN

Why do emails go to Spam folder?

This is a question I addressed in my new book titled: "Digital First: The step by step employment guide for Digital Citizens."

Below are some of the reasons I talked about in the book.

1: Your email does not have a Physical Address or a P.O.BOX in it.

This might sound shocking but believe your Online President; I mean it.

Email filters are able to scan for Physical address or a post office box in your email content. It's easy for them. If it’s just one or two emails you sending, then it’s not a big deal. But if you do Email marketing then make sure your email content has a physical address. You can add it to your Email signature so you don't have to write it always.

2) People receiving your emails are marking it as Spam.

This is something I will call "Crow Verification". When I send email to Miss X and she marks it as Spam. The email filters take note of that. That is Note 1. When another person marks my email as Spam that is Note 2. When this increases to some level, any subsequent emails going out will land in spam folders of the recipients. It doesn't matter whether that person has marked your email as spam before or not. The email filters take into consideration what others are saying about you.

How do you get around this? Try getting permission before sending emails to the person, or clearly state how you got her email. Also, make sure the content is really relevant to the person. Once the content is tailored to the person's interest, the person will not mark it as spam.

That aside, in US for example, you can get into trouble if you send email without permission. There is an act to that effect. U can read more about it here: https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business.

NOTE that, a lot of the TERMS and CONDITIONS that we skip, actually ask for permission to send us emails. Unfortunately we read them not. We don't have such time. According to one article I read, it could take us 72 days in a year to read all the terms and conditions we come across online. My cabinet schedules will not allow this.

3) Low Engagement.

Email is considered a two way communication. You can't be sending emails to people and no one is replying. That is red flag. This mostly happens in Email marketing where we send bulk emails.

How do you go around this? Find a way to get the recipient to take action (reply). Alternatively, U can create about 50 or 100 emails and add that to your bulk emails. Anytime you send emails out, send some to yourself, and reply yourself. That will create engagement enough to fool the filters (algorithms). This is a dirty trick. I don't recommend it.

4) Your domain is blacklisted.

Business that sends email via [email protected] or [email protected] or anything like that are at the core of this.

Before registering OnlinePresident.org, I used domains such are thedigitalcompanion.com, remote.com.gh, webextremist.com, etc. I've abandoned them all. Only God knows what I did with those domains. Imagine if I used [email protected] to send 1000s of spam emails. Anyone owing that domain now will suffer from my bad behavior. It's like how we’re told "the current generation is suffering from the sins of Adam".

How do you go around this? Try and create an engagement around your email. Email your own self and reply to it, severally. Send emails to your friends and ask (plead) with them to reply. Better still, check the status of your domain (whether blacklisted or not) before buying it. You can check that here: http://www.blacklistalert.org/

5) How old is your email?

This is a personal experience. If you just create email and start sending bulk emails, they will likely land in spam folder. Or you just buy domain name, create corporate email and start sending emails out. They are likely to end up in spam.

6) There is "Source" in your Subject.

The email should have being enough to indicate where the content is coming from, but unfortunately filters expect to see something like "Kaunda from Datatype Technology ........." in the email Subject.

7) In proper fraction.

The ratio of your text to image should be proper. You should not have small text and large image. At most, Image should cover 40% of your email then text 60%.

8) Sending Attachment in bulk email.

We normally do this a lot. We send company profile in our bulk emailing. Sometimes back I used to send proposal that way too. It's a horrible practice. In email marketing, don't add attachment. U can later send the attachment to individuals who show business prospect.

9) Don't use amazing words.

Words like Freeeeee Offer, Absolutely free, Amazing, Rush to register, Apply now, wow, hurry, cancel anytime, etc.

Any word that can make someone rush to take an action is a red flag. So slow down. You can get a long list of words and phrases that raise reg flag from here https://www.automational.com/spam-trigger-words-to-avoid/

10) Misleading Title/Subject.

Email Subject pretending to come from someone else.

For example, if your email subject claims to come "From Online President", it will land in spam. In fact, it might even delete automatically.... The filters will not allow you to pretend to be me.

That is by the way. No filter is built around an Udiot like me. But it’s built around some world personalities and Brands. Don't pretend you are one of them, if you aren't.

11 Don't add to much links in your email. One or two is OK. That is all I can say on this.

12) Glammar, glammar, glammer.

I can't say this laud enough. Make sure your glammar is collect. Wlite collect Engrish. The email firters associate wlong sperring to scammers. So make sure you construct your engrish well. If yours is as hollible as mine, then install Glammarly. It has a chrome extension. The free version is enough to do your job.

13) A lot of inactive emails in your account.

This is similar to one of the points stated above. If there are lots of emails that has sit in your contacts for long, without any communication (activity), it can affect you. How do you go around this? Do check your email contacts and delete those you know for sure, you won't communicate with them again. If your email usage is just personal, not for marketing then this redundant emails won't be a big deal for you.

14) No "Unsubscribe" option in your email.

This is for those who send bulk email. Don't think ur smart, by denying the recipient the option to opt-out. It will go against your future campaign.

Conclusion.

A simple way to make sure your email satisfies all the above conditions is to first send your email to a Mail Tester and check the score.

I did a test email, pretending I'm Donald trump. Below is the analysis.

8112020115231-8cs1vihuup-trump-email

To test your email.

1) Visit https://www.mail-tester.com/

2) You will see a test email.

3) Copy that email and go to your own inbox

4) Send your email content to that test email

5) Come back to the mail tester page and click on "Check your score" button.

I hope it helps. For anything relating to Online Business, let's link up on Facebook. Or you can check me on my new website OnlinePresident.org

Finally, I welcome your views, comments and questions at the comment section.

8112020115232-i4dp276gfa-new-facebook-profile

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