Why is my email going to the spam folder?

Overview

No one wants their email to hit the spam folder, and while many mechanisms that determine when an email ends up in spam are opaque to marketers, Sendlane is here to help you avoid the spam folder!

Read on to learn about the most common reasons emails end up in spam, how Sendlane protects you, and what you can do to avoid the spam folder.

Don't send to unengaged contacts

Review your segmentation and audience building strategy to ensure you're not sending to unengaged contacts.

Unengaged contacts are the most likely to mark your content as spam because they are no longer interested in it.

Some contacts click spam instead of unsubscribing which is why it is so important to tread carefully when sending to unengaged contacts.

Avoid mixing segments with different engagement levels

Even when using multiple segments in a single campaign, ensure they have consistent engagement criteria. Combining highly engaged segments (like contacts active within 3 months) with less engaged segments (like contacts active within 18 months) creates a broad audience that includes unengaged contacts. Email providers like Gmail filter heavily based on engagement metrics, so mixing engagement levels in one campaign can still result in spam folder placement even with a verified sending domain. Keep your segments focused on similar engagement timeframes for better deliverability.

Double check and test content

Test multiple configurations of your content to isolate potential issues, including text, images, and emojis.

Avoid pre-written templates

When email service providers (ESPs) see many different senders trying to deliver the exact same content, their algorithms detect the copied content and will stop inboxing emails that use it.

Whenever you use pre-existing content, you need to rework it before sending it so that you can be sure it is unique. You can use pre-existing content as a guide, but make the emails your own to help increase your deliverability.

Email "curse words"

In addition to crawling for duplicate content, email providers also have filters on specific words that are frequently seen in spam emails.

For a more detailed (but not exhaustive) list of words you should avoid in your emails, check out the Email Curse Word Database. While you are following this list, remember: your goal is to always stand out!

While it’s true that spam filters look specifically for these words, the chances of your messages being marked as spam will differ based on your own sending reputation.

Imagery, formatting, and special characters

Adding excessive text formatting (like bold, italics, different font sizes or colors) and special characters or punctuation (like !!, $$, ... or ==>) is a huge red flag for spam filters.

Stock images that are available online for anyone to use are another great way to get flagged for duplicate content.

Start off sending simple messages with fewer images and text modifications. And be sure to use original images (like your own logo and product photos) for best results.

Double check and test subject lines

Subject lines can sometimes be more important than the body of your messages.

When you think about grabbing your audience’s attention, you should always go for shorter and more compelling sentences. Be clever and grab attention with just 5 words or so.

Also, it's important to be honest. Your subject line must directly relate to the content that you're sending within the body of your message, and avoid using anything that could potentially be deceptive (especially like "RE:" or referencing order numbers since marketing emails aren't transactional).

Avoiding words in the Email Curse Word Database is important when crafting subject lines as well.

Don't send from unverified sending domains

Email marketers are subject to strict legal guidelines about how, when, and to whom they send email.

As an email marketer, you need to establish where you're sending from.

According to DMARC’s most recent legislation, in order to send marketing emails, you are required to have your own domain-based email address, backed by a corporate website. DMARC is the email validation system that helps prevent email abuse including spam, phishing, fraud and other email-based scams.

If your business domain is brand new, your domain is essentially a blank slate. Similar to how a credit score starts off very low before you've built up credit, you improve your rating by showcasing responsible spending. You also need to build up your domain/sender reputation with responsible  sending!

When your "from" email address is unknown to Gmail and other providers, algorithms set up to detect spam will be monitoring the address, subject line, and content of your emails very closely.

Investigate your sending reputation

Use tools like Google's Postmaster to monitor your sending reputation.

Postmaster only gives you insight to your performance with contacts who use Google email addresses, but Google is the most popular email address provider and generally makes up the majority of most marketers' audiences.

Postmaster provides insights into the following dashboards related to your sending reputation (table source):

Read more about Postmaster and instructions for creating an account in Google's knowledge base: Set up Postmaster Tools.

Test your entire email

Testing is one of the most important parts of the email marketing process. It helps ensure that the messages you send will be delivered to your recipients and that everything looks how you want it to.

If you don’t test, your emails may end up in your contacts' spam folders without you realizing.

How to test emails in Sendlane

1. Use an automation instead of campaigns to avoid cluttering your campaigns page

2. Start by making sure that your “from” email address is not in your address book or allowed/approved list (this will skew your test)

3. Create new "test email" accounts in Gmail and Yahoo (these are widely used services) to send test emails to

4. Build your email (subject line, content, links, etc.)

5. Once your email is ready, click the "..." and then select Send Test to send yourself a copy (see 📄 How to send a test email or SMS message for important details about the limits of test emails)

6. Check to see where your test email lands

   • If you find it in your inbox - great! You can stop testing and send away!

   • If you find it in your spam folder or it never arrives, it's time to revisit the list of Spam factors one-by-one

7. Revisit your content

   • If you started from a template, rework the text so it feels more unique

   • Check to be sure you're not using anything listed in the curse word database

   • Simplify your formatting and remove special characters or images

8. Once you've made changes, repeat Step 4.

If your new version still lands in spam or never arrives, keep testing:

1. Tweak your subject line, then send another test

2. Check your links and send a new test

3. Swap out the email address in your sender profile and send another test