There is a lot of confusion about emails going to spam. As an email provider, we know this first hand. People sending blatant spam complain that it’s our fault. Now these people don’t read my blog, so it will still happen, but for you guys here are some tips for getting to the inbox..
Understand email has changed. All the major providers understand that most emails come from the top 10 providers. They don’t base delivery on the provider. They now base delivery on the individual sender. This is why some emails will go to the inbox and others to spam when the email is sent on the same provider. So the major thing to take back from this is you need to have a good personal reputation. Once you understand that, you’ll see why these tips make a huge difference:
Quit using aster*sks in your emails. Still to this day people are using them thinking they are tricking spam filters. Well guess what, normal people don’t spell fr*e that way, and so spam filters flag your email harshly if there are asterisks within words. It’s worse than saying free.
Don’t send from a yahoo address. Yahoo made a change to their email policies which tells every receiver if Yahoo didn’t send it, mark it as spam. For best results you should use your own email address on your own domain. So far Gmail isn’t bad, but they could make the change too.
Get people to interact with your emails. If users don’t open your emails, email providers know. At a minimum you should be sending emails that actually get opened. Clicking on links is great, and replying to emails is the holy grail. I know blast marketers don’t want to have to respond to emails, but it does some remarkable things for your email delivery.
Use a valid email address. Seems simple, but yet many people still send from fake email addresses like [email protected]. Guess what, when receivers get your email they check if the email address is real before accepting it. Use a fake email and you might not even make it to the spam bin, some just delete it on the spot!
Don’t copy and paste emails. The number of people following some old school ebooks or PLR email series is crazy. The problem is email providers are smart. They know that same copy was used before and wasn’t wanted. So when you send it, they’ll know it wasn’t wanted again.
Quit saying you’re not a spammer. Every spam email I get has an explanation of why it’s not spam. But I’ve seen legit emails with that same description get to my spam box. If you talk like a spammer, you’ll get filtered like a spammer. If you have to convince someone it’s not spam, you’re not sending emails people want.
Those are the major ones. The general concept is.. Be yourself and send things people want. If you’ve been doing it all wrong, make changes. It might take some time but your reputation will improve.
Does it make sense to give the recipient a lesson on how to white list my e-mail?
That works. Another trick is to get them to reply to the email. Many providers add you to their contacts/safe list when you reply ;-)
So. I am really only having one problem with my spam filters Me. GMail does not believe that I would send an email to myself, so my blog notifications go to spam. It’s pretty wierd, but I like to test the delivery and such, so I just work with it. It is much improved, I have complained to Gmail, and I do open the article EVERY time. But still, every now and again, I have to go looking for it….
Great column, Tim. Should help lots of peeps a lot!
Yeah unfortunately many spammers also send the emails to you from you.. So if you’ve reported spam that was sent that way it can confuse the filter when it sees your legit emails from you coming in.
I use gmail and filter my emails into labels. When I set up a filter I always check the box that says “Never sent it to spam” That way it goes to the label I want it to
Very Nice Post Tim, thanks,
My main program uses the tag line “From Small Change to Serious Money.” So in my confirmation email, below the confirmation link, I invite people to reply back and tell me what they consider to be “serious money.” Ask a question and invite a reply — it works.
Awesome Sauce Tim that is great advice you always help people with your blog, It certainly opened my eyes to emails that get marked for spam. Thanks Tim you are the Man.
Tim,
How do mail programs deal with unopened read email?
A large proportion of emails I receive are set to ‘mark as read’ so that they do not show up as ‘new mail’ in my inbox meaning they are ‘read’ but I never read them.
They don’t publish it, but generally speaking the less real opens and real clicks the worse it is. I would assume they would know the filter exists and take into account that. Especially with the type of big data machine learning they do these days.
OK, that does kind of make sense. I get in excess of 100 emails a day in my ‘mass mail’ account from ‘programs’ (TE’s downline builders, etc) about 60% land in my junk folder automatically, and of the 40% that land in my inbox, I probably read maybe 1 every other day, the rest are archived untouched. (yes, for those whose math is a bit rusty I read approximately 1 in every 200 emails sent to that account)
On the other hand, my ‘personal’ email account, only maybe 5% end up in my junk folder, and I read 80% of the ones in my inbox
so it looks like the systems are learning from my reading patterns
Thanks, for the reminders. Pretty basic rules to follow, that are also powerful. :)
Awesome info to have.
As the old saying goes, if it walks like a duck and it sounds like a duck. Deliver value in your emails so that people want to open them. If all you’re doing is pitching the solution of the day, then you are spamming!
I love gmail for making most of this simple and easy to put into practice. And I never have to spend any time on email management other than setting up filters.
Great advice Tim.
Absolutely helpful for me. Great post, Tim.
Great post Tim.Thanks