As web designers, we often have requests for advice on email marketing and email newsletters. It is important to evaluate which email newsletter service to use, and how to integrate sign up on your website. But, first you will want to ensure your emails (newsletters or otherwise) are actually delivered and not stopped by email spam filters.
I recently checked with Infinity Hosting Solutions (our preferred web hosting provider in Knoxville) as to some of the methods the Infinity spam filter service uses to catch spam and filter it from customers’ mailboxes.
Doing just one “don’t” won’t likely get your email captured, but having a few in your email or newsletter could mean your email will be flagged as spam and will never reach your reader.
6 things you can do to reduce the chance your email will be marked as spam:
- Avoid FREE – The use of the word “free” in certain phrases and particularly when written in ALL CAPS will send up a red flag for email scanners
- Avoid ALL CAPS – Yes, you may need a little word emphasis now and then, but emails with lots of ALL CAPS will be flagged. Plus, it reads like yelling, and no one enjoys getting YELLED AT!!!
- Avoid embedding too many images in your message. Text within an image can’t be “read” by spam filters, so spammers often try to hide their content by using images with words in them vs. actual text. If a good portion of your email is composed of images, it will be another strike against you on the spam-o-meter.
- Don’t get exclamation point happy!!! Yet another trait of spam.
- Avoid…well, let’s just say “pharmaceutical references”.
- Avoid $$. Multiple dollar signs and various money related phrases like “make millions on Twitter” are also flags.
Hope these are of help to you. Happy email marketing!
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