How to avoid ending up in spam by doing Email Marketing

As Marketing Automation gains popularity among businesses, many companies are using this tool to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their email campaigns.

While we don't intend to spam you (and we obviously do), many messages we send may be blocked before they reach the recipient's inbox, preventing them from even seeing them.
It's clear, at this point, that anyone choosing a Marketing Automation software tool to manage email campaigns and track their response must identify the weaknesses that risk preventing the delivery of well-intentioned emails.

How is this possible?

There are two main entities responsible for identifying spam.
The first is the email service provider (ISP) that hosts the recipient's mailbox. Google, Yahoo, and all other common providers have filters that can label an email as spam if the sender's IP address or web domain are deemed untrustworthy, or if the message itself possesses certain characteristics that highly likely identify it as spam.
This type of evaluation takes into account hundreds of different parameters, and just like Google's search algorithm, which highlights results in a specific order, no single factor is sufficient to block an email; however, no one knows the exact "secret formula" of the filtering system.

The second entity is the email client or reader; many of these programs, in fact, often label a message as spam if they determine it's irrelevant, unsolicited, or harassing. The programs that manage our email are bombarded every day with an avalanche of content—much of it completely useless—and are designed to learn to discard what's unnecessary (even if they sometimes make mistakes). For example, if a certain type of message is too frequent, your reader will do its best to avoid bothering you by trashing it before displaying it.
Fortunately, the latest Marketing Automation tools are able to highlight the occurrence of such events, thus allowing you to focus attention on the problem and resolve it.

The most common mistakes in email marketing

To prevent such waste and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of email campaigns, it's important to understand the causes of the problem and identify the reasons that could be blocking marketing messages from being sent by email.
It will therefore be necessary to monitor processes for weaknesses, to identify and correct them before they damage our reputation.
Below are five of the most common mistakes that risk sending our marketing emails to spam.

1. Inadequate authorizations

To send emails, you need the recipient's permission, which must have expressed their willingness to receive periodic marketing communications. Without this permission, we're essentially sending unsolicited messages, which greatly increases the likelihood of them being caught by a spam filter.

Email service providers (including those used by marketing automation tools) have recently improved their ability to detect permissions; for example, if you send a mass email to a contact list purchased from a third party, any ISP would become suspicious.
Using this type of list is therefore often the best way to be identified as spammers.

Another case of insufficient permission occurs when we send a message to someone who has provided us with their email address but hasn't explicitly specified (opted in) that they wish to receive promotions or newsletters; this often happens with customers, who are only permitted to receive communications about purchased products or similar goods.

Many email marketing services today require a "double opt-in" process, meaning that a user who has signed up to receive emails receives an initial confirmation message in which they must click a special link; if they don't do this, they won't receive any further communications.

2. Sending emails with content at risk

The entire content of our emails, including the message body, links, images, and headers, can contain elements that—if we're not careful—risk being labeled as spam. Here are some mistakes to avoid:

• frequent special characters used by spammers to “mask” text (for example: vendit@ pr0m0zi0n@le)
• links to suspicious Internet addresses
• misleading message subject, for example containing “Re” (reply) or “Fwd” (forward) when it is the first email sent
• messy HTML code or code with unnecessarily complex formatting
• too many images in relation to the text or no text
• too many capital letters – makes the message seem overly “exhortative” and therefore suspicious

3. Violations and inaccuracies

Privacy legislation (especially in Italy) is very restrictive and establishes the rules for the proper sending of commercial emails. ISPs naturally tend to take maximum precautions to avoid potential legal exposure and block the sending of promotional messages that risk violating the law—not to mention the risk (including reputational) for the sending company.
Here are some important points to check:

• Each email must include an "unsubscribe" (opt-out) option to allow the recipient to request and obtain not to receive similar messages in the future.
• The sender is required to promptly comply with any request to be removed from the distribution list (unsubscribe) by the recipient.
• the sender's address must be accurate
• the subject of the message must be relevant and consistent with the content
• It is a good idea to include the sending company's details, including the postal address.

4. Sender not authenticated

This problem can arise if an agency or company sends emails using their own mail server. ISPs typically authenticate the sender's identity to ensure the message comes from a legitimate source; when the message is sent via a service, such as a cloud-based marketing automation tool, the service itself performs the authentication.
Unfortunately, authentication standards, such as DKIM and SPF, are difficult to set up manually, which can block messages from your company server.

It is also important to use sender addresses that appear credible and do not give rise to doubts.

5. Insignificant messages

According to some research, two thirds of marketers do not allow their contacts to choose what type of email they intend to receive and only one third allows their interlocutors to specify how often they want to be contacted.

As already explained, the filters implemented by email service providers aren't the only tools capable of turning our correspondence into spam; the other element that can block incoming mail are the recipients themselves (customers, prospects, leads, and even simple contacts).
To avoid being rejected, marketing messages must prove their relevance and the value they can offer, and make sure that those who receive them understand it. So:

• Do not send promotional offers to anyone we have not contacted for more than eight months (after such a long time we need to check whether there is still interest)
• do not insist on sending communications to anyone who systematically baskets them (i.e. never opens them)
• Avoid sending emails too frequently (three or four times a week) – especially if the opt-in clause indicated “occasional sending”
• use the "subject" field well by using short, clear and incisive texts

There are many reasons why a legitimate, even well-crafted, email can end up in spam; that's why many businesses use marketing automation tools for their email marketing campaigns to analyze messages, verify authorization and authentication, and avoid errors.

The good news is that by sending meaningful and explicitly requested communications, you're very unlikely to be blocked. So, instead of wasting time and energy making sure your email lands safely in your inbox, it's best to focus on crafting quality messages that interest and engage your readers.