How to avoid ending up in spam by doing Email Marketing

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

Although it is not our intention to send spam (as is obvious); several messages we send may be blocked before they reach the recipient's inbox, preventing them from even seeing them.
It is clear, at this point, that those who choose a Marketing Automation software tool to manage email campaigns and keep track of the feedback obtained, must identify the weak points that risk preventing the delivery of e-mail sent with the best intentions.

How is this possible?

There are two main entities that are responsible for identifying spam.
The first is the mail service provider (ISP) that hosts the recipient's mailbox. Google, Yahoo and all the other more common providers, have filters that can label an email as unwanted if the sender's IP address or its web domain is deemed unreliable, or if the message itself has certain characteristics that identify it in highly likely as spam.
This type of evaluation takes into account hundreds of different parameters and, as happens with Google's search algorithm which highlights the results in a precise order, no factor in itself is such as to block an email; however nobody knows exactly the "secret formula" of the filtering system.

The second entity is the mail client or reader; in fact, many of these programs often identify a message as spam if they determine that it is irrelevant, unsolicited or harassing. The programs that manage our mail are bombarded every day by an avalanche of content - many of which are absolutely useless - and are designed to learn how to discard what is not needed (although sometimes making mistakes). For example, if a certain type of message is too frequent, your reader will try to do his best to avoid disturbing you by trashing it before showing it to you.
Fortunately, the latest Marketing Automation tools are able to highlight the occurrence of similar events, thus allowing you to pay attention to the problem and solve it.

The most common mistakes in Email Marketing

To prevent such waste and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of email campaigns, it is important to know the causes of the problem and identify the reasons that could block marketing messages sent by email.
It will therefore be necessary to monitor the processes in search of weak points, to identify and correct them before they damage our reputation.
Listed below are five of the most common errors that risk ending our marketing emails in spam.

1. Inadequate authorizations

In order to send emails, you must have the recipient's permission, who must have expressed their willingness to receive periodic marketing communications; without this permission, we are actually sending unsolicited messages, which greatly increases the likelihood that they will be caught by a spam filter.

Mail service providers (including those used by Marketing Automation tools) have recently improved their ability to identify the existence or not of permits; for example, if you are sending massive emails to a list of contacts purchased from third parties, 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 his email address, but has not explicitly specified (opt-in) that he wishes to receive promotions or newsletters; this often happens with customers, who are allowed to send communications only about the products purchased or similar goods.

Many Email Marketing services today require a double opt-in process, which means that a user who has registered to receive emails receives a first confirmation message in which he must click on a special link; this means that if he does not perform this action, he will not receive any further communication.

2. Sending emails with content at risk

The entire content of our emails, including the body of the message, links, images and headers, can contain elements that - if we are not careful - risk putting it in the spam category. Here are some mistakes to avoid:

• frequent special characters used by spammers to "mask" the text (for example: vendit @ pr0m0zi0n @ le)
• links to suspicious Internet addresses
• subject of the misleading message, which contains for example "Re" (reply, reply) or "Fwd" (forward, forwarding) when it is the first email sent
• html code "messed up" or with unnecessarily complex formatting
• too many images in relation to the text or no text
• too many uppercase characters - make the message seem excessively "exhortative" and therefore suspicious

3. Violations and inaccuracies

The Privacy Policy (especially in Italy) is very restrictive and establishes the rules for the correct sending of emails for commercial purposes. ISPs obviously tend to protect themselves as much as possible to avoid possible legal exposures and block the sending of promotional messages that risk violating the law - not to mention the risk (including image) that runs the sending company.
Here are some important points to check:

• in each email there must be an "unsubscribe" option (opt-out) to allow the recipient to ask and obtain not to receive similar messages in the future
• the sender is required to comply promptly with any request for cancellation from the distribution list (unsubscribe) by the recipient
• the sender's address must be precise
• the subject of the message must be relevant and consistent with the content
• it is good to include the data of the sending company, including the ordinary mail address

4. Sender not authenticated

It is a problem that can occur if an agency or a company sends emails using their mail server. ISPs usually authenticate the identity of the sender to ensure that the message is from a legitimate source; when it is sent via a service, for example a Marketing Automation tool used through the Cloud, it is this same service that authenticates.
Unfortunately, authentication standards such as DKIM and SPF are difficult to set manually and this risks blocking messages from the corporate server.

It is also important to use sender addresses that are 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 e-mail service providers are not the only tools capable of transforming our correspondence into spam; the other element that can block incoming mail are the recipients themselves (customers, prospects, leads, 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 those who have not contacted for more than eight months (after a long time we have to check if there is still an 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"
• make good use of the "subject" field by using short, clear and incisive texts

There are many reasons why legitimate and even well-made email may end up in spam; that's why many companies use Marketing Automation tools for their Email Marketing campaigns in order to analyze messages, check authorizations and authentications, and avoid errors.

The good news is that sending significant and explicitly requested communications is very unlikely to be blocked. So instead of wasting time and energy to make sure you land happily in your inbox, you should focus on creating quality messages that interest and involve our readers.