What Are Spam Filters & How to Avoid Them (Technical)
Spam filters are filters designed to sort emails according to certain criteria.
When you send an email, a spam filter decides where to place it— whether it be the inbox, promotions folder, or spam box.
Email Service Providers (ESP) are cracking down harder then ever now in 2021. The amount of marketing and sales emails being sent on the web are through the roof!
This is why it’s important to understand what spam filters are and the best practices to get around them, so your emails actually get opened and read!
Think of email spam filters as a goalie, and you are trying to get the ball past the goalie and into the goal post.
How you accomplish this requires a lot of preparation, practice, and accuracy.
The goalie (spam filter) will do everything in its power to block your goal aka… filter your email.
How to Avoid Spam Filters Like a Pro
Tip #1: Check Your Settings
Ensure that your DKIM, SPF & DMARC records and settings are set properly. These are key to building your reputation and sender score with you email service provider. Check our future guide on these technicals coming soon!
Tip #2: Warm-Up Your IP
You need to warm up your IP. This consists of slowly increasing your sending limit daily. Typically you want to increase your sending limit over a week span or two.
Tip #3: Consistency Is Key!
You want to throttle your sending. Email servers track the rate of your email sending. You want to ensure that you send emails in a consistent frequency rather than blasting full send limits daily.
Tip #4: Avoid Promotions & Sales
Avoid sending emails with large HTML content and links. This can cause your emails to get filtered into promotional or even spam. Think about the emails that land in your spam and promotional box… They are littered with flashy pictures, headlines, and coupons. You don’t want to end up with these emails.
Email spam filters want to make sure that you are reputable; so examine and verify that your technical settings are properly configured and once this is taken care of, be consistent in your sending so you you want to be as human-like as possible, which means consistency in your sending.
Take a peek inside your spam and promotional box and try to avoid sending emails that look like those!
By keeping these tips in mind, you increase your chances of avoiding spam filters and getting higher open and reply rates!