Cold emailing plays a significant role in the communication of any business, and it is annoying when the emails are sent to spam. It may lead to the loss of golden leads and decrease the level of audience involvement.
To prevent this issue, we have drawn up a list of 9 reasons your emails go to spam. All the pitfalls that may make your messages look like spam will be discussed, including the use of trigger words in your subject line, failure to authenticate your emails, etc. These reasons will be understood and will be used to make sure that your emails land in the inbox of your subscribers and get the attention they need. This blog will become the save-the-day tool to avoid spam filters and make email marketers plans work.
1. The high number of links or attachments
The attachments are one of the more popular causes of emails falling under spam, the number of attachments present will increase the chances of being considered spam. Email attachments refer to files that are accompanied by text. It may be a photo, a document, a recording, and so forth. Email attachments are also typical and may be used in a variety of ways, such as sharing photos, sending invoices, and forwarding the necessary documents. Attachments, though, are known to activate spam filters, and emails are left in spam folders and not in the inbox.
Spam filters are used with the aim of intercepting and blocking emails that have malicious or unwanted content. The contents of these attachments can have malware, viruses, and other malicious software, which can be a security threat to the recipients. Other spam filters are also programmed to block emails that have attachments because they are most prone to having harmful content. In addition, messages with executable code, e.g. .exe, zip files, etc, can also be considered as the spam filters, since such files frequently spread viruses.
Always note that when attaching files, one should be careful and not be labelled as spam. Always make sure that you attach files only to sources that you can trust and never send files that are executable as attachments. You may like to use a cloud-based file sharing service or secure file transfer protocol in case you have to send an executable file. Moreover, you should also add a message of why you have attached it and why you are writing it to a recipient in the email.
2. Unauthenticated sending domain
An unauthenticated domain is a domain or an email address that lacks an appropriate authentication and validation process. In this way, the identity of the sender cannot be verified and the email service provider of the recipient cannot be certain that the email is genuine. Thus, email messages of unauthenticated domains get moved to spam and not the inbox.
Spam filters have various ways to determine and filter unwanted mail and one of the primary spam indicators is an unauthenticated sending domain. Email filters attempt to detect indications that an email is originating from a trusted place, like an authenticated domain. When the emails belong to an unauthenticated domain, then there are high possibilities that these emails will get to spam as they might have malicious content, that is, malware, virus, or phishing.
In order to make sure that your emails are not treated as spam, you should have the correct authentication of your sending domain. It involves sending out a verifiable email address and a confirmable sending domain, i.e. your company website domain.
3. Keywords and phrases
The words and phrases used in an email can either land an email in the inbox of the recipient or in the spam folder. Spam filters apply machine learning to the content of an email and decide whether or not that email is spam. One of the factors that spam filters take into consideration is the use of keywords and phrases that are mostly related to spam.
One should also be careful about what words and phrases they use in writing an email. Other typical spam trigger words and phrases would be earn money fast, once in a lifetime, and earn extra cash. Spammers frequently include such words and phrases in an attempt to lure the recipient to click on a link or open an attachment that might have malware or any other dangerous content.
An effective subject line that is clearly written and accurately captures the content of the email is also as important as avoiding spam trigger words and phrases. Through a misleading or unclear email subject line that the recipients will consider as spam, which might seem like a scam or a phishing message. There is also the need not to use all caps or too much punctuation in the subject line or body of the email. These types of emails can be identified by spam filters as spam as they usually signify that the email is aggressively seeking the attention of the recipient.
4. Bulk Sending
A rather frequent practice in outbound prospecting is Sending Bulk, which may be one of the causes of your emails being sent to spam. Sending many emails within a short period may saturate your subscribers, leading them to start including them as spam. This can, therefore, have a negative impact on the reputation of your sender and reduce your deliverability rates.
As far as emailing your subscribers is concerned, the frequency should be taken into consideration. The reason is that you should reduce the number of emails you send in a week or a month in case you are sending too many. It is also possible to group your subscribers into various categories and mail to different subscribers at varying rates depending on the interests of your subscribers.
The other way of preventing bulk emailing is ensuring that there is an email schedule established. It will assist you in planning and organizing your emails in such a way that you will only write a few emails within a limited time. Make your calendar to accommodate the transactional emails such as events, promotions and holidays. Planning your emails will help you to make sure that you are sending emails at the appropriate time and frequency.
Moreover, you may provide your subscribers with a choice of how the emails can be sent to them at a different time. You can also ensure that you reduce the amount of emails sent to spam by making your subscribers decide the frequency at which you will send the emails to them. You may add an option of frequency preference to your sign-up form or preference center to your emails. You can do it by not sending too many emails to your subscribers by restricting the number of emails you send them and giving them the option to decide on how often they want to receive their emails as well as minimizing the risk of having your email being classified as spam.
5. Lack of personalization
Personalization is one of the principal factors that make your emails reach spam. The email can also be personalized by adding a name, location, or any other details of a recipient to make it more relevant and engaging. Impersonal emails may be generic, which may cause your subscribers to feel that they are being mass-marketed.
One way to ensure this is not to be the case is to ensure that your emails have more relevance to your subscribers through personalization. Emails can be personalized using a subject line or body message, where the name of the recipient can be used, which is likely to enhance their response to emails. When your emails are relevant to your subscribers, then you are likely to receive a response. Also, personalized emails can help you to increase your open rates and decrease the chances of your emails being recognized as spam.
In addition, you can also use segmentation to make your emails even more personal. In segmentation, you are separating your email list according to similar traits e.g. location, preferences, or buying history. It will enable you to email out more personal and targeted emails to each of the segments, which will increase the probability of your emails being relevant to your subscribers.
6. Suspicious or illegitimate-looking sender address
The other factor that makes your email end up in the spam folder is the presence of a suspicious or illegitimate-looking sender address in your email. Your email provider and spam filter give you a sender reputation score that is dependent upon the content of your emails, volume of bounces and spam complaints. This rating would be used to identify the chances of your mail being spam. Low sender reputation can be caused by various reasons, among them being the use of trigger words in emails, the use of purchased or rented email lists, and high volume of spam complaints. All these things can culminate in reduced sender reputation, which may cause your emails to be flagged more frequently as spam.
A good sender reputation is achieved by ensuring that your subscribers are presented with quality and relevant content. The subscribers of your email list must also be clean and have only active and engaged subscribers. Besides, you may adopt email authentication methods, such as DKIM, SPF, and DMARC, to assert who you are and enhance your reputation as a sender and avoid spam sign-ups.
7. Your Emails Contain Too Much Text
Emails containing too much text may also appear like a long sales pitch and they are likely to be classified as spam. This is because spam filters scan emails with too much text, as they are more prone to attempting to sell something or advertise a product or service. This can be prevented by ensuring that the emails are as brief as possible. Keep email messages short by a limit of 250 words in order to read and absorb the messages easily. The text should also be divided into paragraphs and written in headings and bullet points to make it easier to scan. In sending emails, you should make it about what value you are providing to the receiver. Always be sure to just give the recipient the pertinent and useful information and not too much use of marketing lingo or sales jargon.
Also, one should pay attention to the way to end the email and provide a clear call-to-action in the email, so that the recipient knows what to do next. By so doing, the recipient will not feel overwhelmed by the email and most probably do something about it. The tips will ensure that your email is not treated as spam, so that your email does not end up in the junk mail.
8. Flagged domain or IP address
The second reason your emails land in the spam folder is when you have having flagged email address, yet what does a flagged email address entail? Domain reputation is a statistic of the level of trustworthiness that your domain is considered to have by email providers. When your domain reputation is bad, then the email providing person will tend to label your emails as spam and in case your domain reputation is high, you will get good deliverability. The number of emails sent on the domain, the number of complaints raised by the recipient and the number of hard bounces or invalid addresses in the list are some of the factors that influence domain reputation.
It is imperative to find email addresses that are not spam and have only legitimate email addresses listed so as to gain a good reputation for your domain. Also, make note of the performance of your emails and the number of complaints and hard bounces you get. It is able to identify your reputation for the domain.
The reason your emails are going into spam may also be because of a low IP reputation. The IP reputation is a score of how the email providers perceive your IP address to be trustworthy. When your IP address has a low reputation, then the email providers have a high chance of blocking your emails as spam. Some of the factors that influence the IP reputation include the number of emails delivered by the IP address, complaints made by the recipients and hard bounces or invalid addresses that are included in the list.
Have a desirable IP reputation. It has got postmaster tools, which enable you to check the IP reputations on Google and Hotmail. You should ensure that in case you have shared an IP pool, you share it with subscribers whose mailing habits are good so that the mailing of one brand does not influence the other. Moreover, it is also worth tracking the performance of your emails and the number of complaints and hard bounces that you receive. It can provide you with evidence of whether your IP reputation is good or not.
9. Sending from New Domain
When you are sending emails using a new domain with the question Why are my emails going to spam? The reason is that the field is not yet reputable, and email providers cannot be certain that it is a quality source.
To avoid the possibility of having your email classified as spam, you need to observe the best email deliverability practices. This entails such as the inclusion of a double opt-in process, personalizing emails, a good email service provider and the testing of the emails. A good domain reputation should be accumulated as well. This may be through emailing individuals who have subscribed to your list, an email template and an email validation service. By adhering to these tips, you will be able to be sure that your emails will not be considered spam when sent out using a new domain.
Conclusion
It can be annoying when the emails are sent to spam and it is a solvable issue. Numerous reasons can cause the emails to end up in the spam, such as low quality of the email lists, trigger words, and low sender reputation. These are the problems that you should be aware of and handle to enhance your email deliverability. With best practices like delivery of targeted and relevant content, avoiding spam trigger words, and good sending reputation, you will be likely to get your emails in the inbox. In addition to prospecting, it is a good idea to seek LinkedIn emails in case you do not want your sales emails to be in the spam folder.
Mirroring the ever-changing email filters, it is necessary to keep up with the latest accords and suggestions in order to prevent being subjected to spam filters. In the modern world of digital technologies, email is an important communication and marketing tool, which should ensure that it reaches the proper destination. The reasons why your emails may end up in spam can help increase email deliverability and ensure that your email does not end up in spam. Tech Trick Solutions articulates how spam filters may be activated by poor authentication, spammy content and low sender reputation.
Zaneek A. is a tech-savvy content strategist and SaaS marketing writer. With a sharp focus on helping SaaS brands grow smarter, Zaneek shares simple guides, smart tools, and proven tips that help businesses reach the right audience faster. When not writing, he’s testing new digital tools or breaking down marketing trends into bite-sized insights.

