The best way to insult an email marketer is to call their emails spam.
No one wants to be associated with scammers who send hidden malware, demand ransom, or facilitate illegal activities.
But the original definition of spam actually came from the fact that these messages are annoying, repetitive, and unstoppable.
According to Microsoft, the use of the term “spam” to refer to such messages comes from Monty Python’s iconic sketch, which involved a diner and singing Vikings, among other things.
If you’re regularly stuck in spam folders, it might be time to consider that your emails might be spam to your subscribers, even if you’re a legitimate business.
While you can control things like authentication protocols (and we definitely recommend you do!), understanding why spam complaints are increasing is another story entirely.
There are many reasons why an email might end up in spam instead of your inbox.
Next, we’ll discuss some possible reasons why your email marketing campaigns might be spammier than you think, and get some expert advice on what to do next:
What is the definition of spam?
Traditionally, spam refers to emails with malicious intent. This could be a straight-up scam email or a more subtle phishing email.
For example, if you receive an email claiming to be from Paypal or Bank of America and asking for information such as your credit card, Social Security number, or address, the email may not be legitimate. For inbox service providers (ISPs), protecting customers by identifying these malicious emails is an evolving process as these bad actors continue to refine their strategies.
While this traditional definition still holds, today’s spam filters have become so sophisticated that few emails are able to get past ISP defenses.
This means that spam today refers more to emails that your subscribers don’t actually want to receive. As an email marketing guru Chad S. White wrote in his book Email Marketing Rules“Getting permission can only get you so far these days. In the eyes of consumers and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), irrelevant and unwanted email is the new spam.
The technical definition of spam has nothing to do with being annoying, but that doesn’t matter. If your customers think it’s spam, it is spam. “The definition of spam depends on the recipient and the inbox provider,” Litmus said. Jaina Mistry, Director of Brand and Content Marketing. “Marketers no longer have a definition of spam.”
Why your subscribers might mark you as spam
Spam complaints can happen for a variety of reasons, some of which have nothing to do with you. But according to ZeroBounce, most people say they’ll mark an email as spam if it “looks like spam.” Let’s break down what this means for your email marketing campaigns:
1. Bait and Switch Email Marketing
Your subscribers should be actively signed up to receive emails from you.
The quickest way to complain about spam is to send an email to people who don’t actually want to receive your email. This is why buying an email list is a bad idea – it’ll only hurt your deliverability in the long run. But this is also why you should stay away from the following marketing tactics:
- Automatically opt customers in to receive emails during checkout
- Send an email immediately after someone visits your website, even if they haven’t signed up
- Keep sending emails after someone unsubscribes
While these tactics can “hack” you to a bigger list, what you’re really getting is a bunch of people who have no idea who you are, don’t know what you do, and don’t want to do it. When you think about your email list, think quality over quantity. If people trust you, they are more likely to buy from you.
“I think the biggest reason someone marks you as spam is a loss of brand trust,” said Tracie Pang, Email Marketing Manager. “This effectively means the end of your relationship as a brand with your customers. You may eventually be able to win them back, but because you’ve broken that trust, winning them back will be more challenging.
How to do it: Avoid such tactics and set clear expectations upfront about the types of emails you send and when. If your subscribers aren’t sure what communications they’ll receive, you run the risk of being reported as spam, damaging your subscriber reputation and future hopes of landing in the inbox.
“Marketers no longer have a definition of spam.”
– Jaina Mistry, Director of Brand and Content at Litmus
2. Shady subject line strategies
Set clear expectations in your subject line, too. It’s one thing to use a “text-only” style in your email or write in a more casual, friendly tone. But you don’t want it to look like you sent something that wasn’t what you sent.
“Today, it’s less about the specific words you use and more about what the recipient considers spam,” Mistry said. “So if you say ‘FREE’ in all caps a million times, Or if your email content is misleading, it’s “I once received an email with the subject line “FWD: Your flight has been cancelled” and it totally panicked me. This kind of thing is counterproductive.
How to do it: Never annoy your subscribers like this. Best case scenario, you’ll send an apology email and everything will be fine. But once you lose brand trust, it’s difficult (or impossible) to win it back.
3. Hard-to-find unsubscribe link
Email marketers love to panic about unsubscribe metrics, but trust us, getting marked as spam is even worse. Actually, 49% of respondents A survey by ZeroBounce revealed that they mark emails as spam if they can’t find an unsubscribe link. and New deliverability requirements for Gmail and Yahoo This means that if you fail to include a one-click unsubscribe option in your emails, they will automatically go to the spam folder.
“Marketers may explicitly agree to these emails, but users may feel differently,” Mistry said. “You have to give them an option to stop receiving emails. If they don’t remember signing up, or they no longer want to receive these emails, but they don’t necessarily know how to unsubscribe, then you’re going to be marked as spam.
How to do it: You don’t have to overthink it – just add a link in the footer, like in the example above. Every email you send should have an unsubscribe link so the recipient can easily find it.
4. Ignore segmentation and personalization
In addition to spam complaints, if you continue to send emails to people who haven’t used your email in a while (or have), you may end up in a spam folder.
Think of it like a quiet unsubscribe. If they never open your emails or click on any of your links, they may have unsubscribed. But conversely, their lack of engagement affects your ability to deliver.
“If you send emails to your list multiple days in a row, this can lead to spam complaints because they get tired of hearing from you,” Pang said. “You want to use as much current data as possible based on this person’s profile to send them the best email that matches what they want to receive. For example, if they are a customer, you want to send a different email than a lead mail.
How to do it: Develop a segmentation strategy that matches the types of subscribers you have with the types of information they want to receive.
Yes, it’s more work to create multiple emails for the same campaign, but the rewards are worth it. 24% of email marketers we surveyed State of Email Innovation Report Three-quarters of those who said they currently use segmentation believe it has improved their email marketing performance.
In addition to segmenting your work, don’t neglect personalization. 71% of consumers want companies to provide personalized experiences, According to McKinsey. First, make sure it works properly—don’t make it look spammy like seeing the wrong name in the subject line—but also make sure it actually feels personal.
This means it’s not about learning the subscriber’s name, location, or company name, but about customizing emails based on their interests and needs.
“Advances in marketing technology have led to misunderstandings about what personalization really means,” says marketing expert John Bonini. “Personalization involves interests, behaviors, and challenges. While most brands can discuss these characteristics in detail as they relate to their target audience, many don’t tailor their email marketing strategies to deliver the right message to the people who need it most.
Although third-party cookies are going away, you have the opportunity to use zero-party data to build personalized strategies through forms, surveys, interactive content, or preference centers. Whatever data you choose to collect, be sure to use it—the more personalized your emails are, the better the results will be.
5. Weird email formatting or typos
There’s no one way to make an email “look” like spam, but corrupted images, funky formatting, and misspellings will never make you look legitimate.
Some spam filters automatically check for unexpected language, such as misspellings and nonsense words, as well as excessive inline markup tags, characters in the layout, and other markup that clutters the code.
“A poor email testing strategy puts your email program at risk,” says Pang. “Without adequate testing, you risk sending broken emails that lead to a negative experience, damage trust, and ultimately damage your relationship with your subscribers. This is a waste of money and time for everyone.
After analyzing thousands of emails, we found 70% of emails show at least one spam-related issue that could prevent them from reaching your inbox.
How to do it: We’ve all sent out an email with a typo. However, if the email you send is full of errors or difficult to read due to formatting issues, be sure to check the email thoroughly before clicking Send. (If you need a little help, we have a whole library Pre-tested free email marketing templates you can use it.
Make it go into your inbox, not the spam folder
It’s time for marketers to redefine the way they approach spam because their customers and prospects already do.
“Your subscribers don’t think about algorithms, they think about relevance,” Bonini said. “While ISP algorithms and content filtering are key components in ensuring your emails reach the inbox, your sender reputation and subscriber engagement are even more important when optimizing the inbox.”
Adapting to these reasons why emails go to spam instead of your inbox will help you stay out of the spam folder for good – and we can help!
Litmus Spam Test Scans over 20 different spam filters to let you know immediately what the problem is and provide you with the actionable recommendations you need to fix it before you hit send. Learn more about what you can do Future-proof your email Remove from spam folder using Litmus.
Make sure your design is correct
Broken emails can lead to lower conversion rates. Preview your emails on more than 100 email clients, apps, and devices to ensure an on-brand, error-free subscriber experience. every time.
Kayla Voight
Kayla Voigt is a freelance writer
