E-mail delivery guide or how not to become a “spammer”

In this article you will find a lot of information on how to make a competent email newsletter. For some, the advice will seem a bit "captain" but let's be frank, few people know how to really work well with mail. Therefore we read and lata spaces.

Sincerely yours, Yambox full-line operator
( Yambox - turn your online store into a computer game)

Marketers spend a lot of time developing email templates and storylines for them, with the hope that their letters will open, read and follow the link.
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But before sending emails, are you sure that your recipients will have the opportunity to read them?

Regardless of how legitimate it is to send emails from you as a marketer, there are many factors that you may not think about, but which may prevent your emails from entering your desired mailbox. With the increasing tightening of the law on personal data, as well as the development of more and more complex spam filters, it is only in your interest to know about all the intricacies that may affect the ability to send and reach it to the addressee.

29 ways to avoid spamming and improving email delivery

What not to do

1) Do not buy email database mailings

Yes, you can, of course, legally rent or buy a database with addresses of people who agreed to the newsletter, but this is a bad idea. Not only is this a dirty marketing tactic that goes against your e-mail provider’s Terms of Service, but among other things, these same people to whose addresses you start sending a newsletter do not know who you are and what you do, and certainly Do not need your letters, which is why you will automatically be taken to the spam folder. And, frankly, high-quality, real and existing email addresses are usually not sold, but kept secret.

2) Do not collect email addresses on different sites

It would seem that the analysis of the maximum number of web sites for the presence of e-mail addresses and their subsequent preservation as recipients may seem like a quick and easy way to create your own database, but in fact your business will not receive any benefit from these manipulations. Well, is it worth mentioning that in many countries it is simply illegal.

3) Do not send emails to contacts from whom emails repeatedly returned.

Return letters are the result of invalid, closed or non-existent email addresses, in which case your letters will never be successfully delivered. The bounce rate is one of the key factors that ISPs use to determine the reputation of the sender, so a too large percentage of return emails can lead to a ban on the delivery of your emails.

4) Do not use Caps Lock in the subject or in the body of the letter

The capital font is usually perceived as increased intonation or cry, so do not shout at people, because this is not very pleasant. Capital letters will definitely attract the attention of the reader, but not in a positive way. This is annoying and may seem spam at first sight.

According to a study conducted by the Radicati Group, more than 85% of respondents prefer to read letters written in non capital letters.

Therefore, instead of using such violent tactics to attract people, try to personalize your letters, make them relevant, but interesting and exciting, using catchy expressions and beautiful phrases.

5) Do not use exclamation marks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What else will help your letters look unprofessional and spam? Of course, exclamation marks, especially if there are a lot of them at once and they go along. And when you realize that 69% of email recipients report an email as spam, based solely on the subject of the letter, in which there are a million exclamation marks, you will understand that you want to keep away from the trigger distribution as far as possible.

6) Do not use Flash or JavaScript in your emails.

By default, most email clients do not have the ability to view multimedia files such as flash or video. Instead, use an image of your video player (with a play button) that takes the user to the website page with the necessary files.

As for JavaScript and other dynamic scripts, even if the spam filter allows you to send them via e-mail, most e-mail clients simply will not allow them to play, so there is a reason to completely abandon them.

7) Do not use forms

Forms are not supported by email clients in email messages due to security threats. Instead, place a call to action button in your letter or a link to the desired page with a form in the body of your email.

8) Do not add attachments to emails

If you want to send the recipients a document in PDF or Word format, we do not recommend attaching it to the letter, otherwise your letter may be blocked by spam filters. Instead, upload the attachment to your website and link to the location of the file using an effective call-to-action button. This minimizes the chance of spam blocking and reduces the download time for your email.

9) Do not use spam triggers

One of the easiest ways to avoid spam filters is to carefully select the words you use in the subject line of your email. The simple rule is this: if the word is sounding as if the seller of a used car said it, wanting to sell it to you, then these are the same spam triggers. For example, such words as “free”, “warranty \ guaranteed,” without obligations “and so on.

Instead of using these triggers, be creative, interesting and informative, but not overloading your reader. Some of the best options are:

• "Hello [name], [question]?"

• “Did you get what you were looking for?”

• "You are not alone"

10) Do not use red font when composing your letters

The same goes for using invisible text, that is, a white font on a white background. These common tricks are used by spammers, so this is an instant red flag for spam filters.

In fact, readers do not like it when marketers use the wrong fonts, font sizes and colors in emails. In the same study, conducted by the Radicati Group, from the top 10 undesirable tendencies in emails, four concern fonts. More than 60% of respondents believe that it is inappropriate to use different font sizes or colors in e-mails. Almost 70% of respondents prefer the font to be the same size everywhere.

11) Do not forget to check letters for spelling errors

According to a study by the Radicati Group, 80% of all respondents believe that spelling and grammatical errors are the most unacceptable errors in emails. But spelling errors are not only not professional, but they are also spam triggers.

12) Do not fill out your emails with keywords

Do not hammer the body of your letter with search keywords. This leads to the fact that Google gives a lower rating to those pages that are clogged with such words. And it does not appeal to the reader, since no one wants to read content optimized for the robot. for web pages that are stuffed with keywords - and this is because it is bad for users. No one wants to read content that is optimized for the robot.

In order to make users more likely to read your letters and not send them to the spam folder, write live letters for people, not for robots. To make your texts more personal, personalized, use colloquial phrases and phrases, slang and even jokes.

13) Do not use a huge number of images or large images

Using one large image instead of text in an e-mail or too many images in general, as a rule, this letter will eventually end up in the spam folder.

It is also necessary to reduce the size of the images so that they become as small as possible by volume, but do not lose their visual integrity, to prevent long loading of your letter.

It is also worth remembering that, for example, Microsoft Outlook does not recognize background images, so if you want to focus on the background, use a color fill.

What to do

14) Keep your mailing lists up to date and “cleaned”

Even if your entire mailing list is fully built on opt-in subscribers, you still run the risk of being a “spammer” if you don’t practice proper email cleaning. Why do you need it? As Internet service providers consider databases with complaints only from active users, and not from everyone.

In addition, expired email addresses can turn into spam traps, which means that even if you legally purchased emails, old and abandoned addresses that have not been used for years may have transformed spam traps. Damage from just one spam trap can cause problems in the delivery of emails.

Also, expired email addresses can turn into unknown users. If you have more than 5% of unknown addresses, Internet service providers will see you for those who do not follow the quality and hygiene of their mailing lists poorly, and as a result, the provider will do everything possible to make your emails reach your recipients as badly as possible, and In general, your reputation as a sender will fall, well, and this fall will lead to even greater problems.

Keeping your current mailing lists clean and up-to-date will reduce the likelihood that readers will send you to spam. You can identify inactive subscribers and email addresses that have expired using metrics such as account opening, clicks, or activity on the site.

15) Reconnect with inactive or low active users.

“Graymail” is a type of letters that the user wants to see once, but after that it leads to getting them less or not getting them at all. Although they are not considered spam, sending graymail is problematic, as it can damage the delivery of your emails altogether. Internet service providers and incoming mail providers can start delivering all email from well-known graymail senders directly to the spam folder.

Keep track of your inactive and low-active subscribers, as well as develop repeated campaigns to interact with contacts who stopped reading your letters earlier. For example, you can set conditions such as tracking the time since the last time they filled out a form, tracking a visit to a website, or clicking on a link from an email, based on past emails.

You can try to send them an exclusive offer or a coupon, so that they again remember your company. Or you can send a short review with what might be of interest to this user, and ask him for feedback on this topic.

16) Use double opt-in

Double opt-in is a way of organizing a subscription / registration, which requires user confirmation to register / receive a newsletter.

Double-click means that after someone subscribes to your email list, you send them a follow-up email with a confirmation link guaranteeing that they really want to receive emails from you.

Those users who confirm that they want to receive messages from your company will really read your letters because they are interested in them. When using Double opt-in, your mailing lists will be much more qualified, and your subscribers will actively participate and read mail from you.

17) Ask your subscribers to add your address to the address book

Spam filters are becoming more aggressive, sometimes certain letters are of value to the user and he is ready to read them even from spam folders. But most spam filters allow you to get into the white list of the sender by adding the necessary email address to the address book. As soon as your subscribers do this, spam filters will no longer affect your emails.

18) Include in your email a link to the unsubscribe

It is very important to give people the opportunity to unsubscribe from your newsletter, as the user should be interested in receiving letters from you, otherwise you will immediately get into spam. Do you know that in most countries the absence of a formal reply is considered illegal?

In your marketing emails, there should always be ways to unsubscribe. How exactly - the choice is yours, for example, you can suggest users to simply send an unsubscription in reply to your letter or follow the link.

The most common place to unsubscribe is at the bottom of your email, so users usually know where to look for such a link:



In addition to the unsubscribe link, you can also add a link to select filters to subscribe only to the topic of interest or the variability of the receipt.

19) Respect users who have unsubscribed from your newsletter.

If the user does unsubscribe from your mailing list, then his address should disappear from your mailing list database. This is the law and it is not even discussed.

And this is the case when software for email marketing is very useful, by which the address of the former recipient will be removed from the database of current mailings automatically. But if you still delete such addresses manually, pay proper attention to this, so as not to be mistaken.

20) Use a name familiar to the sender.

People are so overwhelmed with spam that they do not dare to open e-mail from unknown senders. Make sure that recipients can recognize your brand in the name of the sender.

Better yet, send emails from a real person. Recipients, as a rule, are more inclined to trust a personal sender, a real person with a first name and a surname, rather than a common name.

21) Include the name of your recipient in the To: field

In this way, spam filters will understand exactly what you are doing and will recognize your recipients. In addition, personalizing your emails to your contacts can be important for immersing them in your content.

22) Offer both versions of the letter: HTML and plain text.

A simple text message can be viewed from any device and in any format, while an HTML message allows you to create more beautiful letters with attractive visual components. Offering both plain text and HTML version of the letter, you not only confirm your legitimacy in front of Internet providers, but also make your letters more convenient for readers.

In addition, make sure that the HTML version is correctly encoded: if there are broken tags, then your email service provider and users can mark it as spam.

23) Allow readers to view your emails in a web browser.

Even after you have taken all the steps to correctly display your letters, your email client may still not display your messages well. Include a link to the letter in each message so that the user in any case could see your message, including in a web browser.

24) Include alt text in images of your letter

Many email clients block images by default. This means that when someone opens their email, the images will not load unless they press a special button allowing these downloads. Adding alt - text to images helps recipients understand your message, even if they cannot see all the images.

Efficiency will fall especially if you use pictures - calls to action. Without alt - text, the “turned off” image will look like this:



When you add alt - text to the image, users will understand what to click on to perform the necessary action:

25) Do not write too long letters

Another red flag for spam filters is long messages. People, as a rule, perceive shorter and deep letters much better. Everybody is busy, everyone’s mailboxes are full, so why bother even more?

One of the best ways to write shortly and to the point is to write as if you are communicating with a living specific person, as if you are talking to someone in life.

If you have so much information that you need to convey to the reader, try to divide your letter into an introduction, the main text and the conclusion, dividing these blocks visually, so that the reader is not lost in a solid text, but could structure the information in his head and not get lost with a thought.

26) Test emails before sending

Marketers should take into account the different types of email recipients when creating them. For example, it is necessary to pay due attention to users of mobile devices, because according to statistics, as many as 53% read their email on mobile devices.

It turns out that each of the email applications displays letters in a different way. Checking all the flaws in the letters and the possibility of reading them in all programs will take an enormous amount of time, but in order to save it at least a little, you can orient yourself to 5 basic ones:

1. Apple's email app (28% of users)
2. Gmail (16% of users)
3. Apple's iPad app (11% of users)
4. Post from Google Android (9% of users)
5. Outlook (9% of users)

If your email marketing tool allows, go ahead and see how your message will look in different programs and devices that are more popular with your audience.

Do not forget to send for yourself a trial version of the letter to make sure that the letter looks correct and as intended.

27) Get third party accreditation

Sender accreditation is a process whereby a third party approves the senders and requires them to follow certain rules. But at the same time, you will be listed in this trusted list, so Internet providers will allow you to receive emails from you, and you will not be taken to the spam folder.

28) Track your sender reputation

In many ways, the delivery of your letters depends on the reputation of your IP address. If you are sending letters from an IP address with a bad reputation, then most likely your letters will not reach the recipient.

29) Track changes in the laws of sending emails, the behavior of Internet providers and new technologies in spam filters

Email marketing is constantly evolving, be aware of all changes and this is guaranteed to help you act within the legal framework. Responsible marketers regularly monitor changes in laws, the emergence of new technologies, and also consult with their lawyer.

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By the way, we are doing logistics for online stores here, if anything, maybe someone needs it?

Sincerely yours, Yambox full-line operator
( Yambox - turn your online store into a computer game)