Avoiding the Dreaded Spam Folder Once and For All

According to Entrepreneur Magazine, the average person receives 121 emails a day. The Direct Marketing Association says the ROI on email marketing is 4300% percent. Emails can let consumers know what you have to offer and encourage them to purchase.

Your emails can educate, inform, encourage and convert prospects into customers. That’s the good news. The not so good news is – many of the emails you send will never reach their intended recipients.

In 2015, 20-25% of all business emails in the United States went straight to spam folders. That is a higher percentage than 2014; it is very likely the percentage will continue to grow through 2016.

People are tired of unsolicited and misleading emails. They delete them, complain about them, and avoid dealing with the companies that send them. Complaints lead to the development and usage of increasingly more efficient spam filters.

So, how do you make sure your carefully crafted messages get through to the people you want to reach?

Here are some of the most important Do’s and Dont’s!

Avoid the following:

1. WHAT DOES THIS MESSAGE HAVE IN COMMON WITH THE FAVORITE CANNED MEAT PRODUCT OF HAWAII? You’ve got it! Spam. Sentences in all caps are perceived as yelling. Would open the door to a salesperson whose every word was in decibels that hurt your ears? Most likely not. And spam filters are going to send emails that are full of caps straight to Never Never Land, a/k/a the spam folder.
2. I can’t use all caps, but see my enthusiasm about saving you $$$$$!!!! Too many exclamation points and other punctuation marks are going to tank your message. Even if your email is full of great value, and something to be that excited about, it is never going to make it to the inbox.
3. “Dear Friend, your last chance for guaranteed weight loss program. Free sample.” These words and phrases guarantee the fast track to the spam folder. These can also change over time. It is a good idea to stay up to date with the words that are the “flavor of the day” and avoid them.
4. Attached you will find… If you are sending emails to new contacts, it is very likely that those containing an attachment, or even the word “attachment” in the subject line, will end up in the spam folder. Some real spam emails use attachments as a Trojan horse to enter a computer and cause damage. If you are sending an attachment to a regular customer, it should go through.
5. Too many different colors and fonts in your email. Our advice? K.I.S.S. Keep It Successfully Simple. Some color and/or a different font for emphasis can be eye catching. Just don’t over do it.
6. Make sure you use graphics judiciously. Emails with only a graphic, and no copy in the body, will go straight to the spam folder.
7. Don’t keep knocking indefinitely on doors that don’t open. If you are unsuccessful in obtaining a response after 4 or 5 emails, stop.

Now that we’ve shared some of the most important things to avoid when you create your emails, let’s look at some ideas to help you make it much more likely your emails will avoid the spam folder and be read by the customer.

Try these suggestions:

1. Place a link in the body of the email instead of using an attachment.
2. Take a quick trip through your own “Spam” folder for patterns to avoid in the emails you send.
3. Personalize the messages you send.
4. Don’t keep knocking indefinitely on doors that don’t open. If you are unsuccessful in obtaining a response after 4 or 5 emails, stop.
5. Offer valuable content in your emails. Short newsletters, coupons, reviews, etc. will help make your emails the ones people will want to open.
6. Make it easy for customers to unsubscribe from your emails. What? The email finally got opened and we are going to make it easy for them to leave? The truth is, it is better for them to leave than to continue to receive emails they send to spam themselves, or delete without opening.
7. Make sure what you promise in the subject line is what you deliver in the body of your email.