Published by Bunyemiya Sambo on July 11, 2020
If you are reading this, it's highly likely that a portion of your emails are having a low open rate.
I know what you are probably thinking -
“Could it mean your emails are flagged SPAM?”
“Am I being too pushy with my email marketing campaigns?”
“How to make emails not go to spam?”
“Is it the new Email marketing provider we moved to recently?”
“Why do some go to spam / promotion folders?”
First of all what is SPAM Email?
SPAM email is unsolicited and unwanted junk email sent out in bulk to an indiscriminate recipient list. Typically, spam is sent for commercial purposes. There are common types such as commercial adverts, email spoofing, money scams.
What is Promotion Folder/Tab?
Gmail's Promotions tab contains marketing emails and promotional offers. When Gmail introduced inbox tabs, many marketers worried that subscribers would overlook mail in the Promotions tab.
Well the good news for some of your emails ending up in the promotion folder isn't as dreadful as that of Spam folder.
About 45% of Gmail users check their promotion folder daily- You're probably thinking is this a bad thing for my business? Well we don't need that for for marketing strategy. Most times your emails end up in the promotion folder because of the filter that was created by Gmail and a few to mention in regards to their perspective folders.
It's still understandable that you want your emails to be out of the promotion tab because of the low open rates.
Going back to the question
“Why are my emails ending up in SPAM and Promotion folders?”
Come to think of it there are tons of reasons out there why your emails end up in those folders.
In this article I would be giving you the key reasons why your emails end up in Spam and promotion folders.
Bursting these reasons will help you avoid your emails ending up in SPAM and Promotion folders and also you having a ‘HIGH’ open rate.
You don't have to be a spammer for your emails to end up in the SPAM.
For some reasons it most likely had triggering words or content that mimicked a spam email that was sent to the spam folder :(
I have personally taken screenshot of my mail to show a visual and realistic examples as we dive through the article.
Lets dig in!
6 Reasons Why Your Emails End Up in SPAM or Promotion Folder:
#1 : “IP address”
I am certain you have seen several reasons from other blog posts and articles but the most crucial and important reason your emails are ending up in SPAM or promotion folder is because of your IP address.
You are probably thinking
What is an IP address? How does it have to do with my emails ending up in SPAM or promotion folder?
IP address- “Internet Protocol Address”. In this context it refers to the unique public address of the server over which your emails go.
This is typically maintained by the ESP(Email Service Provider) which typically sends emails at different measures.
How does it have to do with my emails ending up in SPAM or promotion folder?
With a good server with a few to mention such as aweber, mailchimp.
Having a good server automatically avoids your emails ending up in SPAM! Isn't that great. You can use spam trigger words when you have a good IP Address.
All you need to do is get a good and with a good reputation IP address.
#2: “HTML Code”
For business online and offline we all need to use email marketing to promote our businesses.
Well that shouldn't be a problem.
As you design and code your own emails from scratch works for many out there, one of the common reasons why emails go to spam is that their HTML code isn’t clean.
Your HTML code in emails includes:
a clean code that is as short as possible
images between 600 and 800 pixels
a mixture of text and images
and emails that are optimised so that they can be seen on mobile devices.
#3: “Your Email Subject, Body and Design is Unclear”
Any time you use deceptive subject lines you could be working your way to the SPAM folder or Promotion folder (in some cases).
Instead stick to an honest subject line to avoid your subscribers marking your email as SPAM.
Likewise for your body, the purpose of your email should be direct and honest. Nobody wants to receive deceptive emails, so in order to avoid sending such you should send a direct email and also relatable emails but yet impactful and sending the purpose of your email to your subscribers.
You also have to be mindful of spam trigger words.
With high AI and Machine Language and set ups being used inside SPAM filters, its more complicated than just simple words being present and their frequency. Always take an objective look at your email and see if you're being too aggressive with sales.
Here are a few to mention which should be avoided completely or over using ;
Best
In Sale!!!
easy money
for only ($$$)
not scam !!!
special promotion…
Did you know your email designs also contributed to where your emails would land?
Having emails with large images and no text or with little body is a SPAM trigger feature.
True I've noticed
No, not in my case
Basically , email subscribers or clients do NOT engage with such emails and it's marked as SPAM email by spam filters and firewalls.
Have you noticed using $$$ sign subject line mostly land in the SPAM folder
(I can see you nodding your head)
Or have you noticed most SPAM emails on your gmail are mostly $$$, winner, empty mails, or mails with links that when you eventually click on it the link isn’t valid?
YES?
NO?
(Let me know in the comment section)
Well from my personal experience and research this is what we mostly find in our emails on the SPAM folder.
#4: “You didn’t Include an Unsubscribe Link in the Email Footer / Header”
This one’s among the top reasons why email recipients report emails as spam.
You can’t send an email with an unsubscribe link. Likewise as a sender you should have an Unsubscribe link easy to find in the email sent
Why?
Because having an unsubscribe link visible to your reader is advisable, cause nobody wants to have difficulty unsubscribing from receiving emails or even sending resignation mails to the sender.
All of this can cause the reader to flag your mail as SPAM which we are trying to avoid the grey ward.
Every email marketing should provide the opt-out at the footer and also the header. Yes ! I said it's not compulsory that the Unsubscribe link should only be at the footer but also the header, whichever way that suits your preference.
Here is an example of an unsubscribe link at the footer of the email.
Here is an image of an email with an unsubscribe link at the header.
#5: “ Misshapen from Email Address”
Several email marketers tend to make the mistake of having a malformed email address that basically has no to little domain reputation and this is shot by SPAM filters and Firewall that flags such emails.
Try to stay away from changing From email address frequently and avoid bizarre From email address like ;
shdoisg@flobs.io, bpfsxt@flobbs.io and suwyh@iou
#6: “Purchase Email List and Clean Out Your Email List”
Clean Out your Emails!
It doesn't matter how much subscribers you scrape out , it could be hundreds, thousands or million of people.
You have to do that because you're going to have people that no longer use those emails anymore which will eventually cause “email bounce”.
Come to think of it, when was the last time you sent emails that you know bounced back?
Never right?! Or once in a blue moon.
If you have an email list of a thousand of people or thousands to millions and you send out emails and a hundred of them a invalid.
Well the Email Providers are going to be aware because you are having a hundred bounce back which will typically be flagged as SPAM.
So it's important that your email list is clean and make sure you drop your subscriber list in softwares that specialises on that, and boom! You have a new list.
Purchase Email List
Having to purchase emails which isn't organic list of subscribers and sending content to the email list can cause your subscribers flagging your mail as SPAM.
What do you think about the blog post? Drop your comment and let me know your thoughts on the reasons why emails end up in SPAM/promotion folder.