Your Newsletter Ends Up In My SPAM Box — Here’s How To Fix It
How to stop your emails from going to spam or junk mail.
(Photo by Pau Casals on Unsplash)
So, the other day I noticed something quite alarming.
A bunch of newsletters I’m subscribed to were in my Spam folder.
I couldn’t believe what I saw.
All these amazing writers were putting their blood, sweat and tears into their content.
And I’ve just started my own newsletter as well, so I know it’s hard work.
It all began when I was looking for an email from one of my favorite newsletter authors.
I searched high and low in my inbox.
But it was nowhere to be found.
I decided to check my spam folder, just in case.
And to my surprise, there it was!
Along with several other newsletters that I had subscribed to.
‘How did this happen?’
‘And for how long have they been trapped in there?’
‘Were these writers even aware of this?’
I did some research and here’s what I found out.
Understanding Why Newsletters End Up in Spam
First of all, I think it’s helpful to understand why emails end up in the spam folder in the first place:
You use terms like “free,” “guarantee,” “no cost,” and a lot of exclamation points or capital letters.
You have a lot of subscribers that don’t open your emails or mark your emails as spam.
You have poorly designed emails with too many images, broken links, or improper HTML code.
You use deceptive or clickbait subject lines.
How to Prevent Your Newsletter from Going to Spam
Now let’s look at what you can do to prevent it.
Make sure you have explicit permission from your subscribers to send them emails. Consider using double opt-in where subscribers confirm their email address after signing up.
Use tools like Sender Score to check your sender reputation. A low sender score can increase the chances of your emails going to spam.
Regularly clean your email list to remove inactive subscribers. Because they can harm your sender reputation. Tools like NeverBounce or ZeroBounce can help with this.
Create content that your subscribers want to read. Make sure your emails are relevant, valuable, and personalized.
Keep your design clean and simple. Avoid using too many images. Test your emails on different devices and email clients to make sure they look good everywhere.
Pay attention to your open rates, click-through rates, and bounce rates. These metrics can give you insights into how your emails are performing. And what you can do to improve them.
Simply ask your subscribers to add your email address to their contacts or whitelist you or to reply to the email.
Use tools like Mail-Tester to check your emails for spam triggers before sending them out.
So, I’m going to clean my email list every month or so. I’m going to remove inactive subscribers, which is a bit disheartening because it means my list will get smaller. But I know that it’s necessary for the health of my sender reputation.
Be careful about dropping subscribers that show as not opening your newsletter... that isn't always an accurate metric.
How many images are too many?