With 92% of online adults using email, and 99% of them checking their email daily,1 email marketing continues to be one of the best ways to reach consumers. Promotional emails, abandoned shopping carts, e-newsletters and other types of ecommerce emails can all help you retain your current customers and connect with new ones, but only if they actually make it to your recipients’ inboxes.
Avoiding SPAM filters is the first step to ensuring the success of any email campaign. Your team puts a lot of time and effort into crafting your marketing emails, so the last thing you want is for them to end up sitting unread in SPAM. Are your marketing emails getting blocked by SPAM filters? Below, we’ll take you through the Do’s and Don’ts of email marketing to help you avoid SPAM filters, connect with your audience, and optimize your marketing budget.
Build Your Own Email List & Regularly Clean Up Your List
Make sure that all email addresses are valid when creating your list.
When creating an email list sign up, encourage users to validate their email and include double opt-ins to increase open rates and decrease unsubscribes.
Encourage users to add your email address to their Address Book.
Regularly clean up your lists, removing frequent bounces and unsubscribes, to maintain good data hygiene.
Create a preference center so that the users can select how frequently they receive your emails.
Consistently send emails so your customers remember you, but don’t overwhelm them. As noted in our 10 Best Practices for Email Marketing, 49% of consumers would like to receive promotional emails from their favorite brands on a weekly basis.2
Be Compliant and Include All Required Content
Provide a clear and easily accessible unsubscribe link in every email.
You must include your company name and valid address in compliance with the CAN-SPAM act.
Include clear and direct copy on what the email is about.
Do not use a misleading subject line.
Use a simple name that is easy to remember as your From Name (example: person name at company name or just company name).
Create a clear Privacy Policy.
Offer a clear method of contact information.
Don’t use spam phrases (“prize”, “free”, “bonus”, “buy”, “purchase”, “order” etc.) and excessive punctuation or symbols (i.e. !!!, *&^%$#@!, ???).
Avoid using all CAPS since this comes across as shouting and will also make your email look like SPAM, increasing the chance of it being filtered.
Choose the Right Design & Develop Your Emails the Right Way
An email creative should be 80% text and 20% images.
Avoid creatives with a single image and no physical text.
Avoid adding red text since it is both loud and a common SPAM tactic.
Design should be mobile friendly since mobile now accounts for 55% of opens.3
Create a noticeable Call-To-Action (CTA).
Keep CTA “above the fold.”
Never use JavaScript or Flash.
Use web safe fonts with fallback font(s) provided.
Optimize your images and utilize alt text.
Use a maximum width of 600-800 pixels.
Keep your HTML code as clean and straightforward as possible.
Currently, 42.3% of Americans subscribe to email lists to receive savings and discounts and roughly 1 in 3 US retail email list subscribers have purchased something from the brand whose emails they receive.1 By making it easy for subscribers to opt in and following our other best practices, you can greatly improve the response rate and success of your next email campaign.
Email marketing provides a great opportunity to grow your business; however, you do need to constantly update your email lists and take the necessary steps to keep your emails from going to SPAM. Connext Digital can help. Our full-service email marketing services include data hygiene technology and email verification to improve the deliverability of your email campaigns. Contact us today to learn how we can help you connect with new and existing customers to achieve your marketing goals.
