7 Reasons Why Emails Go To Spam Folder

There are multiple factors that determine whether a mail will go to the spam folder or not. Let’s dive into the 7 reasons why emails go to the spam folder

1. You Didn’t Get Express Permission to Email

The first rule of email marketing is to get permission to email first. It’s a bad practice to buy email addresses and use them. Since you do not have the permission to send emails to these addresses, so you may be subject to penalties of up to a couple to thousands of bucks.

To get email addresses permission, all you need is to create an opt-in form on your site where people will give their email addresses in return for some value.

Do not manually add emails that you got off of businesses cards or from personal contacts. While you may think they would appreciate your newsletter but it violates the law as they didn’t give permission for express email.

2. Your Subscriber Don’t Remember You

The second most common reason that emails never reach the inbox is spam complaints.

The email provider gets the record every time a subscriber hit the spam after getting your email. Even though they have given you permission to send them an email but they don’t remember you so they send it to the spam folder. Once the complaints reach a certain threshold future campaign skip the inbox and gets directly into the spam folder.

So, make sure that the branding in your emails is memorable and add value to customers’ life.  Use colors, images, typography, etc.

3. You Have Low Mailbox Usage

The third item on the list is the most common cause of emails getting into the spam folders is low mailbox usage.

In their spam filtering algorithms, mailbox providers always look at the ratio of active to inactive email accounts on your list. Inactive means that the email accounts that have not been used for a long time or have been used rarely.

To prevent this from occurring, clean your email list periodically or any subscribers who haven’t responded to your campaign for a while.

4. Misleading Subject Line

It is being used widely now a day. But it is simply wrong and you might get penalized for this.  In a recent survey, over 50% of participants stated that they have felt cheated, tricked, or deceived into opening a promotional email by that email’s subject line.

For instance, you might have just written a blog post that you want to send to your email list. To get them to open the email, you might include a subject line such as “5 Reasons You Should Never Post to Social Media”. However, the email says, “I want you to subscribe to this to get…..”

So, it’s best to avoid gray areas. Some of the subscribers may be amused but others may not. It’s not simply worth the risk of getting complaints.

5. Your “From” Information is Inaccurate.

It’s also against the act to mislead anyone with your “from”, “to” “reply-to” and other routing information.

For instance, if you made the email look like from a celebrity or someone influential, that would be illegal.

To get rid of this problem make sure you do include a name in the form field that your subscribers are likely to remember and don’t change it too often. Use the name of the individual or company or a combination of two. Whatever you choose make sure it’s memorable and easy to pronounce.

6. You Don’t Include Physical Address

Did you know that it’s actually against the spam act to neglect including your valid physical address?

Your emails must include either your current street address, a post office box that has been registered, or a private mailbox registered with a commercial mail receiving agency under Post Service Regulations.

7. You Forgot to Include an “Unsubscribe” Link

Many of us forget to put the unsubscribe button. No matter how valuable your email campaigns are, you still need to add links to unsubscribe. If you don’t do it, customers will keep complaining about it and you will incur thousands of dollars in fines.

Make sure to include an “unsubscribe” link or a similar opt-out feature. Also, if someone wants to get them removed from the list then honor their request promptly. You must process the request within 10 business days.

You can’t charge a fee for this, ask for any information beyond an email address or make the subscriber take any step other than sending an email or visiting a single page on your website