If like Pebble you send HTML emails to your customers then you would have come across the dreaded spam filters that your customers use. Over the last 5 years or so we have analysed this and on average we see between 10-20% of emails being sent straight to the spam folder (unless of course your customers add your email address to their “allowed” or “white” list).

There is no quick way and no quick solution on how to bypass these filters but what makes it easier is if you understand how they work.

When we talk about spam filters we are talking about a very long list of set criteria on their server which makes a decision on whether your email will get through. If you think of them as looking for very spammy text like CLICK HERE or BUY ME NOW!

Once your email is sent to the mail server that will be receiving them they will quickly score your email based on the words it contains, the method it was sent and the format it was sent in.

If your score exceeds the threshold then your mail will be spammed, however, if we knew the spam threshold then it would be easy, however, every server is different and every server has had someone go in there and set these spam filters. What makes it worse is that this list is changing on a daily basis to keep the spam emails from getting through.

If you can avoid these simple mistakes you are heading in the right direction:

• - Never under any circumstances create your email newsletter in any microsoft program and copy it into your email to send. These contain all sorts of nasty microsoft centric code that spam filters hate.
• - Do not use phrases like BUY ME NOW, CLICK HERE FOR THE OFFER OF THE CENTURY
• - Do not use bright red or green font (unless you really have to)
• - Never use more than one exclamation mark, this is ok ” We have an offer to tell you about! “, this is not ok ” we have an offer to tell you about !!!!!!!! “
• - Never put the word “Test” into the subject line
• - Never send an email with just an image in it with no text, spam filters cannot read an image and will assume that it is spam
• - Do not use loose or sloppy html code, you need to roll your sleeves up and learn how to code in html properly

How do you know if your emails are being put in the spam?
If you look into your administration area of your email sending program and notice a drop in your open rate then it is likely that your emails are being marked as spam. As an average, 20-30% is the standard open rate, this various across demographics and industry but you could work to this average.

If you suddenly see an abnormal high bounce rate (emails get bounced back from the server). In our email marketing system you often see a message which was sent back by the receiving server, “Email blocked due to content” or “Nobody at this address”. This gives you great clues as to what has happened

How to ensure my emails get through
The best advice we can offer and something we do at Pebble, compare, on a weekly basis, rich HTML emails that come through to your inbox and emails that are sitting in your spam folder. You will be able to easily see what the differences are.

Pebble offer an email marketing system where you can analyse the emails you are sending with one of the most advanced user interfaces on the market today.

Useful Resources:
Email Marketing