How to prevent my campaigns from going to spam

One of the main problems when sending email campaigns is that they are received in the spam or junk mail folder. The positive part is that it is a problem that in most cases has a solution . In this article we teach you how to identify if you are facing a deliverability problem with your shipments and, if so, how to solve it .

In this article

Identify if your campaigns are going to spam

The first thing you have to know is that, unfortunately, there is no way to check exactly the percentage of your shipments that are reaching the spam folder, but we do have a way to identify if we are facing a deliverability problem:

  • First of all, we need to know if we are getting spam in a one-off or generalized way. We can get an idea by analyzing our recent open rates: a campaign that reaches spam in a generalized way does not usually exceed 1 or 2% open rate.
  • With regard to the open rate, it is important to put ourselves in context: this will depend a lot on the type of email you send (for example, an order receipt email or an automated email usually has a higher open rate than a newsletter), the sector to which you belong and, very importantly, the quality of your subscriber list, This is a topic that we will cover in this article.
  • How can I assess whether my submissions have an acceptable open rate or not? It is impossible for all your subscribers to open your mailings (although it would be great), but if your average open rate is from 7%,  we can say that we are facing a healthy open rate. Beyond that percentage, we can say that you have a good open rate.
  • In this regard, it is important not to be alarmed by an isolated complaint from a subscriber that has reached spam. This can happen because the spam filter of an email service provider (Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) has been activated on time in some way. And that brings us to the next point.
  • How do antispam filters work? Inthis videoHere's how to activate them. Anti-spam filters (which determine whether a campaign goes to spam or not) take into account:
    • The behavior of your subscribers (if they open your campaigns)
    • The reputation of the email domain you use as a sender
    • The content and links in your campaigns

    In the next point we explain how you can prevent reaching the spam tray or solve a deliverability problem, taking into account the three factors that activate an antispam filter.

How to prevent my campaigns from going to spam?

Configure DKIM

DKIM ( Domainkeys Identified Email) and SPF ( Server Policy Framework ) are two authentication protocols that serve to prove the identity of email senders . Setting them up is important to:

  • Do not reach the spam folder (since you will not activate the antispam response of a mail provider)
  • You will make sure to protect your subscribers from possible virtual scams in which your company name is used to steal information ( phishing )

Setting up DKIM in Acumbamail is easy, you don't need to have technical knowledge for it and you have a lot to benefit from. You only need to have your own domain for your shipments (info@tuempresa.com) and access your hosting provider (where you bought your domain). In this article we explain how to do it step by step.

Use a good quality list

The list to which emails are sent is the main success factor of an email marketing campaign. The quality of the list will largely determine the average behavior of your subscribers with your mailings (remember that this is a factor that can trigger anti-spam filters). Therefore, it is of utmost importance that you follow these best practices:

  • Do not use purchased, transferred or public lists: to begin with because it is illegal,but you also can not expect great receptivity to your shipments by people who have not consented to receive your communications. Sending emails to a not very active list will eventually lead to spam. In addition, it is very likely that people are manually marking your submission as spam (in Acumbamail reports it will be listed as a complaint), which potentially increases the likelihood that you will systematically spam in the long run.
  • Clean your lists regularly of old emails that do not exist (which is known as hard bounce or hard bounce ) and of subscribers who never open your mailings . At first it may seem that the greater the number of subscribers on a list, the greater the reach, but sending to lists with low interaction (they do not open your mailings regularly) can compromise your global deliverability in the long run and end up reaching spam.

If at first you don't know if you have a quality list or not, at Acumbamail we have many resources on this subject to help you:

And finally, do not hesitate to contact our support if you have questions . Remember that we are specialized in this matter and we will advise you on what you need.

The sender of your campaigns is important

On many occasions not much care is taken in choosing a sender for the campaigns. Sometimes, you even use a sender from any email provider, such as a Hotmail or Gmail address. This practice can trigger anti-spam filters.

The most important thing at this point is that you use an email that belongs to a domain that you own . It is also highly recommended that the address exists and is not of the no-reply type , so that your subscribers can contact you directly by replying to your emails.

It is common that, if you send an email from your own domain @tuempresa.com to another address in your domain, the emails reach spam. This is because the email provider knows that the email has not been sent from your domain, but from a third party (the Acumbamail sending servers, in this case). But don't worry, because this has an easy solution if you configure DKIM.

Build your template correctly

The construction of the template is an important point not to activate content antispam filters.

  • Our recommendation is that you use our template editor, which generates emails with a correct HTML. It is the best advice we can give you for many reasons, it is used to create tens of thousands of templates a day, it respects standards, it renders correctly in all browsers and the emails it creates adapt to different devices. We have over 260 fully customizable templates to suit your brand image and shipping needs, but if you need a template specifically created for you, our design team can create a custom template for you.
  • If you want to import your own HTML template,make sure it has the correct HTML.
  • Avoid as much as possible that your email consists of simply an image with text (this is a common practice of spammers and can raise "suspicion" for mail providers).
  • It is also important that you do not use words in the subject or in the body of the email that can activate antispam filters .

Preserve the reputation of your domain

If you have previously sent some campaigns that have been considered spam (to a greater or lesser extent) or you have sent to a list with a large number of non-existent emails (hard bounce), you may have to do what you can to improve the reputation of your domain and the sending email of the campaigns. A good way to increase your reputation would be to send quality mailings, following the tips we have shown you and gradually increasing the number of subscribers.

The last factor that influences deliverability is the quality of the IPs and sending servers, something that is at our expense. In Acumbamail we usually monitor the IPs and sending servers to ensure their quality. Also, all our shipping servers are located in Spain, so there is no data transfer outside the European Union and you can easily comply with the GDPR.

For a more detailed explanation of domain reputation and the main problems (and solutions) you may face when using an email marketing platform, we recommend these additional resources:

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