In this second part of The Newbie Guide to Spam, we will take a look at why spam filters are a necessary evil and some words that causes most of them to send emails directly to the spam folder.

Spam filters are often considered to be the bane of every email marketer’s life which is true but only up to a point. Much of the work that goes into email marketing campaigns involves marketers having to be spam aware at every stage of the process to ensure the best possible chances of successful delivery but it wouldn’t necessarily be any easier if spam filters didn’t exist at all.

This is what I said about spam filters in an older post:

“I’m sure that many email marketers would find life a whole lot easier without having to contend with spam filters, but the downside is that without them their campaigns would be totally ineffective for two reasons.

First and most obvious is that fact that without spam filters, recipients would be inundated with spam and genuine marketing emails alike but due to the sheer amount they’d certainly receive; recipients would be likely to delete them all without opening just to clear their inboxes.

The second reason concerns human nature which dictates that we always try to do things the easy way, and in the absence of spam filters it’s highly probable that best practices would disappear very quickly, resulting in inbox chaos and ironically, the need for spam filters”.

Spam filters perform a vitally important task for subscribers by protecting their inboxes from unwanted emails, but occasionally, even genuine marketing emails can fall victim to them.

When used in your subject line, there are certain words and phrases that could and often do trigger spam filters into blocking your emails, a few examples of these are:

• Money back guarantee
• Low risk
• Risk free
• No obligation
• Free offer
• Amazing
• Discounts
• Make money
• No credit check
• Make thousands of £s

This list is by no means exhaustive as a search of the Web will prove. However, that’s not to say you can’t use any of these words in your email’s main copy because there will be certainly be times when you have to because no other words will do. The main thing to remember is to try and avoid using them in your subject line if possible: something that should not only challenge you but hopefully bring out your creative side.

Until next time.

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Email Marketing

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