When it comes to spam rules and filters, there are three major obstacles that you need to overcome: ISP spam filters, company spam filters and server settings and/or client side spam rules and filters.

This August edition of eMarketing Insight covers some simple steps you can take to avoid being seen as spam.

Spammers use many tricks to try and get around spam rules and filters. With each new trick, the rules and spam filters get refined.

Here are simple steps you can take to avoid your email being seen as spam:

1. A close relationship with ISPs is needed – understand why your emails are being blocked and action changes immediately.
2. Monitor 100% success rate or 100% bounce rate on a certain domain. If there are a huge number of people on either of the domains that are completely successful or bouncing, you will most likely have a problem with the company or ISP.
3. Send your emails through a spam checking tool; identify what issues you can fix without detracting from your message.
4. Subject lines should never sound like spam, so don’t try and fool recipients into opening the email by making the subject line sound like a reply or a personal message between friends.
5. Colors – while in images it doesn’t really matter, the colors of text and links should be taken from the web-safe palette in Photoshop, as anything else gets picked up by spam filters.

Email marketing is an evolving route to market and stagnation will result in your newsletters starting to decline in terms of deliverability and open rate. In email marketing, it’s important to keep abreast of the changes so that you remain one step ahead.

Concerned your emails are being stopped by spam filters? Get advice from an eMarketing specialist, contact us and let us call you back.