Why Emails Sometimes Go To Spam?

Here is a quick recap of the article originally published on wiki by the Simtech DevOps team. This post deals with the recommendations for eCommerce entrepreneurs and digital marketers on what to do if their ads and promos go into their customers’ Junk box. What to do to hit the target audience and not the spam trap? Are there some taboos to take into account while drafting texts of future emails? 

Intro into Spam

First, you need to understand what is spam:

Spam is an email-sending to people who have not expressed the desire to receive it. Accordingly, the main reason for getting into the spam folder is the use of various email parsers, purchased databases, mailing list exchanges and so on.

But, there are cases where the mailing is legitimate, and its recipients are interested in it, but all the letters exactly fall into the spam folder, such reasons are technical and have many factors. Mail services such as Gmail.com, Yahoo, Hotmail, Yandex, and others will send the mailing to spam or reject it altogether. Often this is not a valid DKIM, DMARC, MX, and SPF policy setting or SMTP server. Spam filters can be superimposed, then even after correcting errors, it will be extremely difficult and better to deliver the mailing to the inbox, to check the letter for spam and the correctness of all parameters before the mailing starts.

Note:

Our comprehensive hosting solution provides accurate and necessary data for the proper operation of mail systems. We are also continually improving our systems to ensure that your emails are delivered to customers.

Reasons for getting into spam 

Here is a list of what content of the letter influences going into the spam folder, and what to avoid in email newsletters:

1. ❗Letter subject in capital letters;
2. ❗Frequent punctuation in the title;
3. ❗No contact information at the end of the letter;
4. ❗Your message does not contain a List-Unsubscribe link/header (❗make it easy for your customers to unsubscribe, and honor unsubscribe requests immediately);
5. ❗A large number of non-existent recipients (more than 2.5%);
6. ❗Media content exceeds text;
7. ❗Frequent spam complaints from recipients (more than 0.25%);
8. ❗Sending email to customers who haven’t opened or clicked links in messages that you’ve sent in the past 30–90 days;
9. You have a picture instead of text;
10. Public Redirect Services or Link shortening services;
11. Recipients are the first to see your newsletter;
12. One time sender address;
13. Abbreviated URLs;
14. Content in the letter of inappropriate content like Javascript or Iframe
15. The letter contains bad html-code;
16. ❗In the body and in the letter header there are side words (spam words) like:

Discount, bonus, join millions, urgent offer, you won’t believe your eyes, profit, savings , chance, success, winnings, limited offer 100% guarantee, not spam, free of charge, cheap, winner, why pay more, here, guaranteed, without deception, urgency call now, only now, instantly, effective, amazing, best, the most, terrific, etc.

spam words

Some technical reasons for getting into spam

Also, we understand the technical reasons for getting into spam. We as your hosting solution provide monitoring for it 24/7 and always care about your domain reputation. Anyway, here is some of them:

1. No MX records on the sender’s domain:

• For example, sending email from the [email protected] and you don’t have an incoming email server/service for this domain for handling emails like [email protected].

2. DKIM (Sender ID) is configured incorrectly:

• We provide the correct parameters, necessary changes in case of needed and monitoring it for you 24/7.

3. Incorrect Sender Policy Infrastructure Record (SPF):

• We provide the correct parameters, necessary changes in case of needed and monitoring it for you 24/7.

4. The bad reputation of the IP address of the SMTP server or the presence of an IP address in the DNSBL (blacklists):

• How does Amazon SES prevent its IP addresses from appearing on blacklists?

5. DMARC policy prohibits the use of third-party mailing services.

6. Overlay spam filters on the sender and SMTP server.

• We provide the correct parameters, necessary changes in case of a need and monitor it for you 24/7.

Best practices to reach your customers’ inboxes

To increase the chances for your messages to reach your customers’ inboxes, you should implement all of the following best practices:

• Never rent or purchase lists of email addresses. Renting or purchasing lists is a violation of the Mailing Requirements, AWS Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and isn’t allowed on the Amazon SES/our relay under any circumstances.
• Only send email to customers who explicitly asked to receive email from you.
• Use consistent design elements and writing styles in each message that you send to ensure that customers can easily identify messages from you.
• Use email authentication mechanisms, such as SPF and DKIM.
• When customers use a web form to subscribe to your content, send them an email to confirm that they want to receive email from you. Don’t send them any additional email until they confirm that they want to receive email from you. This process is known as confirmed opt-in or double opt-in.
• Make it easy for your customers to unsubscribe, and honor unsubscribe requests immediately.
• Stop sending email to customers who haven’t opened or clicked links in messages that you’ve sent in the past 30–90 days.
• If you send email that contains links, check those links against the Spamhaus Domain Block List (DBL). To test your links, use the Domain Lookup Tool on the Spamhaus website.

By implementing these practices, you can improve your sender reputation, which increases the likelihood that the email you send reaches recipients’ inboxes. Implementing these practices also helps keep the bounce and complaint rates low for your account, and reduces the risk of sending email to spamtraps.

How does Cloud hosting and Amazon SES prevent its IP addresses from appearing on blacklists?

AWS SES systems look for signs of abuse. If they detect sending patterns or other characteristics that could lead to an IP address being blacklisted, AWS SES sends a notification to our Cloud Hosting and notify you Mail system improvements. If the situation is severe, or if you don’t fix the issue after we send the notification, we’ll pause the sender’s ability to send email until they resolve the issue. Enforcing our and AWS SES sending policies in this way helps reduce the chances that our IP addresses end up on blacklists.

Hint:

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