Ever wondered why your emails go to ‘spam’?

In this modern day and age, we can’t even imagine life without email. If we back to the 1990s, when the internet had newly become a “thing”, you might recall how long it took to reach someone and then wait for a response. Well, that’s a thing of the past as today we have some incredibly fast ways of communicating, and email has yet to disappoint. 

However, many people face the frustration of finding out that their messages never went to the intended recipient and instead landed in their spam or junk folder. While there are ways to understand and discover why your email messages are being treated as spam, such as this Mail Tester, what’s more interesting to discover is why they even end up there to begin with. 

Common reasons your email messages are going to ‘spam’ and what to do about it 

Before discussing the possible reasons, we should try to understand how your email client detects and separates the regular email messages from spam. 

Many people believe that only spam, junk or generally ‘useless’ emails end up in the spam folder. That’s actually not true. There’s a good chance your messages might be ending up as spam even if you are a trusted business or individual. For instance, some people have their email client configured to use anti-spam software and spam filters which scan emails for red flags and then re-route messages to the spam folder according to the set criteria. 

In other instances, your recipients may have set their security and spam settings very high, in which case, anyone who’s not in their trusted list of recipients, may be treated as a ‘spammer’. 

Now, let’s look at some possible reasons as to why your messages are ending up as spam. Before we proceed further, we just want to quickly point out that this article focuses on sending messages to someone that are being treated as spam, as opposed to receiving messages from someone that are getting sent straight to your spam folder. 

Your recipient has marked your email as ‘spam’ 

This is possibly one of the most common and obvious reasons someone is not getting your email messages. Even if your business content or newsletter is unique and shareworthy (offering lots of value and all that), unless the target recipient gave you permission to send them emails, your messages will be marked as spam. 

It’s also quite likely that your target user is accustomed to maintaining a clean inbox, so they probably have an active spam email list for people they have never heard of or heard from. 

However, at times, they may have subscribed to your newsletter or services and forgotten why they did so or, perhaps, subscribed in a hurry or by mistake. 

You are using misleading subject lines, or your subject line contains spam triggers 

Think about it: when someone sees your message, the first thing they will see is the subject line and that’s how they form an impression of you, deciding whether to open the message or not. 

Email subject lines need to be dead honest because a misleading one is not just poor business etiquette, but also against the law in some countries. 

There have been many surveys where respondents reported that they felt cheated or tricked into opening a message based on the subject line, only to find content that was completely irrelevant to their needs – such as this one done by Litmus. 

This is a surefire way to have your email tossed straight into the spam folder, even enticing some users to unsubscribe altogether. Try to avoid subject lines starting with “FW:” or “RE:” and keep it professional by being honest and not making sensational claims to get attention! 

The IP you're sending from has a bad reputation 

Now, this is a very interesting one and businesses really need to sit up and take notice! 

The IP address you use on a daily basis to send your marketing emails plays a very important role in terms of deliverability. Much like people, who build a reputation over time for being professional and acting in a good, humane way, IP addresses also have a history which mailbox providers like to keep track of. 

For instance, if your IP address has a track record of low spam complaints or bounce rates, then that will make your message sending IP more trustworthy. On the other hand, a high number of complaints will hamper your IP’s credibility. 

When you send email messages via a shared IP, for example, your IP reputation is not only built according to your sending activity but also on the combined sending habits of all senders who are using that IP to send messages. 

So, if you happen to be sharing your IP with regular spammers, your deliveries will suffer, and the message will likely not find the intended recipient. This certainly doesn’t mean that a shared IP for email marketing or communication is a bad thing – if your associated senders have a good reputation, then it will actually boost your deliverability. 

Your email list isn’t ‘clean’ 

Spammers and phishers are known for not being great at list keeping. They shamelessly (yes, quite literally!) scrape and steal email addresses from various sources, not paying attention to the fact that they might be invalid email addresses or bounces (they will return undeliverable), and generally don’t care about user engagement as long as people keep falling for their tactics. 

If your recipient’s email client discovers or assumes questionable email list-building techniques from your end, they will re-route your messages to spam. This is why you’d always want to have a clean and regularly updated email list, as that’s the foundation of healthy, hassle-free email delivery. 

Make it a habit to add opted-in subscribers to your list only, never buy or borrow email lists, remove recipients who have unsubscribed, and remove subscribers from your list who aren’t engaging. 

In closing, you should run regular Email Deliverability checklists to avoid having your messaging sent to your recipients’ spam folder. 

Happy emailing!