Avoiding the spam folder
Some of our users have been having problems with their email campaigns ending up in the spam folder. This usually has something to do with the content of the email rather than the way the email has been constructed. Legitimate email will get spam filtered if there is something about it that makes it look like spam, so users will need to take a few steps to ensure that their emails arrive in the in-box.
Firstly, and most importantly, only send to opt-in lists. NEVER use bought in lists. We don’t allow users to send campaigns to bought in lists for a very simple reason - many of these recipients will report the email as spam. If too many recipients hit the ’spam’ button (and this is very easy to do on AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, MSN) your email will be filtered. So, only ever send campaigns to people who have given permission for you to do so.
Split large groups of recipients into smaller groups in your database. Splitting down into batches of 10,000 or less is a good idea. Large email hosts such as AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail and MSN have instituted greylisting policies that stop deliveries of emails from IP addresses that send a large number of messages to their servers in a specified period of time, even if the mailings are legitimate and permission based.
The subject line of your email is also vitally important. If you send an email with the subject line: ‘Be a WINNER! Enter our FREE competition,’ it will almost certainly be relegated to the spam folder even though the recipients have signed up to your communications. Do not use subjects that include words or phrases with a sexual conotation or that include names of pharmaceuticals or illegal drugs. This is also true of the body of your email, so be more creative and look for alternate ways of saying the same thing. If it sounds spammy, it probably is.