How many times have you sent an e-mail and waited in vain for a response, only to hear: “I didn’t ever get that e-mail?” You know you sent it, and you know the intended recipient has received e-mails from you before. So why didn’t your message go through? While there are a host of technical reasons far beyond your control as to why an e-mail might be flagged as spam somewhere along its journey (or otherwise bounce back to you), there are a few things that you can try to help assure your innocent e-mails will arrive at their intended destination.
- Avoid CAPS in your subject line. Sure, you might have an innocent reason to capitalize a word such as INTERPOL or SQUID. But to a spam filter, it is a red flag.
- Typos, believe it or not, are another signal. Most of the time, casual abbreviations and simple misspellings will slide through. Other times, the inclusion of a lesser-known brand name, like “Groupo,” may be all a spam filter needs to yank your message.
- Also, e-mails with web links are prone to being identified as spam, especially if they seem to appear in a subject line. If your subject contains symbols such as “.” and “/” and even “#” you may find some of your e-mails disappearing into the ether.
As for your own e-mail, it’s a good idea to check your junk or spam folder daily to see what it may be corralling. Happy e-mailing!
~ Adam Schnitzler, @aschnitz1 & CCO, The S3 Agency
