If you’re having trouble with your emails always being marked as spam, it could be either the email domains are recognizing you as spam, or, your audience is sending your emails to their spam folder.
Here are a few guidelines regarding the content of your email that will reduce your chances of being marked as spam.

• Subject line wording                                                                                                                                                                                                              When your audience reads your subject line, they create a picture of what the content of the email will entail. If your audience sees a deceptive subject line, they will either mark you as spam or unsubscribe.

• Too much colored text
  Avoid using too much colored text, it’s a signal to spam filters of potential spam.
• Over-use of caps lock
  Caps lock is in the same category as colored text. It’s used to make content stand out and grab attention. Craft a creative and eye-catching subject line, and you won’t have to make up for it with extras.
• Attachments
  Using attachments in your emails makes spam filters believe you are spamming your audience. Use links as a better alternative.
• Low open rates
  The receiving email domains can identify when people are not opening your emails. If you have low open rates, then you have the potential to be spamming people. An averagely successful email campaign will sit around a 15-25% open rate. Aim for at least 18% to be successful. Constantly monitor your open rates, and if they are fairly low, alter your content or subject line.
• Too promotional
  Being too promotional will get you flagged for spam pretty quickly! Don’t email people telling them your products are 90% off right now because, first of all, they probably aren’t, and second, you’ll get flagged as spam very quickly. These are regular, everyday people you are emailing, so try being more casual and conversational, as if you are speaking to them in person.
• Your email address needs to be supported by the domain through SPF records and DKIM records.
  What is that, you ask? Sorry, getting technical here.
  • SPF Records
    -A Sender Policy Framework is an email authentication standard developed by AOL that compares the email sender’s actual IP address to a list of IP addresses authorized to send mail from that domain. The IP list is published in the domain’s DNS record.
    -The receiving domain looks at your SPF records and checks if you have permission to send emails from your domain, and if you do not, this can cause issues in email delivery, mark it as spam, or flag it. You can tackle this issue by setting up your SPF record with SendGrid.
  • DKIM Records
    -A Domain Keys Identified Mail record will help you protect your domain from spamming and phishing. DKIM will validate a domain name associated with a message, proving your authentication.
    -DKIM records and SPF records work together to allow your domain to send emails problem free. Having them both rather than just one of them, will increase your delivery rates and lower your chances of being flagged as spam.

-Vendasta June 2019