Spam. It’s one of the vital dreaded phrases within the electronic mail advertising and marketing business.
We’ve talked rather a lot about testing your electronic mail’s design, nevertheless it’s additionally vital to run spam exams to test your electronic mail’s deliverability potential. In different phrases: Will your electronic mail make it into your subscribers’ inboxes? Or, will spam filters flag your message and ship it straight to a spam folder?
A spam take a look at checks your electronic mail to see whether or not sure spam filters will flag it and transfer it out of a subscriber’s inbox. The take a look at seems on the content material of your electronic mail and the place you’re sending it from.
How will you improve your electronic mail’s deliverability? Let’s have a chat about some spam testing fundamentals.
Electronic mail on Acid checks business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) spam filters. As you possibly can see right here, B2B filters is usually a bit harder to get by means of.
What Will Flag My Electronic mail as Spam?
There could also be a couple of explanation why your electronic mail is failing spam exams. It might be the content material, your IP handle, or the area from which you’re sending the e-mail.
In some instances, your emails might have been marked as spam by too many subscribers, which may additionally set off spam filters. Because of this it’s essential to phase your subscriber lists when doable and be sure you are sending content material that’s related to these audiences.
Spammy Content material
Sure phrases and electronic mail kinds can ship up a crimson flag for spam filters. This isn’t an entire listing, however basically, it’s a good suggestion to keep away from:
- Lengthy, wordy emails.
- Phrases with all capital letters (i.e. “SIGN UP NOW”).
- Plenty of exclamation factors.
- Too many phrases that sound like a rip-off or spam, reminiscent of “name now” or “sale” (assume telemarketer language).
- All-image emails. Attempt to have a steadiness between photographs and textual content.
- Content material that’s not customized, reminiscent of addressing the e-mail to “person” as an alternative of the recipient’s identify.
- Utilizing “lorem ipsum.”
- Topic strains which can be too brief or too lengthy (contemplate operating an A/B take a look at to see what topic strains give you the results you want).
IP Handle Popularity
In some instances, your IP handle would be the cause behind your spam issues. If a filter flags your IP handle as a danger or potential danger, it might wind up on a blocklist. If that’s the case, spam filters can ship your electronic mail straight to the spam folder.
A blocklist is a form of “watchdog” for electronic mail suppliers; they preserve a watch out for senders that might be a possible risk. Your IP handle could also be blocklisted due to a virus or malware in your pc, or due to spam emails beforehand despatched from that IP handle.
Area Popularity
Just like your IP handle, in the event you’re sending your electronic mail from a flagged or blocklisted area, it’ll probably head straight to the spam folder. You additionally might wish to take a look at your DomainKeys Recognized Mail (DKIM), which permits senders to affiliate a site identify with an electronic mail, thus vouching for its authenticity.
How Do I Run a Spam Take a look at?
There are a few other ways to test your electronic mail for spam potential. In case you’re utilizing Electronic mail on Acid to check your emails, you possibly can run a spam take a look at with a seed listing, run it by means of your SMTP server, or ship the take a look at from our servers.
Usually, we advocate utilizing a seed listing take a look at to test deliverability. Why? This take a look at is extra thorough in checking for various features of your electronic mail that might flag it as spam; the take a look at is not going to solely evaluate your content material and topic line, it’ll additionally test in case your IP handle or area is blocklisted. Seed listing testing additionally supplies extra correct take a look at outcomes.
The way to Spam Take a look at with a Seed Checklist
In case you’re utilizing an electronic mail service supplier (ESP) to ship your electronic mail, a seed listing take a look at is the best way to go. A seed listing is a listing of inside emails you possibly can ship a take a look at electronic mail to, reminiscent of coworkers, members of the family or mates. Ideally, you’ll need the e-mail handle to cowl a variety of electronic mail shoppers and units, so you possibly can test if it makes it by means of the completely different electronic mail spam filters.
In case you use the Electronic mail on Acid platform, we offer a seed listing for you underneath our Spam Testing part. Merely copy and paste the listing in your ESP and hit “run spam take a look at” earlier than sending your take a look at electronic mail. This listing will change each time you run a brand new take a look at.
For correct outcomes, it’s vital to recollect to ship the take a look at electronic mail on to the seed listing. Don’t paste the listing right into a CC/BCC or ahead. In any other case, the take a look at gained’t work.
A fast notice: In case you’re utilizing the Electronic mail on Acid platform for a seed listing take a look at, don’t be alarmed if it looks as if you get incomplete outcomes the primary time. It occurs. Fortunately, you possibly can run the seed listing take a look at once more with the identical listing and the identical content material to attempt for extra full outcomes – you possibly can’t do that with the opposite spam take a look at strategies.
What Do I Do with the Spam Take a look at Outcomes?
You might get your spam take a look at outcomes again and assume, “Okay, now what?”
Sadly, spam filters don’t typically give particulars on why an electronic mail failed a spam take a look at. Spam filters do that to stop spammers from getting round their checks. In the event that they determine to maintain their filter specifics secret, you’ll simply see a “go” or “fail” outcome. If that’s the case, take a while to have a look at the content material of your electronic mail, your IP handle popularity, or area popularity.
As a result of spam filter particulars aren’t typically obtainable, we advocate sticking to electronic mail greatest practices as a lot as doable: steadiness your textual content and pictures, personalize the place you possibly can, look ahead to spammy language, preserve your content material concise, and be sure you have a DomainKeys Recognized Mail (DKIM) signature.
In case you’re utilizing a spam take a look at and obtain a spam rating from SpamAssassin, they’ve a useful wiki with info on their spam scores, so you possibly can lookup your outcomes and discover out what they imply and how one can alter your electronic mail to assist it go their spam take a look at.
We even have a couple of suggestions on the best way to go the Postini and Barracuda spam filters, if these are tripping you up.
Make Positive Your Electronic mail Hits the Inbox
With the Electronic mail on Acid All Entry plan, you possibly can take a look at your electronic mail towards 23 of the most well-liked spam filters and 72 of the most typical blocklist companies. We’ll provide help to diagnose deliverability issues and offer you confidence that your electronic mail will hit the inbox, not the spam folder. Strive All Entry free for seven days and see for your self!
