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If
you are using Inbox Seeding this is a common problem you may
come across. Where as the spam assassin filter clearly shows
the reasons for a particular score Hotmail, Yahoo and the
other major providers never provide reasons why the email
has been classified as spam. Therefore where on earth do you
start when making changes?
There
is no magic list of rules or key phrases to avoid that will
ensure your message gets through. These filters are very sophisticated
and the only way to identify the problem is through trial
and error.
However
we can of course advise what are the likely issues and where
to start removing things. Once you have found the culprit
and changed the offending item of code or text you can then
add back in other elements you removed, do a final test to
make sure this is still being delivered and you are ready
to go.
Of
course on occasions it might be a combination of factors in
which case you might find you need to remove two or three
elements to get the email through.
All
of this can take time so ideally you should factor in this
time into your planning process to ensure you can still make
your desired delivery date. And while it is fiddly and time
consuming there are no magic answers!
One
thing to bear in mind is as it is fairly fiddly, if you have
minimal HTML skills you could find it a difficult task as
you will required to delve into the HTML source code at times.
If you feel you do not have the resources in-house for this
Emailcenter do offer credit packs of consultation hours to
assist you.
Here
is our suggestion for the process to take:
1)
If you are designing a new template
If
you or your web designer are building a new template you can
save a lot of time further down the line by testing this template
at an early stage. Once you have built the template test it
without any content. If you do get issues this will tell you
it is with the fundamentals of the template and not particular
content.
Key
things to look at here are:
-
filenames and ALT tags of images – are they spammy?
-
Size
of images – make sure you do not have big images
-
Large
fonts can cause issues
-
Avoid
Javascript full stop but also remove CSS references if
you are having problems
-
Any
standard text should avoid spammy phrases and try removing
unsubscribe references
-
As a last resort remove all links and images leaving just
basic HTML
If
this still does not get the email through then try sending
just partial snippets of the HTML message.
2)
If you are using an existing template that has worked previously
The
problem in this instance is almost certain to be text content
however if you have changed any HTML or images then these
could also have caused the problem. Our suggestion in this
instance is to send a purely text version of the email with
all content, if this gets delivered then it is not any of
the text content that is problematic and narrows down where
the problem is for you.
Avoid
these phrases, particularly in your subject line:
this
is not spam
to be removed
unsubscribe (Opt-out is generally better)
cancel at any time
check or money order
click here (One or two is OK but can be a big problem when
used with a large font)
congratulations
dear friend
e-mail marketing (So imagine what we have to go through at
Emailcenter!)
for only
for free
order now
promise you
risk free
special promotion
amazing
winner
great offer
guarantee
increase sales
If you still have problems after removing all of these phrases
or any other spammy words then the next stage is simply to
remove paragraph by paragraph until the email can is delivered.
One of the issues you are likely to see is a perfectly normal
looking sentence causing the problem. This is due to how the
ISP’s spam filter learns what might be spam. If they
received a message that generated high volumes of spam complaints
that used the same sentence it may well consider your message
to be spam as well. Usually it only takes a re-phrasing of
the sentence to then get delivery.
After
all of this if you are still having issues then try re-testing
an old creative that did work. It is unlikely but it is possible
your domain has been blocked and this test should help you
rule out this outcome.
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