Protect Your Sender Reputation: How to Avoid The Email Spam Inbox

As the marketing legend Niel Patel said, "Your emails are useless unless they actually make it to the user’s inbox."

Email newsletters are very effective at keeping your customers updated and engaged with you and your business. But if you don't put measures in place to protect your sender's reputation, your emails may end up in the spam folder.

Put simply, email deliverability is the lifeblood of your business. You'll literally be throwing your time and money down the drain if your emails aren't getting delivered to your mailing list.

Did you know your email sender reputation is determined by the email sender reputation score that an Internet Service Provider assigns to a brand or business? The higher the score, the higher the probability of your email deliverability.

So, how do you avoid email newsletter spam filters and protect your sender reputation?

With good email hygiene.

In this article, I'll discuss how to protect your sender reputation from the dreaded spam filter, ensuring your messages get delivered successfully.

What Is An Email Newsletter Spam Filter?

An email newsletter spam filter is an Internet Service Provider (ISP) tool that identifies and blocks spam containing malicious content such as phishing emails, unsolicited emails, viruses, or other malicious code.

They also look for suspicious patterns in the content of an email, including excessive use of keywords or links. If the filter detects any suspicious activity, it will block the email from being delivered.

The spam filter looks at aspects of an email such as:

• Email header

• Content filters

• User-defined filters

• Blocklisted addresses

• User permissions

How Does Email Newsletter Spam Affect You?

Too many emails landing in your recipient's spam inbox spells big trouble!

Emails landing in the spam inbox can damage your sender reputation, resulting in decreased open rates and click-through rates.

Even worse, if too many of your emails are marked as spam, it could result in being blacklisted by email service providers. This means that all of your emails will be blocked from being sent to any recipient, regardless of whether they are legit or not.

How Can You Avoid Email Newsletter Spam Filters?

Start by maintaining a good sender reputation. Using an email service provider (ESP) like beehiiv, combined with an opt-in system for your mailing list, will get you on track.

Next, ensure that all your emails are sent from a verified domain. Verification ensures only the owner is able to send emails on behalf of that domain, which protects your branding and domain reputation.

Avoid using deceptive subject lines–no one wants to be duped into opening an email that is nothing more than clickbait. On that note, you should also ensure that your emails contain both accurate information about the sender, and a clear unsubscribe link, so recipients can easily opt out of future emails.

Never purchase or rent email lists, as these are likely filled with invalid addresses and spam traps. This is a quick and easy way to see your domain reputation plummet–and with it, your chances of getting into your readers’ inboxes.

Finally, monitoring your email campaign analytics closely and responding quickly if any complaints arise is essential.

Factors Influencing Email Sender Reputation

You should be performing regular email newsletter spam tests. A very quick and easy way to check your sender reputation is to use a tool like SenderScore.org.

The biggest reason why your emails are not delivered is due to a low sender score. ISPs automatically reject any emails that fall below a particular score. But there are many more details that determine your email sender reputation, and these complex factors will impact the effectiveness of your email campaign. Here are the most important:

Quality of Your Email List

Your reputation score can suffer if you have high bounce rates because of a dodgy email list. Always validate your email list and clean it regularly.

Your Open Rates or Engagement

Mailbox providers put a high emphasis on open rates and click-through rates since they reflect the interests of their subscribers. Your emails might be filtered out if there is an inadequate response or zero interaction.

Your Sending History

Having an established email address that has a history with a particular IP address will boost the legitimacy and reputation score of your emails.

The Consistency And Volume of Emails You Send

The number of emails you send and how often you send them can give an indication of how reliable and reputable you or your business is.

Have Your Emails Been Marked as SPAM?

If your emails receive recurrent Spam remarks, this feedback to ISPs could lead to your emails being sifted through or sent to the Spam or Junk folder.

Best Practices for Sending Email Newsletters

Some of the best practices for sending email newsletters include:

• Use an opt-in system for your mailing list

• Ensure that all emails are sent from a verified domain

• Avoid using deceptive subject lines

• Include an unsubscribe link in all emails

• Avoid sending too many emails in a short period of time

• Monitor email engagement metrics to identify any potential issues

• Use a reputable email service provider to ensure deliverability

Want to get an edge on your competitors? Use branding in your “from” name. Using your brand’s name in your “from” line will help to reduce spam complaints, and it’s been proven to improve open rates massively.

Wrapping Up: Tips for Protecting Your Email Reputation

Protecting your sender reputation is essential for ensuring that your emails reach their intended recipients.

Here are some recommendations:

Use a Personalized Domain to Send Emails

If you want to prevent your newsletters from landing in the spam inbox, always send them from an address associated with your brand or website.

With beehiiv, you can easily create a professionally optimized website with a domain-branded email included.

Optimize Your Copy

Keep it short. Spam filters might flag your 6000-word long newsletter you spent all week writing. Anything more than 500 words long and your open rates decline severely, so shorten it immediately.

Please read our guide on how long an email newsletter should be here.

Test Before Sending

Test, and then test again.

beehiiv has a nice preview feature allowing you to see what your email will look like across different devices before hitting send. If you don’t have access to this feature on your platform, or you just want to double-check, you can always send it to yourself first.

By sending test emails to yourself, you can check the appearance and readability of a campaign and if it is sent correctly to your inbox, the promotions folder, or spam.

Have a Killer Subject Line

The subject line of your email is critical when aiming for desirable open rates, but it could also trigger a potential spam mark.

People will quickly look at a subject line and decide to mark it as junk mail and trash it–so take the time and effort to come up with a compelling subject line.

This is a great opportunity to do some testing, too. Read our quick A/B testing guide to learn more about improving email deliverability by A/B Testing your subject lines.

Say Goodbye to The Spam Folder Forever

Email newsletters are an effective way to reach your target audience and build relationships with them.

However, it is essential to take the necessary steps to protect your sender reputation and ensure that your emails are not marked as spam.

Follow best practices such as:

• Using an opt-in system for your mailing list

• Ensuring that all of your emails are sent from a verified domain

• Avoiding deceptive subject lines

• Including an unsubscribe link in all emails

• Avoiding sending too many emails in a short period of time

• Monitoring email engagement metrics to identify any potential issues

• Using a reputable email service provider to ensure deliverability and using branding in your “from” name

Email is still an extremely powerful means of marketing your business.

You can sign up for a free beehiiv account today and get access to the right tools to ensure your emails actually reach the people you’re sending them to.

Just ensure you’re constantly focusing on improving your sender reputation. If you need a helping hand, you can always hire an email deliverability consultant.