When you are a business development executive or a talent acquisition professional, you send tons of emails every day. It becomes frustrating when your email outreach doesn’t seem to contact the target audience. Low open rates could mean that your emails are going to the spam folder.

If you are struggling to deliver emails to your prospects’ inbox, this post is for you. Below are eight surefire ways to solve the hiccups that route your emails to the spam folder.

Build Your Email Outreach List

There is no doubt that you craft your outreach email content with someone in mind. While your message could be essential, your efforts are futile if you send it to an uninterested audience. Sending non-targeted emails can lead to the recipient marking your email address as spam.

This situation occurs when you buy, rent, or use a shared email list. It may also happen if you harvest emails using a bot. Avoid these shortcuts. Instead, build your email outreach list organically. It may take time, but it’s the most effective and rewarding way to connect with the right prospects.

Double-Opt in Subscription

One of the best ways to develop your email list is by requesting your website user to subscribe. But how do you confirm that they indeed want to join your email list and receive your emails?

Double opt-in is the solution. When a user signs up for your emails, the system sends an email to their inbox that prompts them to complete the registration process. It comes with a link which the user must click to confirm the subscription.

Only interested subscribers would take the effort required to finish registration via double opt-in. It reduces the probability of adding irrelevant audiences or people who opt-in by mistake.

Compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act

The CAN-SPAM Act applies to all electronic mail messages for commercial purposes. These include promotional emails as well as messages sent between businesses. The law directs you to:

  • Provide a clear procedure for recipients to opt-out of your email list

  • Remove users from your database immediately they issue an opt-out request

  • Monitor your email marketing campaigns even if contracted to third parties

  • Use correct header information (e.g., From, To, Reply To, and domain name). Avoid misleading subject lines

Failure to obey the CAN-SPAM Act can have inbox providers delivering your emails to the spam folder or the recipients reporting them as spam. Further, non-compliance is costly. Each email in violation can cost you over $40,000 in penalties.

Email Authentication

Email providers like Gmail are more happy to deliver authenticated emails to their users’ inbox than unverified emails. Email authentication is about confirming that you’re the sender you claim to be. It proves that your email is legitimate.

Below are two authentication techniques you can employ in your email outreach.

Sender Policy Framework (SPF)

SPF detects and prevents impersonators from sending emails using your domain. The framework identifies spammers by comparing the sender’s IP with the list of IPs allowed to send emails from your email domain.

Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM)

This technique assigns digital signatures to emails to reassure the recipient that emails come from the specified senders. It eliminates the risk of bad actors tampering with your emails during transmission.

SPF and DKIM are useful tools, but they have some limitations. Use DMARC email authentication to achieve the full benefits of SPF and DKIM and much more.

Spam Trigger Words

Did you know that your emails can end up in the spam folder due to the words in your subject lines? Spam filters remove junk from inbox folders of email users by flagging incoming messages that sound spammy.

Your subject lines should not create unnecessary urgency or push the recipient too much into taking action. Avoid far-fetched statements that sound too exaggerated, like claiming that everybody wins in your lottery. Additionally, your emails should not have morally or legally questionable content.

Other things to avoid are subject lines written in uppercase and many exclamation marks. If you use screaming colors like red, you might look like a spammer trying to attract attention. Some words to use sparingly or avoid altogether include win, free, sale, offer, urgent, last chance, claim your prize, and many more.

Links in emails are vital since they redirect your recipients to the webpages you want them to view. They sometimes activate spam filters, however, so be sure not to overuse them in your emails, or your messages will go to the spam folder.

Domain reputation has become critical for email deliverability in recent times. You want to remain in control over the hyperlinks you embed. Branded URLs allow for white labeling with your domain to prevent spam filters from flagging your emails.

Embedded Files

Be reasonable with what you embed into your email. While pictures are acceptable, use them sparingly to balance image to text ratio. If a photograph or a series of images dominate the message, the email could get filtered.

Limit the use of video in emails or avoid it altogether. Many email providers don’t support Flash Video and JavaScript in the inbox. Also, email clients discourage sending of forms due to security reasons. If you want the audience to fill out some details, create a call to action button or put a link to the page with the form.

As a rule of thumb, host your image files with credible service providers. Keep your email size below 100 kb to increase deliverability.

Partner with a Dependable ESP

Email Service Providers (ESP) rank by the domains and IP addresses of their clients. If you team up with a bogus ESP, your emails could end in the spam folder. Providers like Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! will eventually blacklist your ESP, preventing you from sending emails to their subscribers.

Through due diligence, you can identify an ESP you can trust with your email outreach. You will have uninterrupted delivery of messages to your audiences’ inbox.

Email Outreach Tools

You can boost the deliverability of your email messages with email outreach tools. Interseller is a proven outbound emailing automation solution that sequences emails and reports performance.

Request a demo to see how you can connect with multiple prospects in minutes.