Ah, spam filters…the pesky gatekeepers of the email world. While they are great at keeping Nigerian princes (and their frequent requests for money) out of our inbox, they are also annoyingly efficient at making your carefully crafted cold emails drop straight into the junk mail bin. Sigh.

There is hope, my friends. In my extensive experience in the marketing world (and in my many forays into the cold-email space), I’ve discovered the tips and tricks to sidestep the spam filters and get your email seen by prospective leads.

Come with me, Grasshopper, as I share my secrets to outwitting the gatekeepers once and for all.

Build your reputation

Spam filters care about your engagement metrics. This is where your domain’s “reputation” comes into play. Monitoring your engagement metrics is extremely important if you want to stay out of the spam folder.

Some of the most critical email engagement metrics are:

• Delivery Rate
• Open Rate
• Bounce Rate
• Spam Report

If any one of them gets too low or too high, that can be a pretty good pointer at what you need to change in your outreach strategy.

Delivery rate–how many of your emails actually arrive in the recipient’s inbox.

Open rate– This determines what percentage of emails were opened and read.

Bounce rate– This determines the percentage of emails sent by a domain, rejected by the receiver’s email server, and returned directly to the sender.

Spam report– This determines the number of email receivers who marked your email as spam. Spam reports are not what you want-they set off all the spam filters. This can tank your reputation–fast.

It also helps to know your technology; do you know what DKIM, SPF, and DMARC are?

If you don’t, this might be the biggest reason why your cold emails end up in spam.

In essence, these are technologies that tell internet service providers that your domain is trustworthy and that your emails most likely aren’t spam.

Use a recognizable sender name.

Whozzat? Recognizable and familiar sender names are vital to avoiding spam filters when sending emails. These help your email stand out from a sea of emails that are received daily. Prospects are more likely to open emails that contain familiar location, name, and email address information. Do yourself a favour: incorporate your name along with your business name in your email address when you press “send.”

Make it personal

Personalizing emails–with the prospect’s name, business, etc.– is always the best policy. This lets your recipient understand that you have put in genuine efforts to message them. It helps them receive your emails and, you know, actually, open them. Cue higher engagement and higher conversions!

Pay attention to subject lines.

Let’s review, shall we? What are the key elements to crafting a good email subject line?

• Keep it brief.
• Personalize it.
• Make it interesting.
• Offer value.
• Create urgency.
• Avoid clickbait.
• Include keywords.

The target subject line has 60 characters or less and should be punchy and captivating.

Format Your Cold Emails Properly

This goes beyond just not using spam trigger words. Be crystal clear about who you are, what company you’re working with, and why you’re reaching out to that person.

Keep it short and sweet: according to a recent study of 40 million emails conducted by Boomerang, cold emails between 50 and 100 words get higher reply rates.

Stay away from caps as much as you can (don’t go cRaZy), and don’t stuff your email with images, even if they do make it a lot more pleasing to the eyes.

Make sure to include your sender information (along with your physical address) in your signature, and don’t send any attachments unless you have already spoken to that person and they expect it.

And, of course, be careful when using links in your email, and only use as many as you need.

There is no single magic formula that can guarantee your emails won’t go into the spam box. With each passing day, the multiple laws surrounding the ISPs, email service providers (ESPs), and anti-spam laws are getting more rigid and stringent. However, getting professional, experienced helps keep on top of your metrics, clean your email lists regularly, and craft well-designed, effective email subject lines and bodies will give you a solid lead.

Do you need help navigating around spam filters, or do you need guidance in streamlining your digital marketing strategies? Megan Killion Consulting is a team of dedicated, experienced professionals equipped to support you in all your marketing projects. Give us a shout, and we can start working together to meet your unique business needs -Cold Emails from Spam Filters