Avoid your emails being marked as spam

This tutorial will help ensure more of your emails go to your recipients’ Inbox, not Junk.

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Step by step instructions

1. Check the subject

Check that your email subject line:

doesn’t have too many words in CAPS (ideally, none)
includes the recipient’s name, if appropriate
has a maximum of about 5 or 6 words.

2. Check the content

Check that your email body content:

is mostly comprised of words (i.e. doesn’t include a lot of images)
is written without a lot of jargon and buzzwords
doesn’t include a lot of text in CAPS
doesn’t include too many hyperlinks, or links to sites that may be considered “spammy” (e.g. file sharing sites).

3. Check attachments

Check that:

there are only a handful of file attachments
the total size of all attachments is fairly small (e.g. 5MB maximum)
the attachments are not file types that could be considered a potential security risk, such as Excel spreadsheets with Macros, or EXE files
the attachments are free of viruses and malware.

4. Check recipients

If you’re sending the email to more than a handful of recipients, consider sending the email in batches, with just a few recipients in each.

Also check that you don’t have too many addresses in the “To” field; use the “CC” field where appropriate.

5. Check settings

Your hosting and/or email system may be configured improperly. Talk to your web hosting provider to check on this, and specifically ask them about the “SPF record” for your domain.

You can also check whether your domain name has been blacklisted by the major spam monitoring systems: http://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx

Lastly, if you’re sending out newsletters, be sure to use a dedicated mailing list service, such as mailchimp.com. Never send mass emails via your normal email program or you’re sure to have a lot of issues (find out why).