Tips to Avoid Triggering
Spam Filters

If you're not familiar with how Spam filters work, the information below will help ensure that your newsletters and emails don't inadvertently trigger a Spam filter to block your communication.

How Spam Filters Work

Basically, email filters check the words in an email's "subject line". The subject line is the header that is seen when an email shows up in your email in-box. A good subject line can encourage people to actually click on and open an email. A bad one can mean your email gets deleted, or worse, it can cause your email to be categorized as Spam.

Many times the more service providers (ISPs) use a "point system" that identifies trigger phrases commonly used in Spam emails. If an email exceeds a certain number of "points," the email gets filtered out and is never delivered to a customer.

Some of the more commonly used phrases that ISPs and mail clients filter out as Spam include:

There are some other troublesome phrases that can trigger some Spam filters, or start adding "Spam points" to emails sent out, and should be avoided as well:

Also, using quotation marks, dollar signs and exclamation points in subject lines often triggers Spam filters. So does using all capital letters, which is considered "shouting" online. You should also never put a toll-free number in the subject line, since that will also cause your email to be filtered out by many Spam filters.

Please be aware that this information isn't all inclusive, but it should give you a good idea as to the most common things that can trigger a Spam designation for your email.  To check your deliverability, try sending an email to yourself and some select friends that have good Spam filters connected with their email. If you do this before sending your email out to your customers, you will be able to see if your email scoot past the filters and actually lands in their in-boxes.