Every company strategizes an engaging outreach campaign. But one major roadblock for these “strategies” doesn’t work out is that they are considered spam.
And BOOM💥 you have to start from scratch.
In this article, You will learn what makes your outreach SPAM.👻 (Also here you will read beyond Email outreach & add about Social Media outreach as well.)
Stay till the end as there are surprises that will help you outreach as well.
Let’s dive in.
What are Spam Filters?
Email & Social Media Messaging Service Providers including Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. use spam filters to prevent unwanted & low-quality messages from reaching their users. These filters help protect users from dangerous links & scams.
As a cold emailer, you should see spam filters as a good thing. If your email lands in your prospect’s main inbox, they won’t assume it’s spam.
Outreach Spam filters are tools for protecting your inbox – they work to detect & block unwanted, unsolicited & virus-infected messages from reaching your inbox. Sending them straight to spam or alerting the users from opening them.
Email providers use these filters to protect different types of businesses. And it’s not just about incoming emails – spam filters also check outbound emails to prevent spam from being sent out.
Reasons Your Outreach could End up in Spam
Spam Filters are programmed to detect spam in different ways. Most commonly, cold messages can straight away get diverted to spam if they follow similar reasons.
1. Spam Email Content
Outreach can be seen as spam if the content is poor. This means that your email is irrelevant, poorly written, or too promotional. It may be flagged as spam by the recipient or the email service provider’s spam filter.
To avoid being seen as spam, it’s important to personalize your email & make it relevant to the recipient.
Try using tools like Bulk Find Emails, LinkedIn Group Member Extractor & Instagram Profile Scraper. These tools will help to tailor your email & make it personalized through data enrichment.
Avoid using overly salesy language or making unrealistic promises, as this can come across as spammy.
Also, make sure your email is well-written & easy to understand. Avoid using jargon or long, complicated sentences. Keep it short & sweet.
By providing value & building a relationship with the recipient, you can increase the chances of your outreach emails being well-received and avoid being marked as spam.
2. Missing out to Authenticate Your Domain
If you’re planning to do a big outreach campaign, make sure to authenticate your domain first. Skipping this step & sending emails right away will probably get them sent straight to outreach spam.
Don’t forget to activate the three main authentication protocols for your domain!
These are:
- DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)
- DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance)
- SPF (Sender Policy Framework)
SPF (Sender Policy Framework) confirms if emails from a domain are from authorized senders by checking their IP against a list of authorized IPs for that domain.
On the other hand, DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) adds a digital signature to the email header as an authentication system. The recipient’s email server then verifies the signature to ensure the email is from a legitimate sender.
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) allows domain owners to set email policies, deciding whether failed authentications should be rejected or quarantined.
This system works alongside SPF & DKIM to reduce spam by authenticating emails, protecting users from malicious emails & ensuring legitimate ones reach their intended recipients. DMARC reports can also provide insight into failed authentications, allowing owners to investigate & address issues.
3. Poor Email List
They might be invalid or inactive, or you might have gotten them without the people’s permission.
If you send emails to these bad email addresses, it can cause some problems. Like for example, your emails might bounce back, which is bad for your reputation as a sender.
To avoid a poor email list, use tools like B2B Lead Search, Bulk Domain Search, LinkedIn Email Finder & Facebook Group Member Extractor.
By keeping your email list healthy, you can make sure your emails are getting to the right people & avoid being seen as a spammer.
4. Forgetting to Add Unsubscribe Button
If you’re sending emails, make sure to give the recipients a way to opt-out from receiving more of them, whether you’re sending newsletters or cold outreach.
A simple unsubscribe link at the bottom of your email is the way to go. It’s essential for compliance with email regulations like CAN-SPAM.
5. Breaching the Send Limits
When it comes to outreach campaigns like sales & link building, it’s common to send out a lot of emails to see results. However, a mistake junior outreach professionals make is sending too many emails per day from a single mailbox.
This damages your email deliverability & sender reputation. Sending over 50 emails a day can impact your deliverability. So it’s better to spread out the messages across multiple email accounts with lower daily limits.
6. Flagged by the Users
Recipients often flag emails as spam when they find them irrelevant, too frequent, or if they’re contacted the wrong person. One manual spam flag for every hundred emails can significantly affect future deliverability.
It’s crucial to email only those who are genuinely interested in what you offer and respect their time. Avoid excessive & frequent follow-ups & space emails out by 3-5 business days to prevent appearing pushy. These practices can help avoid recipients from pressing the “report as spam” button.
7. Cold Mails with Attachments
Sending an attachment in a cold email is a big red flag. It’s like showing up uninvited to someone’s house with a bunch of stuff they never asked for.
People get suspicious of weird documents & links. It could even look like a phishing attempt. So, unless you’re already emailing back & forth, it’s best to skip the attachments not to make your outreach spam.
8. Broken HTML links
Broken HTML code in an email is when the HTML is written or formatted incorrectly. This causes email clients or browsers to misinterpret or improperly render the HTML, resulting in email display issues.
Moreover, broken HTML can trigger spam filters to mark an email as spam. Because outreach spam filters validate HTML to determine email legitimacy.
To avoid having your emails marked as spam, it is vital to ensure that your HTML code is well-written & formatted correctly.
9. Missing out on Plain Texts
Having a plain-text version of your email is crucial for increasing the chances of it being delivered, as outreach spam filters use HTML features to determine spam.
Lots of spam filters use HTML stuff like images & styling to decide if an email is spam or not. But if you include a plain-text version, you’re taking one less thing that the spam filter can use to toss you into the junk folder.
A plain-text version ensures everyone can read the content, regardless of their email client. Plain-text emails are also easier to read & understand as they do not contain distracting formatting elements.
Not providing a plain-text version increases the chances of your email being classified as outreach spam.
10. Content consists of “Naked Links”
A “naked link” refers to an unlinked URL that lacks any hypertext to a specific word. It’s advisable to avoid sending emails that contain naked links since this is a common strategy employed by spammers.
Rather than using naked links or link shorteners, it’s better to add your link to anchor text, which is an actual word.
Towards Solution
There isn’t a foolproof method to guarantee that your cold emails will bypass the spam filter. Despite implementing the best cold outreach strategies, a few of your emails may still end up in the spam folder.
Here is one of the best ways will be to use Instagram Auto Message Sender & Facebook Auto Message Sender specially designed for outreach without getting spammed by the Filters.
For Reading more such important blogs on Growth Hack & Outreach DO check out. And also Share your thoughts & suggestions if you find something missing through comments.
