One of the most common questions we are asked is "Why has my email gone into the spam or junk folder".

There are a number of reasons this happens and there are a number of things you can do to help avoid the dreaded spam folder...
 

What you can Do...

• Ensure you have good subscribers!
  Don't buy lists or obtain email addresses from anywhere you shouldn't. If subscribers haven't opted in to your mailings it won't take long for people to start reporting you to their email providers and as soon as that happens, you're in the junk. Use forms on your website, facebook page etc to gain subscribers who really want to hear what you are saying.
• Avoid spam trigger words and phrases.
  Many email systems have spam filters enabled which look for well known "Spammy" phrases and words within emails and will automatically spam your email before it even gets close to your customers inbox. Try to make your emails meaningful and full of content that your users are interested in, and try not to make it too commercial or "pushy".
• Spam Check your Email before you send it.
  SEMSblast Provide a free spam checking service which tests your email against well known email server software to let you know how much chance your email has of being sent to the spam folder.
• Lots of text, not too many images.
  Many email servers look for emails that have lots of images and not so much text and again off you will go to spam. Make sure your email is full of high quality content which your readers are interested in, and try to keep your use of images down a little bit. A good rule of thumb is to include at least two or three paragraphs of text for every image you include.
• Add SEMSblast SPF Records to your Domain
  If you are using your own domain name to send emails, its a really good idea to add an SPF Record to your Domains DNS settings. Here's a guide on how to do just that...

All of this advice boils down to two things, good content to people who actually want it.

If you import a list of subscribers that you have purchased somewhere and start sending promotional emails out of the blue, don't expect your emails to keep getting read, and don't expect your SEMSblast account to stay open for too long either.
 

What SEMSblast Do...

It's not just up to you to keep things clean, SEMSblast are working behind the scenes to ensure you stay out of junk too.

We constantly do the following to ensure your emails keep getting through (unless you don't follow the "What you can Do" advice above!)....

• We have relationships and follow the technical guidelines given by email service providers such as AOL, Hotmail and Gmail.
• We have servers that have been sending email for a long time, and the longer a server sends good email, the more it's trusted around the web.
• We use DKIM and SPF keys.
• We have multiple servers across the globe which we spread email load over.
• But most importantly,  we check every account before allowing it to send, and we automatically pause accounts where spam reports are received and our team investigates.