How to Avoid Anti-Spam Filters in Email Marketing

Anti-spam filters are the bane of email marketers. In email marketing, you have to pass all content inside your email according to W3 browser standards, as if it's an HTML document. In a manner of speaking, that's exactly what it is. HTML design, especially in emails, is a tricky subject and has to be studied with care and patience. Different browsers have conflicting HTML rendering issues, Internet Explorer evidently is the worst of it. Spam is the equal of junk mail. Anti-spam filters treat overly erroneous emails as spam. To avoid this, you will have to pay attention to certain parts of your email. Typically, an email is divided into three sections; the sender's address details, the subject line and the content body.

The Header

To prevent your emails getting caught between spam filters, follow some of these advices:
1. Don't use open relays when sending emails. That is, sending a mail using a different mail server.
2. Don't send mails through more than one mail servers. Doing so will clutter your email with multiple 'Received headers'.
3. Don't display the 'Sent to' part, if possible.
4. Also, 'Sent to' field must not have a blank or missing address.
5. Neither should the 'Reply to' header be missing.
6. If possible, avoid using the same email address for 'From:' and 'To:' headers.
7. The excessive use of CC and BCC headers is a red flag for anti-spam filters. Remember that.
8. Speaking of CCs and BCCs, the 'To:' header shouldn't contain multiple addresses of the same domain or ID.

The Subject Line

The following are a few tips on how to write your subject line and at the same time avoiding spam filters.

1. Always put a subject on the subject line.
2. Create concise, direct to the point and interesting subject lines.
3. Never use the word 'free'. Nor suspicious words like discounts, porn, teen and so on.
4. Avoid using words in ALL CAPS.
5. Steer clear from punctuation marks.
6. Don't end it with a numeric digit.
7. Don't use the 'Adv:'
8. Avoid too many gaps or white spaces.
9. In addition, don't panic. If you follow these advices, your email won't be trapped by the spam filter.

The Message Body

Before we get to the rules, let's have a quick look on how anti-spam filters work. Technically, anti-spam filters try to find certain flagged words and phrases. An email is then evaluated and given a score. Emails containing one flagged word too many will end up getting blocked by the spam filter. Here are some rules:

1. Much like in the subject line, don't use provocative or perverse words.
2. Drop the word 'free'.
3. Avoid ALL CAPS.
4. Put in substantial amount of text.
5. Avoid clutter words or fluff or rant.
6. Maintain a decent text-to-image ratio.

Lastly and most importantly, think like a spam filter while writing your article!