E-Mails land in the spam folder

[Karla1]

Dear community, 

I'm in need of help. I'm new in sending email newsletter and I'm having some trouble. My team and I worked hard on creating very nice-looking emails with a nice template and compelling pictures,  and were quite dissapointed when we noticed that they land in the spam folder. I have read a little bit about the causes, but there seems to be a lot of information out there. I work for a tourism company, so we need to send nice picture in the newsletter. 

Can anyone recommend some best practices? I read that large images don't help, they should be kept between 600-800 Pixels.  And other factors, but perhaps someone could recommend something else. 

As far as I know, we're using the complete version of HubSpot. So, we have many features available. 

Thank you so much in advance! 

[Karla1]

Hi @karstenkoehler! I have a question: once we land in spam, is there a way out of there? If my company has been marked as spam, is it always going to remain there or is there a way out? I'm asking because I would like to test some content, design, and photo features and in order to know if the tests will work, I have to know if once we've been marked as spam, is there a way out? Otherwise, I won't be able to know if the tests worked or not. 

Thanks in advance! 

[Karla1]

Hi @karstenkoehler! Thank you so much for the tips! Our domain is connected to HubSpot and I'm still checking with IT regarding the email authentification. I will check the links you sent me and will make sure, we're using the best practices. 
I'll contact you again if we keep having problems. 

Thank you very much. 

Best regards, 
Karla

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @Karla1,

This is a common problem, unfortunately. Could you confirm that you have connected your email sending domain and set up email authentification (SPF, DMARC)? Both are considered best practice and should help with your email deliverability and would be the first steps towards better deliverability.

In general, similar to SEO, you want to try to pass on as many positive signals about your content as possible. The eventual decision what to do with that content rests with the service provider. With that in mind, here is a list of things that I'd recommend reviewing:

Connect your email sending domain

Use a DMARC policy with HubSpot

Only email contacts who for whom you have a legal basis to communicate

Validate emails before sending to avoid hard bounces at all costs (e.g. Neverbounce, Zerobounce)

Remove unengaged contacts from list regularly for higher engagement rates

Avoid as many spam trigger words as possible

Test the spammyness of your email

@kaburke wrote an excellent email deliverability listicle and @natsumimori also compiled a lot of great resources here. I highly recommend you check out both. Over time, email service providers should recognize you as a trustworthy sender. The issue could be that in the past, some recipients have already marked your emails as spam or that email service providers noticed high bounce rates from you.

If you have already taken some of these steps or more context to share, let me know.

Best regards!