Cold Emailing : How to Avoid Being a Spam?

Sending cold emails can be an effective tool to reach out and start some conversations with potential leads, and most B2B businesses do it, with more or less frequency, but it all carries the risk of being considered as spam, which can also damage the brand reputation.

To ensure that your emails reach your audience, and avoid the spam folder where no one will ever open them, there are a number of tricks you can use to help you reach your target audience, increase your open rates and more likely generate results from cold emailing.

What Are Spam Filters and why do they exist?

Spam filters are essentially a set of advanced rules used by email service providers to protect users from unwanted, potentially dangerous or irrelevant email, commonly known as "spam". The main objectives of spam filters are to:

• Protect users: By filtering spam, users are protected from phishing attempts, malware and other malicious activities that often accompany unsolicited emails and can be dangerous, with some able to steal sensitive information from users, including credit card details,
• Improving the user experience: Ensuring that users only receive relevant and desired emails, that they are genuinely interested in receiving, improves the overall email experience, making it more efficient, useful and pleasant. Receiving a lot of spam can cause frustration.
• Maintain network integrity: Spam filtering helps maintain the integrity and performance of mail servers by reducing the load caused by high volumes of unsolicited messages, generated by mass campaigns, many times sent by bots or other systems without any criteria but to reach as many devices as possible..

How spam filters work

Across all email servers, spam filters use a combination of techniques to assess and determine whether an email is spam or not:

• Analyzing the content of the email for suspicious and commonly known keywords, phrases and patterns, usually associated with spam. For example, emails containing words such as "free", "guaranteed", “easy money”, “you won a prize” or "limited-time offer" can be immediately flagged up,
• Spam filters assess the sender's past behavior, email reputation, and emailing habits. If a sender has a habit of continuously sending a large number of unsolicited emails or has been frequently marked as spam by recipients, their emails are more likely to be marked and even see the domain blacklisted permanently by most servers,
• Authentication protocols such as SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) are used by email services to check that an email really comes from the sender indicated and can be trusted. These protocols prevent identity theft and guarantee the legitimacy of email and its sender,
• Email service providers also take user actions into account, such as marking emails as spam or moving them to the junk folder, or on the other hand, marking them as safe and/or engaging with its content. This feedback helps to refine spam filter algorithms and improve their accuracy over time, while helping making sure users only receive the emails that are relevant to them
• Modern spam filters often incorporate AI and machine learning algorithms that are constantly learning and adapting to new spam tactics. These algorithms analyze large amounts of data to identify suspicious patterns and improve the detection of unsolicited emails, getting better every time, the more data they have to analyze.
• Spam filters use blacklists (lists of known spammers) and whitelists (trusted senders) to help determine the likelihood of an email being spam. Messages from addresses on a black list are automatically flagged, while those from addresses on a white list are generally allowed. For new domains, it is important they gradually try to build a good reputation by following all the best practices from the very beginning.

Implementing good cold emailing practices, such as setting up domain verification, validating the email addresses in your database, sending smaller batches and avoiding spam trigger words, among others, can significantly reduce the risk of being flagged as spam. By maintaining a good sender reputation and adhering to email authentication protocols, businesses can improve email deliverability and engagement rates, which directly impacts results.

The best practices to avoid spam filters while for Cold Emailing campaigns

These practices combine technical configurations, creating strategic content and understanding the behavior and restrictions of email service providers. By following the guidelines below, you can improve the deliverability of your emails, maintain a positive sender reputation and achieve better engagement rates from your target audience, from the very first send..

1. Set up SPF and DKIM records

Ensure your Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) records are properly configured. It’s a technical configuration that might require some advanced knowledge, but it’s fast and fairly easy to implement if you know where to do it. These authentication protocols help verify your email's legitimacy, confirming you and your business are who you say you are, reducing the likelihood of your messages being flagged as spam. Setting these up correctly builds trust with email service providers, ensuring your emails land in inboxes rather than spam folders.

2. Start with low email volume

Avoid starting your email marketing efforts by sending a large number of emails at once and instead gradually increase your volume to avoid triggering spam filters. A sudden increase in e-mail volume can be a red flag for spam detection systems. By gradually increasing your number of emails, sending in smaller batches first and slowly increasing, you can establish a consistent sending pattern that appears more natural and reliable in the eyes of email service providers

3. Warm up your domain and reputation

Before starting your campaign, prepare your email account by sending a few emails a day and gradually increasing the number of emails. This process establishes your reputation as a sender with email service providers. A good reputation reduces the risk of your emails being marked as spam. Start with small mailings and gradually increase your volume over several weeks.

4. Create a relevant lead list

Concentrate on a well-researched list of prospects likely to be interested in your offer. Quality over quantity reduces bounce rates and improves engagement which directly benefits your sender reputation. A targeted list ensures that your emails are more relevant to the recipients, increasing the likelihood of positive responses and interactions, this approach also minimizes the risk of being flagged as spam.

5. Verify email addresses

Use tools such as Validity BriteVerify or KickBox to verify email addresses in your list, before sending. Sending emails to verified addresses reduces bounce rates and increases deliverability. Email verification tools clean up your list by removing invalid addresses, and this way maintaining a better sender reputation, avoiding the negative impact of "hard bounces".

6. Personalize your emails

Write personalized emails for each recipient using their name, company and other relevant details to make your emails feel more relevant and more likely to generate engagement. Personalisation can show to users that you've done your research job and that you're genuinely interested in the recipient. Not only does this approach improve open rates, it also encourages engagement and responses, so the experience between the sender of the email and its recipient will be improved.

7. Use plain-text emails

Avoid using too many images and links in your emails as plain-text emails are less likely to be flagged as spam. They can also be seen as more personal and direct, which can be more appealing to recipients. Simple, clean emails with a clear message tend to perform better and avoid the pitfalls of complex formatting or heavier media elements that can trigger spam filters.

8. Avoid tracking links and pixels when possible

While tracking open rates and clicks can be useful and extremely important, tracking links and pixels can trigger spam filters, as they usually work with masked links and redirects,or additional coding on the content, which can be associated with spam behavior. If you can avoid tracking, do it and focus instead on tracking the responses you get. By avoiding these tracking mechanisms, you can reduce the risk of your emails being flagged as suspicious. Instead, track engagement through responses and follow-ups, which provide a more accurate measure of interest you can use to keep improving your campaigns.

9. Using Outlook over Gmail

Although technology keeps changing, currently Outlook tends to have slightly higher deliverability rates compared to Gmail. Choose your email service provider wisely. The choice of email provider as well as what email marketing tool you use can impact how your emails are perceived by spam filters. Outlook's infrastructure and reputation may offer better deliverability, making it a preferable option for cold emailing campaigns.

10. Avoid spam trigger words

Avoid words and expressions commonly associated with spam, such as "free", "guaranteed", “you won a prize”, “easy money”, "limited-time offer" and many others, similar to those. These trigger words can easily make your emails look like spam as it’s usually the kind of message that actual malicious spammers use. Instead, communicate clearly and honestly, emphasizing the value and relevance of the offer to the recipient, without resorting to sensational language.

Conclusion

Avoiding spam filters by implementing these best practices to ensure the success of your cold email campaigns needs to be the first step when putting together your email marketing strategy. By creating SPF and DKIM records, personalizing your emails, sending in batches,verifying email addresses and using plain text formats, you can significantly improve the deliverability of your emails and the results from your campaigns.

Make sure to regularly review your email practices, monitor bounce rates and keep up to date with the latest email marketing trends to maintain a positive reputation for your business as a sender. By following these guidelines, you'll increase your chances that your emails reach your target audience's inbox, increasing engagement and helping you achieve your goals.