Why Your Emails Go To Spam [and how to prevent disaster]

Catastrophe struck and your precious newsletter was flagged as a spam email (it was sent to the spam folder)!

Before panicking, let’s see the 2 reasons behind this:

1. The recipient’s email server did it!

There are many different factors that can cause that issue (sender’s reputation, content, DMARC failures, spam filters, etc).

In such a case your email lands directly in the spam folder, or even worse is completely blocked.

2. Your newsletter successfully landed in the inbox, but the recipient marked it as spam or phishing.

Reason No1 is equally frustrating, but in this post, we will analyze reason No2, aka the darkest truths behind your recipient’s actions.

Why Someone Marks An Email As Spam

Before diving into the abyss of a subscriber’s mind you should know one thing.

Email service providers (ESPs) like Moosend simply record the complaints that the Internet service providers ( ISP’s) like Gmail or Yahoo send back through the feedback loops (FBL).

However, here at Moosend, in order to help our users understand why their newsletters are marked as spam and how they can improve their subscribers’ experience, we took a closer look too.

So here are the main reasons subscribers may mark your email as spam:

1) They never subscribed to your list

Unfortunately, it’s very common that someone receives a newsletter they never signed up for. And it can prove disastrous for a sender’s reputation.

That’s why we insist on creating a healthy mailing list and keeping it that way.

And of course, buying mailing lists is 100% out of the question.

Having a healthy list helps you avoid awkward situations like “where did you get my email?” (And it can get even worse.)

Also, it allows you to build a good sender reputation and avoid dealing with a suspended account, which is not good at all!

2) They can’t find the unsubscribe link or they don’t know how to unsubscribe

No matter what you do, just don’t try to hide your unsubscribe button!

Avoid small fonts sizes, or squeezing the link between words making it impossible for the reader to locate it.

It’s a bad practice and if someone wants to be removed from your email list, they’ll eventually find the way.

So try to keep things simple and straightforward!

3) They subscribed using a different email address

It happens. Jon wants to subscribe to your mailing list using [email protected].

But he subscribed using [email protected].

Unfortunately, in that case, you can’t do much for John.

If the second email exists and it arrives at johndoe201 , you can blame the keyboard.

But again, you will have to be sincere and delete that email from your list, third-party services, etc.

So, when you receive messages from your recipients back to the reply-to email address you chose, make sure you check those and update your lists.

4) They didn’t like your offer / the price of the product in the newsletter is different from the one on your website

Not so often, but yes, I’ve noticed this in the past too.

Don’t try to fool your recipients by providing a different , lower price in your newsletter and having a higher price in your stores or e-commerce website.

They know how to pay you back!

5) You don’t keep your promises

When you guarantee a 48-hour delivery, then do it!

Why? Because unhappy customers can prove more disastrous for your business than you think.

Put yourself in their shoes!

I am sure that 99% of you buy products online, and I do too.

So you can imagine how I felt when I pre-ordered The Sims 3 ( sooooo many years ago!) and the online store promised delivery on Friday.

I was like: “OMG! I will spend the entire weekend with that game!”

On Friday I ran to the store, only to be told that my precious game will be available in 5 days. 5 whole days!
I didn’t mark their newsletter as spam, but I never ordered again from that store.

Of course, the same rule applies to your products too.

Bad customer experiences can ruin your brand’s reputation and lead to hundreds of lost customers.

Ready To Roll

Now you know! While there are various reasons behind your email landing to the spam folder, luckily there are also as many ways to prevent this.

Make sure you keep your list clean and healthy and that you play nice and soon enough you’ll forget that this annoying folder even exists!