Introduction

Email is a powerful tool to engage customers and build relationships. However, spam filters are crucial in determining whether your emails land in the inbox or get flagged as spam.
Emails end up in spam due to poor authentication or spammy content. To avoid this, follow best practices like setting up SPF, DKIM, CNAME, and DMARC, writing clean emails, and using tools like About. Email and MailTester.

By taking these steps, you can increase your chances of landing in the inbox and ensure your emails reach the right audience effectively.

Benefits

The following are the benefits of ensuring your emails do not land in the spam folder:

• Improved Inbox Placement: Ensures your emails reach the intended audience and avoid spam folders.
• Higher Engagement Rates: By crafting valuable and compliant emails, you encourage recipients to open and interact with your campaigns.
• Better Sender Reputation: Reduces the chances of being flagged as spam, leading to long-term success in email marketing.
• Increased Trustworthiness: Authentication records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) signal email providers and recipients that your emails are secure and genuine.

In this article, you will learn about:

• The role of spam filters in email deliverability
• How emails end up in the spam folder
• General best practices to ensure your emails don’t land in the spam folder
• How to check your email spam score

Key Terminology

The Role of Spam Filters in Email Deliverability

Spam filters are automated Algorithms used by email providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo to protect users from unwanted or harmful emails. They help separate good emails from spam or dangerous messages. 

However, these filters can sometimes make things tricky for marketers, as even genuine emails may get flagged if they don’t follow certain rules.

Here are the reasons why spam filters are important:

• Control Inbox Placement: Spam filters decide if an email goes to the inbox, spam folder, or is blocked completely.
• Affect Sender Reputation: If your emails are often flagged as spam, it can harm your sender reputation, making it harder for future emails to reach the inbox. For example, if many people mark your emails as spam, your future emails are more likely to be sent to spam, even if they are not spammy.
• Build Recipient Trust: Emails that pass through spam filters and land in the inbox show recipients that your message is trustworthy and safe to open.

Why Emails Land in the Spam Folder

• Authentication Issues:
  • Missing or incorrect SPF, DKIM, or DMARC records make your emails appear fraudulent.
• Low Sender Reputation:
  • An IP or domain with a history of sending spam harms your credibility.
• Spammy Content:
  • Using excessive spam trigger words like free, win, or urgent raises red flags.
  • Poor formatting or broken HTML can trigger spam filters.
• Sending Without Permission:
  • Spam filters look for complaints or opt-outs caused by sending emails to uninterested recipients.
• High Bounce Rates:
  • Delivering emails to invalid addresses increases bounce rates and flags your domain as unreliable.
• Frequency Issues:
  • Sending too often or infrequently disrupts recipient expectations and increases complaints.
• Recipient Engagement:
  • Low open or click rates and emails marked as spam affect your sender reputation, which spam filters monitor.

General Best Practices

Ensuring your emails bypass spam filters involves implementing best practices to appear trustworthy and genuine. The following are some general best practices to ensure your emails don’t land in the spam folder:

• Authenticate Your Domain:
  • Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to ensure email providers can verify your identity.
• Craft Relevant Content:
  • Avoid spammy language, balance text and images, and provide valuable content.
• Test Before Sending:
  • Use tools like MailTester or AboutMy.email to ensure your email is optimized for spam filters.
• Use a Custom Domain:
  • Avoid using free or generic email services for your campaigns. A custom domain improves your brand’s credibility and helps with deliverability.
• Use Double Opt-In:
  • Implement a double opt-in process to confirm that recipients have granted permission to receive emails. This ensures you build a more engaged and responsive email list while reducing the likelihood of spam complaints. To learn more about Vtiger double opt-in, click here
• Offer a simple opt-out process:
  • Ensure every email includes an unsubscribe link for easy opt-out to avoid being marked as spam. Vtiger CRM automatically embeds this link in all email campaigns.

Troubleshooting Tips for Gmail

If you are experiencing issues with email delivery, syncing, or Gmail functionality, the following tips will help you identify and resolve common problems quickly.

• Authenticate Emails:
  • Ensure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are properly configured for your domain.
  • Use Google Postmaster Tools to monitor sender reputation.
• Encourage Engagement:
  • Ask recipients to mark your emails as Not Spam.
  • Send relevant, personalized content to boost open and click rates.
• Avoid Attachments:
  • Gmail often flags emails with attachments as spam; use links instead.
• Avoid Using URL Shorteners:
  • Gmail often flags emails with shortened links as suspicious. Use full URLs instead.
• Verify Email Frequency:
  • Don’t send too many emails in a short period, as this can trigger Gmail’s spam filters. Space out your campaigns.
• Review Bounce Rates:
  • Regularly clean your email list to remove invalid or inactive addresses, reducing bounces.
• Test Emails Before Sending:
  • Use Gmail’s Send Test Email option to check if your email is formatted correctly and not flagged as spam.

Troubleshooting Tips for Outlook

If you are experiencing issues with email delivery, syncing, or Outlook functionality, the following tips will help you identify and resolve common problems quickly.

• Authenticate Your Domain:
  • Configure SPF and DKIM records correctly.
  • Use Microsoft Smart Network Data Services (SNDS) to monitor your sender reputation.
• Simplify Formatting:
  • Avoid complex HTML or excessive images, as Outlook may flag them.
• Avoid Excessive Links:
  • Too many links in an email can make it look suspicious. Stick to a few essential links.
• Minimize Spammy Words:
  • Words like free, urgent, and act now are more likely to trigger Outlook’s spam filters.
• Request Whitelisting:
  • Ask your recipients to add your email address to their safe sender's list. To learn more about whitelisting your Vtiger instance on Outlook Exchange 2013/2016 and Office 365 to ensure email delivery, click here.
• Use Consistent Sending Patterns:
  • Outlook flags irregular email-sending patterns. Keep your sending volume consistent.

Checking your Spam Score

Both MailTester and AboutMy.Email are excellent tools for analyzing your email campaigns. They provide insights into spam scores, authentication records, and compliance with best practices. 

To check your email deliverability and avoid your emails landing in the spam folder, follow these detailed steps:

• Step 1: Generating a Test Email Address
• Step 2: Creating a Dummy Contact in Your CRM
• Step 3: Sending a Campaign to the Test Email Address
• Step 4: Checking the Spam Score
• Step 5: Optimizing your emails based on feedback

Step 1: Generating a Test Email Address

Follow these steps to generate a Test Email Address:

1. Visit MailTester (www.mail-tester.com) or AboutMy.Email (https://aboutmy.email).
2. Copy the unique test email address shown on the homepage.

Note: Keep the test tool page open so it retains the email ID you copied. Refreshing or closing this page will create a new address. Proceed to Vtiger CRM.

Step 2: Creating a Dummy Contact in Your CRM

3. Log in to the CRM. 
4. Go to the main Menu.
5. Click Essentials > Contacts. The Contacts page opens.
6. Click +Add Contacts. The Add contacts window opens.
7. Enter First Name and Last Name, e.g., Mail Tester or About Mail.
8. Paste the test email address you copied into the Primary Email field.
9. Fill in all the mandatory fields
10. Click Save.

Step 3: Sending Your Campaign to the Test Email Address

11. Log in to the CRM. 
12. Go to the main Menu > Marketing.
13. Click Email Campaigns. The Email Campaigns page opens.
14. Click the Edit icon by hovering over the campaign you want to send. 
15. Enter or select the following information:
    1. Recipients
       1. List Name: Enter a name for the marketing list.
       2. Add Subscribers: Choose Contacts to add subscribers from your CRM.
       3. Add Conditions: Click +Add Conditions to add criteria.
       4. Last Name: Select Last Name from the dropdown.
       5. Condition: Choose equals from the dropdown.
       6. Textbox: Enter Tester in the textbox to include the MailTester contact created earlier.
       7. Apply: Click this to apply the condition.
       8. Checkboxes: Enable both checkboxes at the bottom.
       9. Done: Click to finalize the list.
    2. Sender Information
       1. Enter From Name, From Email, and Reply-To email address. Note: You must verify the From Email before sending an email campaign.
       2. Assign the email campaign to a user under the Assigned To field.
       3. Enable Real-Time Alerts to receive alerts when the recipients open the email. 
       4. Enable Google Analytics Tracking to track clicks on links in the email body.
       5. Click Save.
    3. Content
       1. Click Select Template to choose an email template for your emails. To learn more about creating or editing email templates, click here. 
       2. Look for your desired template by using the search bar.
       3. Select a template.
       4. Edit the template if required. 
       5. Click Done. An unsubscribe link is added to the bottom of the email.
16. Click Send Now in the top-right corner. Wait for the campaign status to change to Completed. 

Note: You must complete all mandatory sections to send a campaign; otherwise, the Send Now option will remain disabled.

To learn more about Vtiger email marketing, click here.

Step 4: Checking the Spam Score

17. Switch back to the MailTester or AboutMy.email.
18. MailTester: Click Check your score to view the results.
19. AboutMy.email: Wait a few seconds for the tool to calculate the spam score and display relevant metrics.
20. Review the detailed report, including:
    1. Spam Score: Indicates how likely your email is to be flagged as spam.
    2. Authentication: Checks your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC settings.
    3. Content Feedback: Flags any spammy language or formatting issues.
    4. Technical Structure: Ensures your email size and technical compliance are correct.

Step 5: Optimize Your Email Based on Feedback

21. Use the insights from the spam score and report to improve your email content and setup. This might include:

1. Adjusting your email’s language or structure to avoid spam triggers.
2. Ensuring proper authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to increase deliverability.
3. Fixing any technical or compliance issues.

Reference

• Authenticate Emails with SPF, DKIM, and SenderID
• DMARC Records in Vtiger CRM
• Improving Email Deliverability
• Google and Yahoo Email Guidelines
• Creating a CNAME Record