Spam is considered to be an email that contains irrelevant and often commercial advertising, that is sent to large groups of users.

Spam filters are dynamic protection filter that checks emails after they have been sent and before it reaches a customer's inbox for any unwanted emails.

There are three common reasons why emails are delivered to spam:

If the customer deletes an email without opening it, this notifies the email service that the customer doesn't want to see these emails. These emails will then be identified as spam and start to be sent to the customer's spam folder.

The customer can make a spam complaint by selecting the specific email and marking the email as 'this is spam' or 'Report spam' in their inbox. The email service will then prevent any email from that email address from entering the customer’s inbox, instead, it will be delivered to their spam folder.

Each time an email is sent it is processed by the email services' spam filter. The spam filter looks at the customer’s previous interactions with your email campaigns and uses a points system to check the email template. This points system looks for spam indicators and assigns the appropriate points. The points total will determine whether the email will make it into the customer’s inbox or not.

Make sure that your email subject line isn't misleading. Tell your customers why they are receiving this email and the value they'll get from opening it. This will encourage customers to open your emails and read what's inside.

Here's some ideas:

Customizing your Send From name is a simple and effective way to help your customers recognize your email and entice them to open it. Try using your store name, your staff name or even a combination of both.

If you have set up a drip abandoned cart workflow, make sure that you schedule a gap between your emails. Sending multiple emails within a short space of time, can trigger spam filters.

Spam filters look closely at subject lines and email content for spam trigger words, special characters, and CAPITAL letters. Try to write creative & personalized email content to connect with your customers.

Here are some examples to avoid:

Email templates that are image-heavy or are only images will automatically trigger spam filters. Email template best practices include a ratio of 60% text with a maximum of 40% images.

In addition to the ratio, make sure that the images you upload are within the size recommendations of the email template:

When designing your email template layout, keep it clean and simple. Your abandoned cart items should be the main focus. Having too many design elements can also be a flag for spam filters. Try to avoid using background colors, large font sizes, and using more than one font.

The main action that you want users to take is completing their abandoned cart. Having multiple links can detract from the main purpose, as well as being another spam trigger. Add a call-to-action button to your abandoned cart emails to easily direct your customers back to their cart.

To ensure it’s eye-catching, use contrasting button backgrounds and text colors, and actionable wording that will drive users to click through to complete their cart.

Here are some ideas:

As part of the Email Anti-spam laws, including a valid physical address is a legal requirement for sending emails. Not having a valid physical address will mark any email sent, as spam.

A common characteristic of spam emails is spelling and grammatical errors. These errors can be hugely distracting for readers and will often come across as lazy and unprofessional.

Look carefully for typos before sending your email. Tools like spell check or Grammarly can help you identify these errors, provide suggestions and write mistake-free emails.

We are continuously looking for ways to prevent spam filtering and using data to create the most effective email templates, to encourage your customers to complete their shopping cart.