It is not news that even expert marketers face problems with their email marketing campaigns such as emails ending up in their audience’s Promotions tab or worse, the spam folder. Getting frequently flagged by email giants like G-Mail or internet service providers(ISP) seriously affects future deliverability, click rates and overall campaign performance. There are instances where entire website domains were blacklisted due to their spammy nature.

However, these aren’t brands or businesses that ever intended to run a scam like the infamous phishing emails we all know about. We are talking about authentic promotional or informative content being blocked for numerous reasons despite the long hours of copywriting efforts put in to create email campaigns.

While there are many technical factors that can be easily tweaked to improve campaign performance, marketers will have to do everything in their power to control campaign effectiveness to rake in more than satisfactory conversions. Little adjustments in messaging can contribute hugely to the success of your marketing campaign. Here are five important things to consider while preparing content for marketing emails that will ensure your content shows up in your audience’s primary inbox.

Beware of Spammy Words & Phrases

An astounding amount of inexperienced marketers and copywriters happen to be unaware of how spammy terms and phrases negatively impact their email campaign performance.

While there’s a list of obvious spam terms like cash, bonus, free etc., things got trickier as emails featuring generic words like ‘amazing’ and ‘opportunity’ in their subject lines also started getting flagged as spam frequently. Marketing resources like HubSpot and Mailchimp constantly update their lists of words and phrases to drastically minimize such instances.

Even an expert copywriter at an email marketing agency would know how hard it is to find alternative non-spammy words/phrases in contrast to initial ideas. While structuring emails, it is suggested that you write what you originally intended first. Later, you can cross-check your copy with the spam list and update it accordingly.

Email Formatting Efficiency

When writing emails or any other type of marketing content, it is not always about what you say but how you say it. ISPs are smart enough to detect and assess the context of your copy. There are a few common formats like the generic sales or lottery styles to look out for. It is almost certain for your emails to get flagged as spam if you use such formats in your campaign design.

A few examples are too many exclamation marks, non-emoji symbols, multicolored fonts, varying font sizes or types. Even slight detection of these can land your email into the spam folder.

Furthermore, you should also refrain from using too many punctuations in general. For instance, breaking up a very long sentence with too many commas or a “dot dot dot” can easily get your emails into trouble.

As a marketer, you can invest in several apps and software to regularly check errors while writing emails. An experienced email marketing agency usually has a preset system to create email sets for campaigns that are free from such errors.

A Short & Crisp Subject 

The above two sections also come in handy while writing your email’s subject line. Be very careful about using spam triggers and unnecessary characters that will get flagged by the system.

While a great subject line should include a good hook and build curiosity in your potential customer, it’s important to keep it short, crisp and matched adequately with the email content. 47% of emails are discarded based on the subject line alone. That’s nearly half of your good work gone to waste. At such a rate, your engagement will take a huge hit and signal ISPs that your emails aren’t read-worthy.

You should also not trick your customers into opening your emails because high opens and low clicks won’t benefit your campaign. More than half of the consumers reported that clickbaity and misleading subject lines tricked them. So it is recommended to find a balance between curiosity and relevancy to make safe landings inside the inbox.

Simple and Legible Writing

The best way to write an email or other content is to avoid sounding like a marketer. While keeping things professional, it’s also important to keep calm and write like you’re talking to a friend or telling your real-life story to someone you care about. A friendly approach might not suit every business scenario. But considering the fact that the majority of sales target consumers, a friendly and warm tone will do the job. This will make your email welcoming, pleasant, helpful and relevant.

Make sure your email isn’t any longer than it needs to be. If you think your subject calls for a longer email, break it up into multiple paragraphs to make it easier to read. The more engaged are your readers, the more likely you will end up in their inbox.

Relevancy

Studies suggest that approximately sixty percent of email users will flag a sender as spam if they get too many irrelevant emails. It goes without saying that if your potential customer or subscriber thinks your content is irrelevant, they’ll be likely to respond to your future emails.

So the next time you’re writing or creating concepts for your campaigns, consider why you’re creating them in the first place. Cross-check how it’s relevant to the brand and adds value to your potential customer’s problem or need.

Sending emails like unnecessary reminders or repeated content without purpose will not impress your subscribers. Always be strategic with your email marketing and plan the intents of your campaign well in advance.

Conclusion

So that sums up the five things marketing experts and copywriters do to make sure campaign emails end up in the audience’s primary inbox, thereby boosting conversions and revenue.

The primary goal is to make your campaign engaging, interesting and click-worthy.

While images might help do this to an extent, it is important not to rely on too many images as it would be considered spam, affecting future deliverability and open rates. Along with being catchy, your email should also match the receiver’s expectations from your business.

Another important thing is the frequency of your emails. A consistent emailing pattern will help make your brand’s presence more predictable and recognizable. It is strongly advised that this consistency extends into your language, personality, and even the structure of your emails. Familiarity and uniformity can tremendously help in building trust with your audience.

Ensuring a higher open rate can improve your future deliverability by significantly reducing the chances of your emails ending up in the spam folder or the Promotions tab. Also, keep in mind that past behavior heavily impacts future campaign performance. As discussed earlier, try to write with a warm and friendly tone by keeping all unnecessary technicalities hidden in the backend. Have you ever heard personal emails ending up in the junk? It’s always 100% deliverability with personal emails. Right? So leverage the writing style that could potentially get you a 100% open rate and see the difference in performance from day one.