Tiffany Markman

I’ve got some bad news for you. Here it is: The same qualities that make your emails attractive to your audience are also those that make you look like a s.p.a.m.m.e.r.

You’ll agree that s.p.a.m is bad. Irritating all the time, time-stealing some of the time, really dangerous a bit of the time. And, to combat its unrelenting flood, Internet service providers, email marketing services and even email programmes analyse millions of messages, compiling lists of ‘trigger’ words and phrases associated with s.p.a.m.

These words and phrases are then used to filter or screen incoming email messages.

Now, this helps to reduce the deluge of unwanted messages we all receive, so it’s a good thing. But the down side is that, often, real emails, i.e. yours, are caught in the web. Why? Because certain words, especially when used in the subject line, trigger the s.p.a.m filters and get you bounced to the Junk folder. Relegated – possibly forever.

Here are some of the evil triggers at the moment. Don’t use them. Please. Thanks.

• #1
• 100% satisfied
• Additional Income
• Affordable
• Amazing
• Bargain
• Best price
• Click / Click Here / Click Below
• Congratulations
• Dear friend
• For free
• Free
• Guarantee
• Information you requested
• Marketing solutions
• Message contains
• No-obligation
• Order / Order Now / Order today
• Please read
• Remove
• Risk free
• Satisfaction guaranteed
• Save $
• Save up to
• Special promotion
• Urgent
• Win
• Winner

Tip: Talk to the email service provider that sends your messages and see if they’ll give you their most current trigger word list. Be particularly careful with subject lines.

Note: Your email won’t get junked because it features just one of these words. Filters use formulae that allocate s.p.a.m points to each message. The words above, and some others, add points. And when your message gets enough points, it is filtered. Cheerio.