When sending out an email message to a large group of people within a distribution list, you want to avoid doing the things that will cause spam filters to incorrectly flag your email and prevent it from ever getting to the intended recipient's inbox. Here’s some best practices you can take to meet this goal, and ensure your message gets through your audiences’ filters.
Avoid the BCC Field
If you are using a mailing distribution list, put the Distribution address in the To field, not the BCC field.
An Effective Subject Line Matters
The quality of your subject line is extremely important, since this is what gets people to read your messages! To maximize effectiveness of your subject line:
- State a brief synopsis of the message.
- Never leave the subject blank.
- Avoid trigger words like “New”, “Free”, or “Cancel” - these can trigger auto-spam filters (more on this later.)
- Avoid excessive punctuation, unnecessary capitalization, and bad spelling/grammar.
How to Handle Images
Don’t upload images as attachments, embed them in the body of the message. Do not send emails that only contain an image, make sure there is some accompanying text.
File Attachments
Certain file types will be commonly rejected immediately because they're known to often contain malware. Avoid .zip, .exe, or .dmg files for this reason. Alternatively, you can share such files via Google Drive.
The Spell Checker isn’t always right
Even if you use the spell check function, ALWAYS read your messages before going out. Many times, words that are not correct (but spelled correctly) may be missed.
Watch Your Language
Some spam filters are triggered by certain words in the subject line or the body of the email. The specific words to avoid change over time as spam techniques change, but a Google search for words commonly used in spam emails should turn up a current list of words and phrases to avoid.
Personalize Wherever Possible
Excessive use of general language, while often intended to make an email apply to as many recipients as possible, are the kind of thing that spam filters pick up on as spamming behavior. Try to be as detailed as possible when writing the email.