Having your emails flagged as spam is the kiss of death for your company’s email marketing efforts.
Even if you’re excluding questionable phrases like “cheap viagra” and “you’ve won a bazillion dollars” from your emails, it might surprise you to learn that terms like “traffic,” “marketing solutions,” and “info you requested” can also be huge red flags for spam filters.
To help you prevent your emails from being flagged as spam, here’s a comprehensive list of spam trigger words to avoid in 2020.
Because we help SaaS and ecommerce companies generate more revenue, we’ve grouped these trigger words into sales, marketing, calls-to-action, and other helpful categories that are most relevant to the SaaS and ecommerce marketers.
We’ve also included some best-practice tips to help you create emails that spam filters love.
How to prevent your emails from going to spam
You're probably wondering if you should avoid spam trigger words altogether. Especially if you have a legitimate use for some of the words on this list in your emails.
Don't worry. That's a super common issue. If you’re a SEO content writer working in a marketing niche then it’s going to be pretty hard to avoid using some marketing-specific trigger words in your email communication.
Thankfully, spam filters are surprisingly sophisticated these days. They won’t flag your email as spam just because it includes a couple of trigger words. It all comes down to context.
For example, if you have to include “marketing services” in your email, that’s fine. But if your email includes “free leads, free gift, free services,” and “cancel any time” in your email—that’s going to set off the spam alarm.
Just use trigger words sparingly and follow these pointers to help your emails land in the inbox, not the spambox.
1. Avoid using purchased, rented, and scraped lists
Purchased lists tend to be full of low-quality email addresses, which can cause high bounce rates and blacklisting. This is bad news for your email marketing and potentially damaging for your brand.
2. Always A/B test your subject lines
This one’s important so forgive us for repeating it: Always A/B test your subject lines! A killer subject will improve open rates and tell spam filters that your email is legit.
3. Email your subscribers regularly
Don’t want too long before emailing your subscribers. If your first ‘hello’ is to someone who subscribed to your blog a year ago, it might be flagged as spam.
4. Write in an authentic tone
Strike an authentic tone that will actually connect with the people you’re emailing. In other words: don't sound like the ShamWow Guy.
To do that, you’ll want to avoid sounding:
- Pushy: buy now!
- Needy: inflated, exaggerated claims are a telltale sign.
- Manipulative: asking for someone’s credit card info? Yeah, that’s spam.
- Far-fetched: if it sounds too good to be true, a spam filter will pick up on that.
- Cheap: no need for pre-qualification here… everyone’s a winner!
- Illegal: just don’t sell things that could land you in jail, okay?
5. Don’t hide the unsubscribe/opt-out link
The CAN-SPAM Act requires that an unsubscribe link be present in every campaign that you send. Yes, even in cold emails.
6. Make sure your domain is authenticated in Gmail
See that big red question mark? It’s an error message in Gmail that indicates the sender’s message isn’t authenticated.
When an email isn’t authenticated, it means that Gmail doesn’t know if the message has come from the person who appears to have sent it—and this can cause Gmail to reroute the email to your spambox.
Messages that aren’t authenticated aren’t necessarily spam. Sometimes, authentication doesn’t work for real organizations that send emails to big groups, such as messages sent to mailing lists.
Thankfully Gmail has instructions on how to fix emails from your domain that aren’t being authenticated. If you don’t know how to DIY this technical fix, reach out to your domain registrar’s support team and ask if they can fix it up for you.
The full list of spam trigger words to avoid in 2020
There’s no need to remember every single word on this list. Just use it to spot any trigger words in your email campaigns.
Next time you’re drafting up an email, use the “find” function in your browser to cross-check your subject line and email copy against this list.
If you’d rather outsource the task and hire a pro email copywriter to write effective emails that avoid these spam trigger words, let’s chat.
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Cards accepted
Dear [email/friend/somebody]
Dig up dirt on friends
Direct email
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If only it were that easy
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Info you requested
Information you requested
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Maintained
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Member
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Message contains
Message contains disclaimer
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Other Scammy Words Spammers Use to Make Emails Look Official
Acceptance
Addresses on CD
Beverage
Celebrity
Chance
Congratulations
Copy accurately
Dormant
Form
Freedom
Friend
Hello
Here
Hidden
Home
Legal
Luxury car
Medium
Meet singles
Miracle
Never
Not spam
Passwords
Performance
Phone
Print out and fax
Priority mail
Produced and sent out
Real thing
Removal instructions
Remove
Round the world
Score with babes
Shopper
Teen
Undisclosed recipient
Unsolicited
Vacation
Wife
