How to Avoid a Bride's Email Spam Filter?

Wedding Professionals:

It can be so frustrating. You follow all of the rules and sometimes your email campaigns still do not reach a percentage of brides’ inboxes. According to MailChimp, “You can expect 10-20% of your emails to just get lost in cyberspace, mostly due to overzealous spam filters.” While there is no quick fix, there are ways that have been proven to help overcome this challenge. Yes, this is another thing to think about when doing wedding marketing but guess what… more brides will get your email messages. This will expand both your relationships and your opportunity to earn more money.

Rule #1: First and foremost, make sure that you aren’t actually spamming your audience. Spam (a.k.a. junk email) involves sending nearly identical email messages to numerous recipients who have not opted-in for this activity. So, take the spam test. Are you importing a purchased list of ANY kind? Are you sending to non-specific addresses such as: sales@domain.com, business@domain.com, webmaster@domain.com, info@domain.com, or other general addresses? Do you have any abuse@, postmaster@, or hostmaster@ domains on your list? Are you sending to distribution lists or mailing lists which send indirectly to a variety of email addresses? Are you mailing to anyone who has not explicitly agreed to join your mailing list?

Rule #2: Don’t use certain trigger words or phrases. This is especially true for your subject line. Don’t use words like free, affordable, all new, no hidden costs, risk free, etc. To help, I recently found a list of 100 words that you should avoid in your subject line.

Rule #3: Don’t use a lot of exclamation points!!!

Rule #4: DON’T use all CAPS.

Rule #5: Don’t use bright red or green for your font colors.

Rule #6: Don’t send just one large image in your email. Spam filters can’t read images and won’t trust your email.

Rule #7: Do use a spam checker. I personally use and highly recommend Constant Contact's spam checker. (If you'd like to try out Constant Contact, here's a link to their FREE 60-Day Trial). Before you send out your email, the spam checker can scan your email for things that the spam filters will look for.

These simple rules can save you both time and money. More importantly, they will maximize the value of the bride list that you worked so hard to accumulate. Are there other best practices that you have learned in order to avoid the bride’s spam filter?


About This Blog: Christine Dyer is the Creator and Founder of BridalTweet. Christine has an MBA in marketing and shares over ten years of marketing expertise with the wedding community. In this weekly blog, you'll find advice on an array of wedding business topics such as how to market to brides, social networking, wedding PR, wedding sales, vendor networking, branding, pricing and much more. Please pass this news along to your own professional wedding network. To receive this advice in your email inbox each week, Sign Up for a Free BridalTweet Membership.