Email Spam Filters: How to Avoid Setting Them Off

Spam filters can be viewed by the world in two ways: they can be the best invention since sliced bread or they are the tools to send businesses to bankruptcy. One can imagine that the latter view is held by people who get affected the most by these filters - namely spammers. Unfortunately, because of reasons of user fatigue with spammers, legitimate internet businesses have also suffered and it would not be surprising to see them also being categorized as spammers. This is not completely unfair either, because the boom in internet proliferation was hardly gradual and rules never kept up with the spread of the internet. This caused even legitimate business to suddenly do the same malpractices as their more nefarious cousins - sending unsolicited mail.

Legislation finally came and changed the entire scenario and today there is even a decrease in the amount of spam that hits peoples' inboxes. Of course, one must not forget the contribution of the filtering mechanisms in reducing spam mail traffic. So, is it really that difficult to prevent spam coming into your mailbox? The answer unfortunately is yes and the reason for this is that content is subjective. You can't dumbly check for keywords in a mail and send it to a trash bin. You have to see the context of the use of the word. Therefore, more important mail could end up going to the spam folder along with spam. So how do the new generation of spam filters work?

These filters work using complex mathematical probability like the Bayesian method and Markovian discrimination. In non-nerd speak, that means learning from user behavior of what is spam and then using probability to compute a score for each mail that comes in before sending a mail to the spam folder. So, avoiding a spam folder is not as simple as it used to be but there is still one factor in favor of the bulk emailer - content is always flexible and adjustable.

All that you need to do to avoid the scanners is to not use the typical spam words like free, discount, hurry, click here, and the like. Avoid creating a pattern with words and phrases and do not repeat them. Use more imagery as text in images cannot be read by anti-spam mechanisms. There is a cardinal rule about email marketing and that is to never acquire your addresses unethically. Besides the spam filters, users will reject you and that means getting blacklisted forever.

These are some simple techniques. Remember to test out your content by mailing from one dummy address to another to see which combination of words trigger the filters. Another useful tip is to embed videos in your emails and make them more information rich rather than rich in sales spiel. This is simply irritating to most people and is the equivalent of a used car salesman jumping out of the screen at the user. Finally, always add an unsubscribe option in your emails.