My emails go in spam. What is to be done?

Customers do not receive your messages because most of them go to spam or do not come at all? You may have become a victim of spoofing. More on that later, but for now, do not rush to panic. Maybe, you are simply mis-formatting your emails, thereby confusing the spam filter. But first things first.

 

Frequent mistakes

 

There are suspicious words in the subject of the email. If you used the words "prize", "gift", "free", "winner", "chance", "100% guarantee", etc. to design the topic, the spam filter may  perceive the letter as spam. By the way, if you overdo it with such "gifts" in the letter, the result may be similar.

 

The subject of the letter is written in capital letters. Do not yell at the reader, the spam filter does not like it - it is for a constructive dialogue without Caps. :) Also, readers tend to perceive such letters as spam - the power of habit.

 

A million question marks and exclamation marks. Well, you get it. The same story as with CapsLock. Overly curious and screamers are not in the filter's favor.

 

The font is too large. If you are a marketer of an ophthalmology clinic or an optician's salon, we do not envy you – the restless spam filter perceives too large letters as a sign of spam. 10-12 font size will be optimal.

 

Text in the picture. Do not insert text into images. First of all, it is not that cool. Secondly, this is the signal for the filter. By the way, the same can be said about the multicolored text.

 

Interactive message. Various surveys, JavaScript elements, and other forms are compelling. But you need to be extremely careful with sending such letters. After sending, always check whether they go to spam.

 

Shortened URL. Another useful thing to be careful with. Many services for shortening links are included in blacklists of spam filters.

 

You are already on the blacklist. If recipients often click "This is spam" when they see your message, congratulations – you made them angry. It could be anything: intrusiveness, uninteresting or unnecessary content, lack of opportunity to unsubscribe, etc. Another option is that your address is being used for spoofing, and the reader is tired not of you personally, but your evil twin.

 

What is spoofing?

 

Spoofing is a substitution. Malefactors replace their starting address with yours and send spam on your behalf to unsuspecting readers. They, in turn, complain about spam, and it is you, not the actual sender, who gets into the blacklists of spam filters.

 

How to get out of the blacklist?

 

Before trying to remove your IP from a blacklist, you need to identify which one of them (did you think there is only one blacklist?) you got into. This can be done with the help of many programs. We use DNSBL or DNSBL Lookup for these purposes.

 

If you see the "Listed" status in one or more lists next to your IP, contact the representatives of this list and find out their requirements for returning your good name. Unfortunately, it is impossible to assemble a standard algorithm for you to exit a blacklist – it is individual for each list.

 

Prevention of spoofing

 

To protect yourself from spoofing once and for all, we recommend using DKIM, SPF, and DMARC records. Let us take a closer look at what it is and how to use it.

 

1. DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) is an email protection method, a digital signature for a letter. With a DKIM signature, mail services can confirm the sender's authenticity. To generate a DKIM key, you can use a utility OpenSSL.

 

Use the following commands:

 

Generating a secret key:

 

openssl genrsa -out private.pem 1024

 

Getting a public key from a private one:

 

openssl rsa -pubout -in private.pem -out public.pem

 

When the keys are generated, enter them into the DNS record of your domain.

 

We also advise you to register an ADSP record in DNS. It will make it clear to the receiving server in which case a letter should be signed. There can be three types of such a record in total:

 

All letters must be signed:

 

_adsp._domainkey.example.com. TXT "dkim=all"

 

Do not accept letters without a signature:

 

_adsp._domainkey.example.com. TXT "dkim=discardable"

 

Unknown:

 

_adsp._domainkey.example.com. TXT "dkim=unknown"

 

We recommend choosing the first option.

 

2. SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is an extension for verifying the sender's domain. To connect SPF, enter the following TXT record in DNS:

 

example.org. IN TXT "v=spf1 +a +mx -all"

 

3. DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Compliance) is a similar extension for identifying the sender's mail domain. You can activate DMARC only after DKIM and SPF are configured. To configure DMARC, enter the TXT record in the DNS of your mail server:

 

_dmarc.your.tld TXT "v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:postmaster@your.tld"

 

Conclusions

 

If your mailings have gotten into spam more frequently, do not rush to change your IP address. Maybe it is not so bad, and you just miss-format letters. But even getting into spammers' blacklist is not a verdict. There will always be ways to get out of there safely. Although, as you know, it is better to avoid unpleasant treatment and take care of the prevention of spoofing in advance. DKIM, SPF, and DMARC are perfect for this. They are especially good when working in conjunction with each other.

 

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