Avoid the (Spam) Trap! Things to look out for Email Design and Coding

April 25, 2017

Does your team has put a lot of effort for growing the email list, creating a beautiful email template design and does write a catchy subject line for grabbing the attention of the subscribers. But still, after putting a lot of efforts on the email template design and marketing, the open rate of your email is low, then it’s a high time to think over it. Low email delivery rates is one of the most critical challenges email marketers are facing nowadays. While many factors affect your deliverability, spam trap is one of the biggest issues.

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What is Spam Trap?

A spam trap looks like a real email address, but it doesn’t belong to a real person nor is it used for any kind of communication. Spam traps are commonly used by inbox providers and blacklist providers to catch malicious senders. The email goes in the spam when there are critical issues with the subject line, design layout and IP address. Various tools are available in the market and they can be easily accessed to check whether the email is good enough to be delivered to the public or not.

Designing Problems:

1. Size of the Picture

Maintaining the proper proportion of the email template design and the email is a must. The standard ratio is of 60:40 for the text and for email design. It should be followed for avoiding the email to be considered as spam.

2. Avoid the Emails to be Too much Flashy

Highlighting the text with the bright red and blue colors raises certain red flags. Unwanted attention is being drawn by the bold font colors and changed background that causes the email to be reviewed as spam.

3. Image Styling

Always use an email design without any borders. Clearly specify the length, breadth and height of the email template design. The email template design should not vary from the original size of the email design. If the size differs, the chances of getting the email ignored are maximum as in the case of Outlook.

4. Usage of Tables instead of List

In the listing, alignment varies up and it leads to total mess-up of the email, resulting it into spam. Make use of rows and columns to make the listing order look proper in the email.

5. Use of Tables instead of div

It is always better to create a table while creating an email. Most email clients do not support CSS positioning, floats and clears. Make sure you properly nest tables and close all open tags.

Coding Mistakes:

  • Never Exceed: The maximum size of the email should be 30 Kb. Unnecessary texts, images and nested tables must be removed before sending the email to the user. If not essential, the files should not be attached with the email.
  • No Copy-Paste: Never copy-paste the HTML coding from the Microsoft word. It leads to poorly coded sloppy HTML, that automatically results into the spam trap.

Subject Line Errors:

  • Always have a view at the content before finally clicking on the send button. The text should not be written in capital letters. Secondly, the punctuation marks need to be properly used. Never deceive the customers by writing “Re” or “Forward” in the subject line.
  • Avoid using the words like money back guarantee offer, free or any other similar sentence as these sentences makes the email inspect as a spam.

How to fight spam traps?

  • Manage the Soft and Hard Bounces: Making the data spotless is one of the vital steps to be carefully handled by the marketing team. Valid email address of the subscriber must be used for the successful delivery of the email without getting any bounce.
  • Regulate Segmentation Methods: If the user doesn’t open the email and click on the spam button upon receiving the email, it may be because of the bad reputation of your organization name. Filtering the inactive subscribers from the mailing list is the best way to get rid away from the spam trap.

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