How do intentional typos impact email deliverability?
Summary
What email marketers say13Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Reddit explains that occasional typos might slip through, but a consistent pattern of intentional typos can be seen as a tactic to bypass spam filters, leading to penalties. They recommend avoiding such practices.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares they are not aware of overuse of a word, or even non-words, having a direct impact on deliverability, but if the audience isn't into it and stops engaging, you'd have an indirect impact.
Email marketer from Mailerlite suggests proper grammer should always be used because typos can affect sender reputation, deliverability rates and also create a negative impression for your brand.
Email marketer from Litmus indicates that the impact of intentional typos on deliverability is nuanced. While minor, infrequent typos are unlikely to cause significant harm, widespread and obvious misspellings can raise red flags for spam filters and diminish the overall credibility of the sender.
Marketer from Email Geeks suggests to test and validate. Shares previous experience in which spam keywords as legitimate messaging didn't have that much of an impact on individual email deliverability performance; the bigger issue actually came back to technical SEO.
Email marketer from Gmass recommends using proper grammar. While typos alone may not directly cause deliverability issues, high typo rates may signal to spam filters that the email is not of high quality.
Marketer from Email Geeks suggests to test it and if it’s not received well or it becomes hard to read, it may not hit the mark and lead to negative engagement. Also suggests determining how often the company wants to do this, as the novelty of it could be fun, but once it wears off, it could start to hinder performance.
Email marketer from Sendinblue shares that while not always a direct trigger, frequent typos can contribute to lower engagement rates. This is because recipients may perceive the email as unprofessional or untrustworthy, indirectly impacting deliverability.
Email marketer from Email on Acid states that while email providers are getting smarter about contextual understanding, a high volume of typos can still negatively impact deliverability, especially if they resemble common spam trigger words or phrases.
Email marketer from DigitalPoint forum says that the use of typos may cause deliverability issues because it may be flagged by spam filters or the user will have a negative perception of the email and mark it as spam.
Email marketer from StackExchange states that intentional typos used as keywords may be flagged. A better plan would be to use proper keywords and proper English to avoid deliverability issues.
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that besides some exceptions or bugs, content would matter much much less than reputation and engagement and that there are plenty of emails with typos landing in inbox.
Email marketer from Mailjet explains that typos, especially in subject lines, can trigger spam filters and damage sender reputation. They recommend proofreading carefully to maintain a professional image and avoid being marked as spam.
What the experts say2Expert opinions
Expert from Spam Resource explains that typos, especially when used to bypass spam filters by misspelling common spam trigger words, can negatively impact deliverability. They advise that while a few errors are normal, a deliberate pattern will likely be detected and penalized.
Expert from Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, explains that intentional typos in email can reduce engagement. Messages using creative spelling are often considered less credible and will negatively impact a sender's reputation and the way future messages are filtered.
What the documentation says3Technical articles
Documentation from RFC Editor explains that RFC 5322 defines the Internet Message Format, but it doesn't specifically address the impact of typos on email deliverability. However, it establishes standards for email headers and content, and deviations from these standards (including poorly formatted text) can potentially affect deliverability.
Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools does not explicitly mention intentional typos, it emphasizes the importance of maintaining a good sender reputation and adhering to best practices for email content. Poor grammar and spelling can contribute to a negative sender reputation over time.
Documentation from Microsoft explains in their deliverability documentation that while not a primary factor, using correct spelling and grammar is important. Poorly written content may lower engagement and thus impact filtering of future emails.