Why do welcome emails go to spam and how to fix it?
Summary
What email marketers say13Marketer opinions
Marketer from Email Geeks suggests that people might be using junk mailboxes to access gated content. Recommends implementing previously suggested fixes to resolve the issue and follow best practices, as pinpointing a single cause is difficult and may prolong the problem.
Email marketer from Litmus explains that focusing on permission and preference management, authentication, content and reputation are key to ensure deliverability. Use a double opt-in, be upfront about what the user is signing up for, use email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC). Ensure your content is relevant and avoid spam trigger words.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares advice on welcome email filtering, suggesting securing signup sources with CAPTCHA, ensuring clarity in opt-in, and avoiding forced opt-ins for marketing content. Also advises checking for high bounces, unsubscribes, or complaints, which indicate reputation issues related to bot signups or unaligned consent. Suggests double-checking the sending domain and authentication.
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign says reasons for welcome emails ending up in spam include: poor sender reputation, sending unsolicited emails, and spam trigger words. To fix these issues, improve list hygiene, ensure subscribers have opted-in, and review your content.
Email marketer from Email on Acid shares that to improve welcome email deliverability: segment your audience, personalize your message, and test deliverability, so consider what subscribers expect from the email and make sure the content is tailored for them.
Email marketer from Gmass shares that spam filters may mark welcome emails as spam if you're a new sender, there is too little text, there's no unsubscribe link, it contains spam trigger words, or you're using a shared IP.
Email marketer from Mailjet explains that welcome emails often land in spam due to several factors: low engagement (ISPs prioritize emails recipients interact with), poor sender reputation (ISPs assess sender reputation based on past sending behavior), spam trigger words (using words commonly associated with spam can cause filtering), and lack of authentication (not implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC can harm deliverability).
Email marketer from StackOverflow shares that if welcome emails are going to spam, check your IP's reputation, ensure proper authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), avoid spam trigger words, and ensure proper list hygiene. Also, test your email content and sending practices with tools like Mail-Tester.
Email marketer from HubSpot explains welcome emails go to spam because of: low engagement, poor sender reputation, spam trigger words and lack of authentication. Solutions are: Improve email content (make it engaging), increase sender reputation (consistent sending), avoid spam trigger words (review content carefully) and implement authentication (SPF, DKIM and DMARC).
Email marketer from Reddit explains that welcome emails go to spam because of lacking proper authentication, trigger words, and low engagement so the response is to set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Also avoid using too many promotional words and test your emails before sending.
Email marketer from SendPulse shares that reasons for welcome emails landing in spam include: subscribers not recognizing the sender, low sender reputation, spam filters, incorrect email structure, and problems with IP address. Suggested fixes include using double opt-in, warming up IP address, checking IP address against blacklists, using email authentication, avoiding spam trigger words, and creating mobile-friendly emails.
Marketer from Email Geeks suggests ensuring there's nothing unusual in the HTML content, such as images hosted on a different domain than the sending IP.
Marketer from Email Geeks generally says to make sure every email is wanted by the recipient, as filters don't think that's the case now.
What the experts say5Expert opinions
Expert from Spamresource shares that certain words, phrases, and formatting techniques can trigger spam filters. Examples include excessive use of exclamation points, all caps, and phrases like 'free,' 'guaranteed,' or 'limited time offer.' Review content carefully to avoid these triggers and ensure a higher inbox placement.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that welcome messages going to spam indicate people are signing up and reporting the mail as spam, so moving verification to an earlier step should help. Suggests telling people to look in their spam folder on the after signup page.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that bounces from Gmail indicate people are providing fake addresses. Non-existent ones hurt your reputation, and they likely give fake addresses that belong to someone else.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains the importance of maintaining a clean and engaged email list for optimal deliverability. Regularly remove inactive subscribers, hard bounces, and spam complaints. Implement double opt-in to verify email addresses and ensure genuine interest. Good list hygiene helps improve sender reputation and prevents emails from landing in the spam folder.
Expert from Spamresource explains that sender reputation significantly impacts deliverability. Factors influencing sender reputation include IP address history, domain reputation, authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and engagement metrics (open rates, click-through rates, complaint rates). Building and maintaining a positive sender reputation is crucial for ensuring emails reach the inbox.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from RFC Editor shares technical documentation regarding email authentication standards (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to ensure deliverability and prevent spam, highlighting the importance of proper configuration to improve sender reputation and compliance with email provider requirements.
Documentation from Google Workspace shares guidance to prevent your email from being marked as spam and delivered to Gmail users: Authenticate your email with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Send only wanted email, make it easy to unsubscribe, monitor your sending reputation and follow Gmail's sender guidelines.
Documentation from SparkPost explains that if your welcome emails are being sent to the spam folder, the factors at play are: that email clients like Gmail, Yahoo!, and Outlook.com use algorithms to determine if the email should be delivered to the inbox, the junk mail folder, or blocked completely, authentication methods and the reputation of your sending IP address play a role in this.
Documentation from Microsoft states that your email is marked as junk if you are on a blocklist, the message content triggers the junk email filter, the 'From' person is on the recipient's blocked senders list, the message doesn't use recognized standards, the message contains malware or the recipient has never contacted the sender before.