16 Words That May Toss Your Email into the Spam Folder

Spam. People hate it and wish it would just stop showing being delivered to them at all. No. I’m not talking about the food. I’m talking about those annoying emails from a Nigerian prince who needs your help escaping his country, because there are elephants  banging down his castle door with pitchforks and Super Soaker guns, and in return for your help he will wire you $15,000. All you have to do is give him every single ounce of personal information to make this happen. His assurance is guaranteed. You know… that spam.

Now, we all know there are certain words and phrases that may trigger a spam filter. Words like “free,” “call now,” “Viagra” and “cheap,” so let’s focus on the lesser known words and phrases that have been known to trip a spam filter.

1. Amazing
2. “Stop” or “Stops”
3. “Guarantee” or “Guaranteed”
4. You’ve been selected
5. Opportunity
6. Form
7. Now
8. Solution
9. Orders shipped by priority mail
10. Order Now
11. Thousands
12. Incredible deal
13. Information you requested
14. Limited time offer
15. Prices
16. Opportunity

How many of those words or phrases surprised you? How many of those listed are you guilty of using?

It’s important to mention that trigger words used sparingly in your subject lines, probably won’t hurt your overall delivery rating, but just be smart about it. Remember what a synonym is? Find words that mean the same thing as the trigger words to get around your email potentially being labeled as spam.

Sources

http://www.internetbasedmoms.com/ezine-publishing/avoid_spam_filters.html

http://blog.mannixmarketing.com/2009/08/spam-trigger-words/

http://www.mequoda.com/articles/email-marketing/subject-line-spam-trigger-words/

http://www.dailyblogtips.com/6-mistakes-to-avoid-on-email-subject-lines/