Wondering if your emails are landing in spam folders? Want to check your email's spam score? In this comprehensive guide, we'll walk you through everything you need to know about testing if your emails are going to spam in 2023.
Getting your emails marked as spam can drastically reduce your deliverability rates. According to Validity's 2022 Email Trust Report, 49% of commercial emails land in spam.
That's almost half your emails not reaching your subscribers' inboxes!
By checking your email's spam score regularly, you can identify issues and optimize your sending practices. This helps improve deliverability so more of your emails reach the inbox.
Some key reasons you should be checking for spam:
Running periodic spam tests allows you to course-correct before your sender score drops too low. Let's look at some easy ways to check if your emails are at risk of going to spam.
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There are a few free and paid tools you can use to verify if your email hits the spam folder or lands in the inbox. Here are the main options:
One of the quickest ways to check your spam score is using a dedicated spam testing service. Here's how it works:
Spam rater services simplify the process of just sending an email and getting an instant spam score. However, they provide limited insights compared to full-blown email testing platforms.
For more granular spam checks and detailed deliverability diagnostics, use a dedicated email testing platform.
These tools allow you to:
Email testing platforms provide visual reports, real-time alerts, and historically aggregated stats. This allows you to drill down into the root causes behind spam filings.
You can create test email templates that closely mirror your regular broadcasts and send these samples periodically. Tracking your spam stats over time shows the impact of your optimization efforts.
Another simple DIY approach is to set up free email accounts with top mailbox providers like Gmail, Yahoo, Microsoft Outlook, etc.
Send test emails from your actual sending domain and email campaigns to these accounts. Then, check each inbox and spam folder to see if your test landed in the intended folder.
The benefit here is you can use your real emails for spam testing. But it only gives you data for the mailbox providers you have accounts with.
Having email addresses across free and paid providers will allow you to compare their relative spammines. For instance, Outlook and Yahoo tend to be more aggressive, while Gmail has high inbox placement rates.
Major email providers have feedback loops that notify senders when their emails are marked as spam. You can check these aggregate spam complaints in your email service provider's dashboard or your feedback loop inbox.
If you see a spike in spam complaints, that's a red flag to investigate further and optimize your sending practices.
Listening to subscriber complaints is also telling. If users say your emails are going to spam/promotions folders, take it seriously and address the potential causes.
Feedback loops and user complaints complement proactive spam testing to alert you of deliverability issues.
Technology like inbox placement testing also scans your test emails for spam filter rule violations. This reveals specific issues that caused your mail to be marked as spam.
Common examples include:
Understanding which rules your emails are breaking provides direct guidance on fixes. Get your emails compliant with spam regulations to improve inbox placement.
When you test your emails for spamminess, look at these key metrics in your results:
The spam score is the primary indicator of your likelihood of landing in spam. A score above 50% generally means your test email is treated as spam.
Aim for scores below 30% across mailbox providers for reliable inbox delivery.
Check the % of your test emails that actually end up in spam folders for major ISPs. Anything over 10% may indicate reputation issues.
Itemize this data by the provider to see which ones are most aggressively filtering your mail.
As mentioned above, rule violations pinpoint specific email attributes that trigger spam filters. Fixing these issues directly improves deliverability.
Your aggregate spam complaint rate shows how often your emails get marked as spam by recipients. A high complaint rate damages the sender's reputation.
Looking at periodic spam check results over time will illustrate if your optimization efforts are working. Make sure you're seeing positive momentum.
Contextualizing your spam scores against industry averages indicates where you stand competitively. This benchmark gives useful insight into future deliverability risks.
If your spam tests reveal high risks of ending up in the junk folder, here are some best practices to turn it around:
With disciplined testing and optimization guided by your spam check results, you can keep inbox placement rates high.
A) For reliable inbox delivery aim for spam scores under 30% across major mailbox providers like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc. 50% and above means a high risk of hitting the spam folder.
A) Test your emails using spam rater services, full email testing platforms, or by sending them to accounts with different providers. Review spam folder placement rates, spam scores, and violations.
A) Common reasons are poor sender reputation, spammy content, suspicious links, images not matching text, missing addresses, high complaint rates, etc.
A) Improve sender reputation, optimize your content, comply with regulations, increase engagement and relevance, avoid blacklists, and check link quality. Test regularly to monitor spam score improvements.
A) Yes, there are free email spam testing options like spam rater tools and setting up provider accounts. For more robust spam checks use paid platforms.
A) Indicators include higher spam folder placement rates in tests, increased complaints and blocks from ISPs, feedback loop notifications, and subscriber reporting issues.
A) Ideally, test your main email types each month. Also, re-test after making significant deliverability changes. Check periodically to track optimization impact.
A) Focus on improving engagement, relevance for subscribers, sender reputation, and email hygiene. Avoid spam triggers by optimizing content, links, and metadata in compliance with regulations.
Checking your emails for spam is crucial for maximizing inbox placement and protecting the sender's reputation. Use the tips in this guide to start testing your spam score regularly.
Focus on addressing any problem areas revealed in your spam test results. With consistent optimization guided by data, you can keep spam risks low and deliverability high. It is also important to check the site authority from which you receive the email form. Here is how you can check the DA of a website through the DA checker.
Try our free email spam checker now to get instant insight into your spam score across major mailbox providers. Let us know if you have any other questions!
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