 So you're sending out emails for your business, but how do you make sure they actually get opened and don't end up in the spam folder? That's what we're covering today on The Journey. If you're a business owner or an entrepreneur, emailing is probably pretty important to you. Whether you just need to communicate with customers or prospects or email marketing, you want to make sure that all of your time and effort isn't going to waste. Yeah, spamming emails can sideline your business and if you're sending out email marketing campaigns, just a ton of time wasted. So first it's important to realize what causes spammy emails. We've all been there before where a legitimate message gets delivered to the spam folder. That's so frustrating, but typically if it's going to the spam folder, that means something in that email is triggering that spam filter. Yeah, and there's a range of things that can be causing that and it starts with having a really bad spam score. So there's different things like spammy subject lines. Maybe there's a link that might not go to a reputable site. Maybe it's the content in the message itself. Maybe how many people you're sending to bounce. There's tons of different things that can impact that spam score and ultimately make your email go into the spam folder. Every email provider has their own list of rules and processes, but here are a couple universally accepted ones that you can follow to help increase that email open rate. Yeah, starting with using a domain-based email. As a business, you want to be credible and professional, so you shouldn't be sending from Gmail or Yahoo or any of those other free email providers, but send from your domain. It makes you real and those spam filters understand that. So as a business of awesome Austin T-shirts, you want to send from that domain name so your audience knows it's coming from you. Yeah, and then you have that brand consistency. It's easy to remember, but it also makes you look a lot more credible. The second tip is to have your name and a physical address inside the actual email. I know it's scary to have your actual address with some why some people use like a PO box or their commercial business, but you have to have this in accordance to the Can Spam Act. Can spam, that's fun to say. Can of spam. Yeah, not that, but the other time. So it's all about regulations that you have to follow so that from subject for an email can't be misleading. It's got to be accurate and then again have that physical address in there so that they actually know that this is a credible business. Yeah, and you have to use these on all of your email marketing campaigns or something that's commercially sent. Spam filters are checking for these things. So if you don't include them, it can end up in that spam folder. Our third tip is craft an appropriate and accurate subject line. This is basically your introduction to your readers whenever you're sending that email. So make sure it's not only catchy, short, but also accurate. That's whenever it can go to the spam folder. So if it's not if it's misleading or talking about something else that's not accurate, not only is that going to turn off the people who are reading the email, it's also looks bad to those filters, right? Like if you put you just want a million dollars is your subject line, you're probably going to have like a hundred percent open rate, but a hundred percent spam filter rate. If you're trying to sell your product, you're doing something else that isn't about winning a million dollars as a consumer. I would be really mad. I'm going to go and subscribe. What a bummer. Number four is to monitor your email metrics. These are things like open rate, bounce rate, engagement, clicks, forwards, all those good things that go behind the scenes of your email marketing campaigns. Now the thing you want to look at is the actual bounce rate. The more your emails are being bounced, the higher your spam score is going to be, which is ultimately going to make you end up in those spam folders. Now what I recommend is about every six months or so, go into your actual email list and see who hasn't opened your emails at all and remove them from the list altogether. That way they don't end up on that bounce list eventually. Yeah, especially if someone's instantly deleting your emails, that can actually negatively impact your spam score. So go through weed out those people. It may seem like a great thing to have all these people subscribe to your email list, but ultimately it can hurt you if people aren't interested in opening your emails. Yeah, the quality of your subscribers matter, not the quantity. And with that, make sure at the bottom of your emails, again, going back to like that can spam act, you have to have an unsubscribe option. Make it easy for people that don't want to see your emails to unsubscribe because they don't want to see your emails. Probably don't want to do business with you and they're just taking up space with your email marketing program. Our fifth tip is send valuable email content. So think about it from their perspective. If you're going to open an email and read it, make sure it's actually something that they want to read. I know I've got about 10 seconds before work every day where I'm looking at emails. And if it's not interesting, I'm deleting it. I don't care to read it. No one has time for that. So make sure it's actual valuable content that they're going to find useful. Yeah. And go into your own inbox too, like literally right now and see the content that you're consuming on a daily basis and try to understand why you like it is. It's the person's story is the visuals they're using is just the deals. Take those things and take those learnings and apply them to your own business. Yeah. And don't forget to get to the point. I mean, if there's a call to action like, hey, 50% off or whatever, put it at the top of the email so that you get their attention right away and you capture that attention so that it actually turns into something valuable for your business. Yeah. And one thing I really, really like to do, especially when I'm coaching my clients, is to make sure they've set up their own sort of introductory email series. So as soon as somebody subscribes, they're going to get a first message and then a couple days later, another message, another message. And then those emails, you get to really tell your story and deepen the connection of you as the business owner with that new subscriber and really tell them what they're all about, add a couple tips, add value there. So they actually trust your content. And then when you do send off things later, they've already know what you're about, they're more apt to actually open those than to send you the spam filter. Tip number six is pretty self-explanatory, but still very important. Make sure you're using correct grammar and capitalization. So that is the first red flag when they're looking for an email that may be spamming. Make sure you're using that through every single part of your email from the subject line all the way to the variant. Yeah. And if you're not a English major and that's kind of a struggle to you, there's a free tool called Grammarly. It's a browser extension you can add on that'll help you with some of those corrections. So it helps you, makes you sound legible. Tip number seven is to avoid using terms that are commonly used by spammers, right? So those email filters are on the lookout all day, every day, trying to block those. And if you're using some of those same terms that they're using, you're gonna get lumped in with the wrong crowd. Yeah, think about your own inbox. If you were going through, what are some red flags where automatically those words make you realize, hey, this is a spam email, you're automatically deleting it. Think about words like bonus, you know, winner, cheap, deal, order now, things like that. Exactly. Really anything that you just look at and you're just like, no, it's not for me. You're the winner of a million bucks. Like you said earlier, automatically gonna delete that because I know I didn't win a million dollars, unfortunately. There are a ton of different words you should look out for, but the bottom line is make sure it's authentic and you're not just throwing in those random words to try and grab their attention. Tip number eight is to avoid embedding excessive files. These are things like images, videos, attachments. These are basically used commonly by spammers and people that are being malicious to send viruses out. And you, again, might be lumped up in that wrong crowd and be categorized as spam when you're sending actual content. Yeah, and don't get us wrong. I mean, using images in your emails, that's great, but just don't go crazy with it. Use them sparingly. Our ninth and final tip is include an unsubscribe link. Not only is it part of that can spam act, you've got to include that, but it also is good practice. I mean, if you don't have an unsubscribe link at the bottom, then people can't unsubscribe and you just seem shady. Yeah, and honestly, those people that are wanting to unsubscribe, chances are they're not going to be doing business with you anyway, so it's better to have those quality subscribers in your email list than quantity that don't want to see your content. Yeah, you don't need them anyway. By keeping those tips in mind, it'll not only help you increase communication, it's also going to help increase that email open rate for you, which is a win-win for everybody. So those are our nine tips to help increase your email open rates. Make sure you smash that like button if you got some value out of this video. Let us know your tips down below in the comments. And while you're at it, subscribe to our channel and ring that bell so that you're the first to know when we upload more new videos. Thanks for watching. This is The Journey.