Are you a small business owner with clients complaining that your emails are going to spam?  Well, you’re not alone.

Gmail & Spam

In November 2022, Google / Gmail upped the ante and beefed up their spam protocols. That means that many of us (yes, me included) are having our branded emails going to spam. Now, those that use google’s white label email service – you know the one for $5/mo – don’t seem to have that issue. But if you have branded emails from another provider, you may be experiencing some frustrations. I know I sure was.

From Google themselves, these are things to look at or bring to your email provider’s attention to minimize the frustration. Ultimately, you may just need to tell your clients that the first email may go to spam because of these policies and to be on the look out for them. Once received, they should mark them as “safe” (and yes, this is actually a suggestion provided by Google).

So without further ado, these are the ten suggestions/recommendations to prevent your emails from going to spam. I will be paraphrasing of course. For the full article/report, you can check it out HERE.

Reduce Spam Chances

1. Set up reverse DNS records (for your email host)
2. Set up SPF and DKIM records (for your email host)
3. Use the same domain for email and website (for example, this website is sbarnesdesigns.com my email is all @sbarnesdesigns.com . info@ , support@ , etc)
4. All messages should be sent from the same IP address. This means that if you send emails while on the go and bounce from your PC to your laptop to tablet – your IP address will be different. I do my best to send all emails from my desktop.
5. Don’t mix content. Meaning, don’t put sales information with account information.
6. Messages of the same category should have a separate email. If you’re sending sales receipts, try sending it from (sales@domain). If you sent account or other emails, try sending it from info@ . This is actually something I may need to improve on, and have a sales@ email. Most of my emails come from info@ admittedly
7. Check that your domain isn’t blacklisted by checking the “safe browsing” site status on Google.
8. Don’t send “test” campaigns or emails from your domain. It could negatively impact your status.
9. Don’t spoof. Spoofing is impersonating other domains or senders without permission.
10. Ask your clients to add your address to their contact list. Emails from an address in their list are less likely to be marked as spam.

The easiest way to avoid the frustration of email going to spam is to put a blurb on your website for your clients (or potential clients) to add your email address to their email contact list and/or be prepared to check spam if they are expecting an email from you but haven’t gotten one.