Why Newsletters get Filtered as Spam

Have you ever wondered why some of your newsletters get filtered as spam? Perhaps you just signed-up for the simplify 101 newsletter, but didn’t receive your subscription confirmation link or first email – why is that?

Let’s begin with a quick recap of the definition of spam. Spam email is an unsolicited commercial message (email) that is sent to multiple recipients – often thousands or millions of people. The typical characteristics of a spam email look something like this:

1. The email message is the same for everyone on the list (or very much the same).
2. The message is being sent by a single “sender”.
3. A large number of the email messages being sent are originating from a single computer or email server.
4. None of the recipients requested to be on the list.

Now, let’s take a look at how the simplify 101 newsletter might be confused as spam. Reviewing the characteristics of a spam message:

1. The message is the same for everyone on the list. Yep, we’re pretty much the same here – everyone on the list gets the same newsletter.
2. The message is sent by a single “sender”. In our case, everyone’s newsletter comes from Aby’s email address. So, we’re the same here as well.
3. Like many other companies, simplify 101 uses a third party company to send our emails. Aby writes the newsletter, Jay formats the content, and the third party sends it on our behalf. You guessed it – all of the newsletters are being sent from the same email server. Yikes! We’re the same here as well!
4. None of the recipients requested to be on the list. At last we’re different! To subscribe to the simplify 101 newsletter, you actually had to request that you be added to the list by providing your first name and email address. But anyone who knows your first name and email address could have done that, right? Remember that confirmation email that we send you – the one where you need to click the link to confirm your subscription? There is a reason for that after all! This link is your way of confirming to our newsletter provider that you want to be on our list. Without this confirmation link process, any “spammer” could use a newsletter provider to send emails to a list of people without their permission. So, the confirmation email helps to prevent spamming, and that’s a great thing!

So, when you consider the characteristics of a spam email compared to those of a legitimate newsletter, you can quickly see that they’re very similar. The only real difference is that with the legitimate email, the recipient signed-up to receive it. Unfortunately, the Internet Service Providers and your email software don’t have this piece of information. But, you can provide this missing piece by using the email white list. By adding a newsletter sender to your white list, you inform your provider that you approve of the sender—and all emails from that sender are then delivered to you.

If you’d like to read more about the topic of spam, or about the CAN-SPAM law that exists to combat it, then check out the Federal Trade Commission—they have a whole section dedicated to the topic.