In this article we will learn how to prevent your emails from going to spam in Gmail Gmail has spam warning levels to automatically identify suspicious emails and drive them to the spam folder. This action helps you to prevent cybercrime activities in your Gmail account. A hacker can send you frequent unnecessary emails and try to fill up your Gmail inbox to prompt you to click any of the emails or reply to them to get access to your personal information. Thus to protect you from this situation, Gmail uses spam warnings. 

But sometimes, Gmail incorrectly marks trustworthy emails as spam. So, the Admin and users can take some steps to stop the genuine messages from going to spam. In this article, you will learn how to prevent emails from going to spam Gmail.

The common actions for preventing emails from going to Spam 

  • Mark your messages as Not Spam

You can mark the emails as not spam when Gmail incorrectly marks your important emails. When you set your preferable emails as not spam, Gmail recognizes how to manage your emails using Machine Learning. Here is the process to mark your emails as not spam –

  1. Open Gmail from your computer
  2. Click More > Spam.

3. Open the email message. Click Not Spam from the top.

Also, you can use a filter to defend your emails from not mark as spam –

  1. Go to the search box (at the top) in Gmail. Then, click Show search options.
  2. Enter your search criteria, such as – Has the words

Click Create Filter from the bottom of the search window.

4. Choose an action for your filter.

5. Finally, click Create Filter.

  • Add trusted senders

You can manage your trusted contact list in Gmail. When you add an external email address to the contact list, Gmail will not mark their messages as spam. So, how to add a contact –

  1. Open Google Contacts from your computer.
  2. Click Create Contact on the top left.

3. Then, click Create a contact or Create multiple contacts.

4. Enter the contact person’s information and click Save.

Actions for Admin to prevent emails from going to spam

  • Use the allowlists feature in Gmail

You can use email allowlist to save messages from particular IP addresses to avoid them going to the spam folder. You should add those IP addresses within the email allowlist from the Admin Console. This allowlist will always work for your entire domain. But you can’t add any private IP address within this list. The list is only applicable to public IP addresses.

  • Use a custom spam filter

Gmail checks the received emails in your inbox to identify any spam messages. By default, Gmail evaluates this action for all the received messages within the inbox. Thus you can’t disable spam scanning by Gmail. Instead, you can set Gmail’s customized spam filtering for your incoming messages. You should apply the custom spam filters on an organizational unit. Then the filter will apply to all users in that OU. Also, the users under a child OU will inherit the custom spam filter from the parent OU.

This filtering option will help to –

  • Keep the approved senders’ messages safe from marking them as spam by Gmail.
  • Keep the messages from your domain’s sender safe from spam.
  • If the spam messages are in quarantine, you can review them before delivering them to the recipients.

You can learn more from Add custom spam filters to Gmail.

Best practices for successful email delivery

  • Email authentication for your sending domain

Google always recommends you set up SPF and DKIM to authenticate the Gmail accounts where you send messages. SPF shields your domain from sending spam messages to users. You have to enable SPF by setting up an SPF record for your sending domain. This record authorizes all email senders from your domain. Thus, when the recipients receive emails from these senders, Gmail doesn’t mark them as spam. The DKIM works on the receiving servers. It helps the receiving server to verify that the messages are sent from the original sender of your domain and not anyone impersonating the sender.

  • Send emails only to the potential users 

You should send the messages to the recipients who want to continue communicating with you and are interested in receiving your emails. Hence, there will be fewer chances of reporting your domain as spam from their side. If the recipients frequently report your domain as spam, it will decrease your domain’s reputation. Thus, you should send the messages to your engaged users only.

  • Create an easy CTA for subscribing and unsubscribing your emails

First of all, ensure recipients want emails from your side and are enthusiastic about subscribing to your email. So, you should confirm their email addresses before sending the subscription offer. Again, it periodically asks them if they are still interested in the subscription.

It is compulsory to add an unsubscribe link for your recipients. It helps you to prevent your messages from getting marked as spam and improves click-through rates. Moreover, your unsubscribe link should be visible and prominent. Also, set an automatic unsubscribe for the users having multiple bounced messages.

  • Format your messages correctly

If you maintain standard email formatting, then your messages are sent to the recipients without any barrier. So, you should follow these rules –

  1. Format your emails with the Internet Format Standard.
  2. For HTML messages, follow the HTML standard to format your messages.
  3. Don’t try to hide your message content using HTML and CSS. It will increase the chance of marking your messages as spam.
  4. Your deliverable message should include a valid message ID.
  5. The ‘From:’ header should contain a single email address.
  6. The message subject should be appropriate and shouldn’t be large.
  7. If you add web links to your message body, they should be visible and easy to handle. After clicking on it, you should inform the recipients where it navigates them.
  • Control your email sending volume

If you increase the volume of emails you send rapidly, it will become challenging to deliver the messages. Thus you should increase this number gradually to avoid such issues. Additionally, you should start this practice with a low volume and maintain it. Later, you can increase the volume slowly.

When you are increasing the volume, you must regularly check your server responses. Regular monitoring will help you to find out the spam rate and sending domain’s reputation. Also, the monitoring allows you to combat issues like the increase in the spam rate, fall of the domain reputation, limitations in the sending rate, etc. In this regard, you can use the Postmaster Tools for regular monitoring.

  • Use recommended email server practices by Gmail

Your sending IP address must contain a PTR (Pointer) record. This record verifies if your sending hostname matches the sending IP address. Thus it’s necessary to map every IP address with its hostname within the PTR record. The hostname should contain a forward DNS that refers to your sending IP address.

You should be extra careful when you’re using a shared IP address. When multiple senders use a mutual IP address, then it becomes a shared IP address. But in this case, one sender’s negative reputation will affect other senders’ reputation. As a result, it will negatively impact others’ delivery rates. So, you should check that the shared IP doesn’t belong to any internet block list. Also, monitor the shared IP reputation with the Postmaster Tools.

  • Use the Postmaster tool to check spam rates and other factors

Check your email spam rate regularly with the Postmaster Tools. If your spam rate lies under 0.10%, you’re in a low spam rate zone. The low spam rate helps to maintain your sending domain’s reputation. Thus, you should avoid a higher spam rate, like 0.30% or more.

Again this tool informs you when recipients mark your emails as spam when your message doesn’t deliver, and your IP address reputation.

Some email delivery issues for Gmail and their recommended solutions

  1. Sometimes your message becomes rejected when you’re trying to send them to the recipients. Then you will get the notification for an error messages. 
  2. It happens when sending IP addresses are not present in the allowlist of the recipient’s domain, or the sending IP address is added to a suspended list. 

Solution: You should learn about the SMTP error reference and fix bounced or rejected emails to solve these issues.

  1. You may get an IPv6 authorization error during your email-sending activities. It means the PTR record for your sending server doesn’t use the IPv6 authorization.

Solution: Ensure your email service provider uses a PTR record with IPv6 authorization.

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Conclusion

To maintain your domain reputation, you should prevent your emails from going to spam. There are several techniques for sending your emails safely to the users. Know the techniques from this blog post and learn about Foresight. It’s a reputable automation platform and productivity tool. So, try a 14-day free trial and start your no-code automation journey with Foresight. Now, learn more related topics – Spam and abuse policy in Gmail, etc.

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