Some Less Obvious Spammy Words to Avoid

The folks at Blue Sky Factory provide a list of some of the less obvious “spammy” words and phrases to avoid in your emails in their article "Dirty Words in Disguise".

These is the list of words and phrases to avoid in both the subject line and the body copy:

• Information you requested
• Important information regarding
• Guarantee, Guaranteed
• Special Promotion
• Great Offer/Deal
• Visit our website
• Opportunity
• 50% Off
• Click Here
• Call Now
• Subscribe
• Bonus
• Free
• All New
• One time
• Order Now
• Amazing
• Discount
• Save up to
• One time
• Winner
• Prizes

Also, beware of using exclamation points, quotation marks, dollar signs, percentage signs and all capital letters (DON’T SCREAM AT YOUR RECIPIENTS!).  Do not put a toll free number in the subject, and avoid using a font larger than two point.

So what steps can you take to ensure “spammy” words and phrases aren’t flagged in your emails? Blue Sky Factory recommends the following:

1. Keep the above “naughty” list in the back of your mind or taped to your monitor when creating emails.  Make sure none of these words or phrases are included in your subject lines or body copy, even when used with the best intentions.
2. Test your emails to several different ISP’s to track where they land. If the email lands in any spam or junk folders, try making changes to the subject line and body copy and test again.
3. Use a spam check tool.  It will catch things like “spammy” words and large fonts, as well as suspicious from addresses.
4. When in doubt about a word or phrase, rewrite it!  If you’re doubting it, a spam filter probably is probably questioning it too.

Comments

[Joanna Lawson-Matthew]

Thanks for linking! Great blog! Check out our blog too, The Thinking Inbox, at www.blueskyfactory.com/blog.

Thanks again!