After spending hours creating an email marketing campaign, the last thing you want to do is get blocked by your recipients’ spam filters. Luckily, by avoiding common email spam trigger words, you can successfully prevent your emails from getting routed to spam folders.

Not only does spam email marketing betray the trust of customers, but it can also contain malware and viruses. Ultimately, you’ll want to avoid sending spam emails because your customers won’t read them.

Let’s look at what spam trigger words are, what gets emails sent to spam, and which spam words you should avoid when creating your email campaigns.

Spam filters can be triggered for a variety of reasons, causing your email to skip recipients’ inboxes and land straight in their spam inbox. One of the easiest ways to avoid spam filters is by carefully choosing the words you use in your email’s subject line.

Trigger words are known to cause problems and increase the chances of your email getting caught in a spam trap. By avoiding these words in your email subject lines, you can dramatically increase your chances of getting beyond the filters.

Spam trigger words alone aren’t enough to send your email to spam. For instance, if you are offering a 3-for-1 discount sale, you can still advertise that in your emails and not get sent to spam. It’s important to understand all the factors that come into play when emails get identified as spam.

What causes emails to go to spam?

Email providers look for a number of factors when deciding whether to automatically send your emails to spam. If you’ve made it on an email blacklist, that means you’ve repeatedly sent emails to recipients who haven’t signed up for your email list.

Your emails can get sent to spam if you:

• Don’t include an unsubscribe button in your email: It’s best to give recipients the option to opt-out of emails. Provide an unsubscribe link.
• Send poorly-designed emails with broken or glitchy code: Poorly-designed emails create an unpleasant reading experience. Readers will regret opening your note in the first place if the format is hard to read and the design doesn’t render properly.
• Address your recipient by “my friend” or “dear” (or not by their name): To get the best results, add a personal touch in the subject line or message to increase your open rate and provide a better customer experience.
• Buy email lists online and mass-send messages to email addresses that don’t exist (resulting in a high bounce rate): Not only do the recipients not know you, you could quickly ruin your IP reputation and put your email deliverability at risk. If you do business in Europe, buying email lists could also be a violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which requires explicit permission from your contacts to send them emails.

• Use all-caps text and extreme punctuation (!!!!! or ?????): Many spam detecting software will automatically register emails formatted in all-caps as spam. It also doesn’t help to look like you’re shouting at the reader.
• Include strangely formatted fonts (𝖑𝖎𝖐𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖘): Similar to using all-caps, weird fonts are more difficult to read and are likely to trigger spam detecting software.
• Provide links to fraudulent websites: This should be obvious, but never link to fraudulent websites in your emails. It’s harmful to your contacts and undermines your credibility.

Now that you know what not to do, let’s go over some best practices to ensure your emails steer clear of spam folders.

How to Become a High-Reputation Email Sender

Email providers only want to deliver emails from high-reputation senders. To be a high-reputation sender, do the following:

• Include an unsubscribe button: Communication is a two-way street. Ensure your contacts can opt-out if they choose by placing an unsubscribe link in your email.
• Design your emails with clean code using a tool such as Marketing Hub: Take the guesswork out of designing emails. With these tools, your emails will open glitch-free every time.

• Personalize your emails with the recipient’s first name: 71% of consumers expect email personalization. Address them by name and watch as your open rates improve.
• Only email those who’ve subscribed to your email list: If you don’t have any, you should learn to naturally increase your email list subscribers.

• Keep your email deliverability high: Doing the tasks above will improve deliverability but you should also make sure you are compliant with the legal guidelines in your region. Most marketing software is compliant with web laws but if you’re handling email in-house, you’ll want to double check your emails are compliant.

• Keep the text free of odd formatting and extraneous punctuation: Clean and clear copy ensures your note is easy to read and dodges spam detectors.
• Only link out to reputable websites: Only link to reputable sites you trust. After all, your reputation is on the line. Don’t lose credibility by sending your contacts to shady websites.

If you meet these criteria, you can get away with using “classic” email spam words in your subject line and your email. The text surrounding the spam phrase also matters, as does your history as an email sender. If email providers don’t have a reason to mistrust you, they simply won’t.

Email Spam Words to Avoid

When writing your email subject lines, you want to avoid:

• Over-sensationalizing
• Over-promising
• Using strange formatting to “stand out” in the recipient’s inbox

Next time you sit down to write an email subject line, consult the exhaustive list below. In fact, you might want to bookmark this list so you can refer back to it every time you craft an email subject line.

Commerce

1. As seen on
2. Buy
3. Buy direct
4. Buying judgments
5. Clearance
6. Order
7. Order status
8. Orders shipped by shopper

Personal

1. Dig up dirt on friends
2. Meet singles
3. Score with babes
4. XXX
5. Near you

Employment

1. Additional income
2. Be your own boss
3. Compete for your business
4. Double your
5. Earn $
6. Earn extra cash
7. Earn per week
8. Expect to earn
9. Extra income
10. Home based
11. Home employment
12. Homebased business
13. Income from home
14. Make $
15. Make money
16. Money making
17. Online biz opportunity
18. Online degree
19. Opportunity
20. Potential earnings
21. University diplomas
22. While you sleep
23. Work at home
24. Work from home

Financial – General

1. $$$
2. Affordable
3. Bargain
4. Beneficiary
5. Best price
6. Big bucks
7. Cash
8. Cash bonus
9. Cashcashcash
10. Cents on the dollar
11. Cheap
12. Check
13. Claims
14. Collect
15. Compare rates
16. Cost
17. Credit
18. Credit bureaus
19. Discount
20. Earn
21. Easy terms
22. F r e e
23. Fast cash
24. For just $XXX
25. Hidden assets
26. hidden charges
27. Income
28. Incredible deal
29. Insurance
30. Investment
31. Loans
32. Lowest price
33. Million dollars
34. Money
35. Money back
36. Mortgage
37. Mortgage rates
38. No cost
39. No fees
40. One hundred percent free
41. Only $
42. Pennies a day
43. Price
44. Profits
45. Pure profit
46. Quote
47. Refinance
48. Save $
49. Save big money
50. Save up to
51. Serious cash
52. Subject to credit
53. They keep your money — no refund!
54. Unsecured credit
55. Unsecured debt
56. US dollars
57. Why pay more?

Financial – Business

1. Accept credit cards
2. Cards accepted
3. Check or money order
4. Credit card offers
5. Explode your business
6. Full refund
7. Investment decision
8. No credit check
9. No hidden Costs
10. No investment
11. Requires initial investment
12. Sent in compliance
13. Stock alert
14. Stock disclaimer statement
15. Stock pick

Financial – Personal

1. Avoice bankruptcy
2. Calling creditors
3. Collect child support
4. Consolidate debt and credit
5. Consolidate your debt
6. Eliminate bad credit
7. Eliminate debt
8. Financially independent
9. Get out of debt
10. Get paid
11. Lower interest rate
12. Lower monthly payment
13. Lower your mortgage rate
14. Lowest insurance rates
15. Pre-approved
16. Refinance home
17. Social security number
18. Your income

General

1. Acceptance
2. Accordingly
3. Avoid
4. Chance
5. Dormant
6. Freedom
7. Here
8. Hidden
9. Home
10. Leave
11. Lifetime
12. Lose
13. Maintained
14. Medium
15. Miracle
16. Never
17. Passwords
18. Problem
19. Remove
20. Reverses
21. Sample
22. Satisfaction
23. Solution
24. Stop
25. Success
26. Teen
27. Wife

Greetings

1. Dear [email/friend/somebody]
2. Friend
3. Hello

Marketing

1. Ad
2. Auto email removal
3. Bulk email
4. Click
5. Click below
6. Click here
7. Click to remove
8. Direct email
9. Direct marketing
10. Email harvest
11. Email marketing
12. Form
13. Increase sales
14. Increase traffic
15. Increase your sales
16. Internet market
17. Internet marketing
18. Marketing
19. Marketing solutions
20. Mass email
21. Member
22. Month trial offer
23. More Internet Traffic
24. Multi level marketing
25. Notspam
26. One time mailing
27. Online marketing
28. Open
29. Opt in
30. Performance
31. Removal instructions
32. Sale
33. Sales
34. Search engine listings
35. Search engines
36. Subscribe
37. The following form
38. This isn’t junk
39. This isn’t spam
40. Undisclosed recipient
41. Unsubscribe
42. Visit our website
43. We hate spam
44. Web traffic
45. Will not believe your eyes

Medical

1. Cures baldness
2. Diagnostic
3. Fast Viagra delivery
4. Human growth hormone
5. Life insurance
6. Lose weight
7. Lose weight spam
8. Medicine
9. No medical exams
10. Online pharmacy
11. Removes wrinkles
12. Reverses aging
13. Stop snoring
14. Valium
15. Viagra
16. Vicodin
17. Weight loss
18. Xanax

Numbers

1. #1
2. 100% free
3. 100% satisfied
4. 4U
5. 50% off
6. Billion
7. Billion dollars
8. Join millions
9. Join millions of Americans
10. Million
11. One hundred percent guaranteed
12. Thousands

Offers

1. Being a member
2. Billing address
3. Call
4. Cannot be combined with any other offer
5. Confidentially on all orders
6. Deal
7. Financial freedom
8. Gift certificate
9. Giving away
10. Guarantee
11. Have you been turned down?
12. If only it were that easy
13. Important information regarding
14. In accordance with laws
15. Long distance phone offer
16. Mail in order form
17. Message contains
18. Name brand
19. Nigerian
20. No age restrictions
21. No catch
22. No claim forms
23. No disappointment
24. No experience
25. No gimmick
26. No inventory
27. No middleman
28. No obligation
29. No purchase necessary
30. No questions asked
31. No selling
32. No strings attached
33. No-obligation
34. Not intended
35. Obligation
36. Off shore
37. Offer
38. Per day
39. Per week
40. Priority mail
41. Prize
42. Prizes
43. Produced and sent out
44. Reserves the right
45. Shopping spree
46. Stuff on sale
47. Terms and conditions
48. The best rates
49. They’re just giving it away
50. Trial
51. Unlimited
52. Unsolicited
53. Vacation
54. Vacation offers
55. Warranty
56. We honor all
57. Weekend getaway
58. What are you waiting for?
59. Who really wins?
60. Win
61. Winner
62. Winning
63. Won
64. You are a winner!
65. You have been selected
66. You’re a Winner!

Calls-to-Action

1. Cancel at any time
2. Compare
3. Copy accurately
4. Get
5. Give it away
6. Print form signature
7. Print out and fax
8. See for yourself
9. Sign up free today

Free

1. Free
2. Free access
3. Free cell phone
4. Free consultation
5. Free DVD
6. Free gift
7. Free grant money
8. Free hosting
9. Free installation
10. Free Instant
11. Free investment
12. Free leads
13. Free membership
14. Free money
15. Free offer
16. Free preview
17. Free priority mail
18. Free quote
19. Free sample
20. Free trial
21. Free website

Descriptions/Adjectives

1. All natural
2. All new
3. Amazing
4. Certified
5. Congratulations
6. Drastically reduced
7. Fantastic deal
8. For free
9. Guaranteed
10. It’s effective
11. Outstanding values
12. Promise you
13. Real thing
14. Risk free
15. Satisfaction guaranteed

Sense of Urgency

1. Access
2. Act now!
3. Apply now
4. Apply online
5. Call free
6. Call now
7. Can’t live without
8. Do it today
9. Don’t delete
10. Don’t hesitate
11. For instant access
12. For Only
13. For you
14. Get it now
15. Get started now
16. Great offer
17. Info you requested
18. Information you requested
19. Instant
20. Limited time
21. New customers only
22. Now
23. Now only
24. Offer expires
25. Once in lifetime
26. One time
27. Only
28. Order now
29. Order today
30. Please read
31. Special promotion
32. Supplies are limited
33. Take action now
34. Time limited
35. Urgent
36. While supplies last

Nouns

1. Addresses on CD
2. Beverage
3. Bonus
4. Brand new pager
5. Cable converter
6. Casino
7. Celebrity
8. Copy DVDs
9. Laser printer
10. Legal
11. Luxury car
12. New domain extensions
13. Phone
14. Rolex
15. Stainless steel

Use Spam Trigger Words Sparingly and Within Context

So long as you use email marketing best practices and use spam trigger words within context, you can bypass spam filters. Spam filters have become much more sophisticated in recent years. Using one or two phrases won’t hurt you, but make sure to only email customers who want to hear from you and to always personalize your emails. Doing so will optimize the results of your campaign and keep you out of spam folders.

Thank you for reading this post from HubSpot.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.