What is SPAM?

By definition, SPAM is irrelevant email sent to a group of recipients who are not interested in receiving the email. This can for example happen because you have purchased a list of email addresses, that you now send newsletters to without asking. At MarketingPlatform, we strongly oppose this kind of practice, and we do not allow our customers to use purchased lists. The problem with SPAM has existed for many years, and so back in 2003, a so-called CAN-SPAM Act was made that would fight against spammers. This law also revealed that in case of the violation of the law a fine of $11.000 could be imposed for each violation – that is, for each email address on the list. As a result of this, many so-called spammers who have deliberately or unwillingly violated the law have been sued with huge fines.
Among the messages in CAN-SPAM Act were the following:
  1. Do not use false or misleading information in the header information – that is, when you use ‘’from’’, ‘’to’’ and ‘’reply to’’ that must always show the correct sender.
  2. Do not use misleading text in the subject field. The subject must clearly show the content of the email and it must be without false information.
  3. The email must be identified as an advertisement, so that you are not in doubt when you receive advertisements.
  4. Tell the recipient of the newsletter where you are located – for example, the address of the company. This is done in order to ensure the security of the recipient of the newsletter.
  5. Tell the recipient of the newsletter how to unsubscribe from the newsletter and make the information clear.
  6. Should you wish to unsubscribe from the newsletter that must be done immediately and no later than 10 days. You can not charge for this. Once a person is unsubscribed, you must not sell his or her email address or forward the information.
  7. Keep an eye on what others are doing on your behalf – that is, if you have an external company that is in charge of handling your email sendings, you are still legally responsible.
The above may seem obvious, but is nevertheless a very good summary of what SPAM is and how to avoid it. If you comply with the above and still have your emails ending in the SPAM folder you can read our article “Why do my newsletters end in the SPAM folder”.

SPAM filters

The SPAM filters are responsible for sorting out the emails, that they do not consider relevant enough for the recipient. They look at a wide variety of factors and give a total score that determines whether your email is sent to the inbox or outside of it and directly into the spam folder. The different spam filters work differently and have different ways to calculate whether your email can be classified as SPAM. That is, your email may come through one SPAM filter, while another SPAM filter will remove your email.
The filters are gradually becoming smarter as they learn about your behaviour and, for example, if you have selected an email as SPAM, after you have received it in the inbox. Some SPAM filters even talk and share data in order to constantly become wiser on what types of emails can be classified as SPAM. One of the things that can ‘’flag’’ your content as SPAM is, if some with the same IP as you have sent an email that has been classified as SPAM. Thus, you can be punished for other email sender’s actions despite complying with all the rules. For the same reason, we in MarketingPlatform, are very aware of if we have customers who send out SPAM, as it can affect other clients’ ability to send email.
If a bad code has been used in your newsletter, that can also be flagged as SPAM. An example of this can be a content copied directly from Word. If possible, try to personalize the content of the email by automatically inserting the recipient’s name, so that the SPAM filters can see that you actually know the person to whom you send the email.

Email firewalls

It is not only the SPAM filters that are responsible for whether your email reaches the inbox. An email firewall works in many ways as a SPAM filter, and reacts in that way that it performs an action based on rules set by the email server. Email firewalls, like SPAM filters, can communicate with each other to identify unwanted content and remove it. A server learns about SPAM if your recipient of the email reports you toSenderBase– the world’s largest network for monitoring emails. Thus, all email providers will investigate all cases of reporting so that they can remove the senders who send out SPAM. If you have been reported once to SenderBase, you will remain on the surveillance list. This happens in order to prevent switching to another mail provider, and continuing to send SPAM. The different email firewalls will then know ahead that they should remove everything with your name on.   You can also read our article “Sådan undgår du din email sender som SPAM“.

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What is SPAM?

By definition, SPAM is irrelevant email sent to a group of recipients who are not interested in receiving the email. This can for example happen because you have purchased a list of email addresses, that you now send newsletters to without asking. At MarketingPlatform, we strongly oppose this kind of practice, and we do not allow our customers to use purchased lists.

The problem with SPAM has existed for many years, and so back in 2003, a so-called CAN-SPAM Act was made that would fight against spammers. This law also revealed that in case of the violation of the law a fine of $11.000 could be imposed for each violation – that is, for each email address on the list. As a result of this, many so-called spammers who have deliberately or unwillingly violated the law have been sued with huge fines.

A screenshot of an email inbox showing 68 incoming messages and 211 spam messages.
Among the messages in CAN-SPAM Act were the following:

  1. Do not use false or misleading information in the header information – that is, when you use ‘’from’’, ‘’to’’ and ‘’reply to’’ that must always show the correct sender.
  2. Do not use misleading text in the subject field. The subject must clearly show the content of the email and it must be without false information.
  3. The email must be identified as an advertisement, so that you are not in doubt when you receive advertisements.
  4. Tell the recipient of the newsletter where you are located – for example, the address of the company. This is done in order to ensure the security of the recipient of the newsletter.
  5. Tell the recipient of the newsletter how to unsubscribe from the newsletter and make the information clear.
  6. Should you wish to unsubscribe from the newsletter that must be done immediately and no later than 10 days. You can not charge for this. Once a person is unsubscribed, you must not sell his or her email address or forward the information.
  7. Keep an eye on what others are doing on your behalf – that is, if you have an external company that is in charge of handling your email sendings, you are still legally responsible.

The above may seem obvious, but is nevertheless a very good summary of what SPAM is and how to avoid it.

If you comply with the above and still have your emails ending in the SPAM folder you can read our article “Why do my newsletters end in the SPAM folder”.

SPAM filters

The SPAM filters are responsible for sorting out the emails, that they do not consider relevant enough for the recipient. They look at a wide variety of factors and give a total score that determines whether your email is sent to the inbox or outside of it and directly into the spam folder. The different spam filters work differently and have different ways to calculate whether your email can be classified as SPAM. That is, your email may come through one SPAM filter, while another SPAM filter will remove your email.

The filters are gradually becoming smarter as they learn about your behaviour and, for example, if you have selected an email as SPAM, after you have received it in the inbox. Some SPAM filters even talk and share data in order to constantly become wiser on what types of emails can be classified as SPAM.

One of the things that can ‘’flag’’ your content as SPAM is, if some with the same IP as you have sent an email that has been classified as SPAM. Thus, you can be punished for other email sender’s actions despite complying with all the rules. For the same reason, we in MarketingPlatform, are very aware of if we have customers who send out SPAM, as it can affect other clients’ ability to send email.

If a bad code has been used in your newsletter, that can also be flagged as SPAM. An example of this can be a content copied directly from Word.

If possible, try to personalize the content of the email by automatically inserting the recipient’s name, so that the SPAM filters can see that you actually know the person to whom you send the email.

Email firewalls

It is not only the SPAM filters that are responsible for whether your email reaches the inbox. An email firewall works in many ways as a SPAM filter, and reacts in that way that it performs an action based on rules set by the email server. Email firewalls, like SPAM filters, can communicate with each other to identify unwanted content and remove it.

A server learns about SPAM if your recipient of the email reports you toSenderBase– the world’s largest network for monitoring emails. Thus, all email providers will investigate all cases of reporting so that they can remove the senders who send out SPAM. If you have been reported once to SenderBase, you will remain on the surveillance list. This happens in order to prevent switching to another mail provider, and continuing to send SPAM. The different email firewalls will then know ahead that they should remove everything with your name on.

 

You can also read our article “Sådan undgår du din email sender som SPAM“.