What is Email Spam Score and Why Does My Email Go to Spam?

Why do you think your emails end up in the spam folder? Even if your email is valuable and doesn’t contain any explicit content, still sometimes your emails get rejected. But what’s the reason behind it and how is it even determined? 

This issue is usually related to your email spam score. An email spam score is a scale that email providers use to determine how likely an email is to be spam. The higher the score, the more likely your email will be flagged as spam. 

About 46.8% of global email traffic was spam in 2023. This makes it necessary for business owners to understand and manage their email spam scores. By doing so, the majority of your emails will end up in the main inbox rather than the spam. 

The factors that include spam score include the content of your email, your sending reputation, and how your customers interact with your emails. You can easily improve your email deliverability by keeping a low spam score. 

With this in mind, let’s dive in.

An email spam score shows how likely your email is to be marked as spam. It’s based on things like the content of your email, your sender’s reputation, and technical details. 

A high spam score means your email might go to the spam folder. Email providers use these scores to protect users from unwanted emails. Understanding your spam score can help you make sure your emails reach the inbox.

How it Works

Think of sending a test email to a bunch of email addresses. After sending, you check how many of those emails end up in the main inbox versus the spam folder. The percentage of emails that make it to the inbox is used to create a score, usually from 0 to 10. 

A lower score means your email is more likely to reach the inbox, while a higher score means it’s more likely to be marked as spam.

If you want to check your email spam score, there are various tools that you can use. The simplest way to do it is:

• Use a Spam Testing Tool: There are many free and paid tools available, like Mail-Tester or SpamAssassin. All you need to do is send your email to a special address provided by these tools and they will tell you your spam score.
• Analyze the Report: The tool analyzes your email and gives you a score. The score is usually between 0 to 10. It will also provide a report showing which parts of your email are causing a high email spam score.
• Adjust Your Email: Lastly, review the report carefully. Then make the appropriate changes to improve or lower your spam score. You might need to make a few changes to your content, improve your sender reputation, or fix some technical issues.

The formula to calculate the spam score is very simple and easy. All you need is the number or emails that successfully reach the inbox and divide it by the total number of emails sent. After that multiply the quotient by 10 and you’ll have your answer.

For example, if you send a test email to 30 different mailboxes and it successfully lands in the inbox of 20 recipients. Now the formula for this would be 20 divided by 30, multiplied by 10. This results in a Spam Score of 6.6 out of 10.

A spam score of 3.5 and less is usually considered a good spam score.

Here are some tips to help you maintain a healthy email spam score:

Use a Reputable Email Service Provider

It is essential to select a well-known email service provider (ESP) if you want your emails to be delivered effectively. These providers have strong relationships with major email clients and internet service providers (ISPs). 

Because of this the businesses that use them also have a good sender reputation. Additionally, these ESPs offer tools and analytics so that you can easily monitor email campaigns and stay compliant with anti-spam laws.

Monitor Your Sender Reputation

We’ve discussed this before too, and that sender’s reputation is very important. It basically determines whether your emails will go into the inbox or the spam folder. So, you should keep a close eye on your sender reputation score by using tools like Google Postmaster Tools. 

A good reputation indicates to ISPs that your emails are trustworthy. Meanwhile, a poor reputation indicates that your emails are most likely spam and they should be blocked or sent to spam folders.

Keep Your Email List Clean

The next thing you need to do is to maintain a clean email list. This will reduce the bounce rates and even the spam complaints. You should do this on a regular basis. Just remove any inactive or invalid email addresses whenever you can. 

You can also use list cleaning services or ask your ESP because they usually have software to identify and remove such addresses.

Implement Authentication Protocols

It has become absolutely necessary for businesses to implement email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These protocols are like a stamp of legitimacy for your emails. If you have them activated, your emails will never end up in spam.

Make sure to use these authentication protocols as they have been made mandatory according to Google and Yahoo’s new email requirements. Proper authentication can significantly improve your email deliverability and reduce the risk of being marked as spam.

Get Permission

Whenever you add someone to your list, always take permission. It is better if you use a double opt-in process to confirm the subscription. This way the users have a link in a confirmation email which is useful as the person will now know that we’ve consented to being in the email list. This way only the interested people are added to your list and it also reduces the risk of spam complaints.

Avoid Spammy Content

The content you use in your emails always has a major role in determining your email spam score. You should at all costs avoid using excessive links, all caps or spam trigger words like “free,” “urgent,” or “buy now.” Just focus on providing value to your customers and format your email properly. Use a balanced mix of text and images.

Personalize Your Emails

It’s beneficial to personalize your emails to increase engagement. All your emails should have the recipient’s name. Also, divide your audience based on their interest and then create content accordingly to engage them. This makes your emails more appealing.

Include a Clear Unsubscribe Option

Lastly, all your emails should have a visible and easy-to-use unsubscribe link. This allows recipients who no longer wish to receive your emails to opt out easily. By doing so you reduce the spam complaints by the recipient which can cause harm to your sender’s reputation.

It is absolutely necessary to maintain a healthy email spam score if you want your marketing emails to reach your customers. If you don’t, then your email will start going into the spam folder and can eventually be blocked entirely. So, if you want to improve your spam score, read the tips in the end carefully.