Deliverability Tools - Spam Audit

[Mike_Mastropaol]

Is there somewhere to look up reasons for failing specific filters? I use the Marketo Deliverability Tool and we always pass all filters. Lately we fail Symantec Cloud and Gmail. The tool's Spam Audit does not provide reasons/explanations for these failures.

These have not been spam-like/suspicious type emails. They are marketing emails, but it is generic content about furniture. No spamy/suspicious text or subject line. All the pictures and links are good, working and have appropriate alt text. I know spam filters are just doing their job and are probably becoming increasingly sophisticated and sensitive, but it'd be nice to know why it's failing.

Any insight would be appreciated.

[Sonali_Jadeja3]

Well review of some of the best practices such as, including a physical address & clear unsubscribe to your footer, review of lead database to filter out inactive emails would help. When your open rates are low, it leads to low mailbox usage and your domain becomes a red flag to spam filters. Try the good old subscription campaign to capture product/engagement preferences & trigger more relevant messaging!

If you're using deliverability tools then, Enhanced email deliverability power packs could help to investigate this. Not sure if it has additional cost though.

Hope it helps & good luck!

~Sonali

[Mike_Mastropaol]

Thanks, Sonali. I think I covered my emails cover most of those points too. I'm looking for something more definitive and specific. I wish the Spam Audit said, 'you failed Symantec Cloud because...'. I'll keep looking. Thanks again.

[Carmi_Lopez-Jo1]

Hi Mike. You would be hard pressed to find any definitive guide to why you are failing spam filter checks. And that is by design. Imagine if the spammers knew how to bypass all the filters? Our inboxes would be a disaster zone full of spam and phish messages. As a Deliverability consultant, we focus first on the reputation of your IPs and domains as that's generally the likely driver of spam delivery and blocking first. That's built by sending to a well permissioned (not purchased) list, to an engaged audience who's actively opening and clicking, removing non-responders and sending relevant and engaging content that your audience really wants.

In addition, make sure you're buttoned up with regard to authentication, branding your tracking links and landing pages, look at your Spam Assassin scores in the spam filter check and ensure that your HTML is clean and images aren't too large. Also, in the new version of Design released in March, you'll see blacklist notifications for your URLs, which also may trigger issues.