Key Takeaways:
- Only send emails to people who signed up and want your messages.
- Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records to prove your emails are legitimate.
- Keep your emails clear, balanced, and avoid spammy words and phrases.
- Include an easy way for people to unsubscribe to protect your reputation.
Email marketing is one of the top marketing strategies for your retail business. Although, emails may be considered more old school, they still generate an average of $36 return for every $1 spent. But, email marketing will give you exactly ZERO profit if your emails don’t deliver. That’s why following email marketing best practices isn’t optional, it’s essential for every firework retailer.
Why Are My Emails Hitting Spam? The Top Two Things To Know
Email deliverability is a very complicated topic, but there are a few easy-to-learn and apply essentials that you need to know.
- Delivery issues are extremely common. Mailbox providers filter roughly 17% of all commercial emails before they ever reach the inbox. Successful delivery can even drop even further for seasonal or inconsistent senders.
- Google best practices are the gold standard. Google is the top mailbox provider and has over 1.8 billion active users world-wide. In the following sections, we’ll cover key steps in email marketing best practices for avoiding spam filters. If you’re interested in researching Google’s best practices for yourself you can view these here.
Only Send Emails to a Clean List
The top reason emails hit spam is poor list quality. Sending to purchased lists, outdated emails, or unverified addresses will immediately trigger spam filters. Plus, emails that do deliver are likely to be manually marked as spam by recipients.
A strong email marketing best practice is to only email people who opted in through your site, and always confirm with a double opt-in process. A double opt-in is when someone signs up and then receives a confirmation email that requires them to click a link to verify their address. This process verifies that the email is real and that the recipient genuinely wants to receive your emails.
If you already have a list, clean it periodically. Remove unsubscribed contacts and contacts with invalid or bounced emails. This protects your domain reputation and improves inbox placement over time.
Set Up Email Sending Records
Gmail has very strict requirements for email authentication so that it can easily distinguish spam senders from legitimate emails. Email authentication is completed by setting up email sending records. Think of these records as ID cards that prove your emails are legitimate. Here are the top three records you must add to send emails successfully:
- Sender Policy Framework (SPF) – This record identifies which servers can send emails on behalf of your domain.
- DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) – This is an authentication record that adds a cryptographic signature to confirm that an email’s content and sender address are authentic.
- Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) – This record checks whether an email passes authentication checks from SPF and DKIM records. It also tells servers what to do with unauthenticated emails and sends the domain owner a report so they are aware of any unauthorized senders
Batch Send Emails Periodically
Even a perfectly authenticated domain can get blocked if you hit Gmail with thousands of emails all at once. Firework retailers often make this mistake because they operate seasonal businesses and don’t usually send emails year-round. Sending a bulk email out to a massive list out of the blue can quickly trigger spam filters.
Instead, gradually warm up your email list and batch schedule your emails. If you’d rather not send emails year round, just start by sending out an email a few weeks and then a week before your season. This will help to improve delivery rates when it comes time to send opening day emails. Make sure to batch schedule your emails by sending out a few hundred every 30 minutes.
Formatting Email Content Correctly
Gmail looks closely at how your email content before allowing it to pass through spam filters. Emails that are packed with images, contain broken links, or have misleading subject lines are much more likely to go straight to spam.
To follow email marketing best practices, always send multi-part emails that include both text and HTML. Use a visible sender address, and make sure your Message-ID and headers are correct. Plus make sure to include a high text-to-image ratio.
Your subject line and email content should avoid spam triggers. Phrases like “Huge Firework Sale!!! Buy Now!!!”, misspellings, excessive capitalization, or words like “Free!” are all major red flags. Avoid URL shorteners in the email body, as these can also increase the likelihood of hitting spam filters.
By carefully avoiding content spam triggers, your emails are much more likely to reach the inbox and get read.
Make it Easy to Unsubscribe (Yes, Really)
Unsubscribes don’t hurt your email marketing, spam complaints do. Gmail tracks whether recipients report your messages, and hitting even 0.3% can trigger filtering. Make sure your emails include one-click unsubscribe headers. Gmail tracks these automatically, and they keep your sending reputation safe.
For lists larger than 5,000 recipients, Gmail now requires one-click unsubscribe for promotional messages. Even smaller lists benefit from clean opt-outs: they reduce complaints, improve engagement rates, and protect your domain for the next big campaign.
Email marketing can be incredibly profitable, but only if your emails actually reach your customers’ inboxes. Following the email marketing best practices we covered: setting up correct sending records, keeping your list clean, formatting emails properly, and avoiding spam triggers will make a huge difference in your delivery rate.
Want some help spam-proofing your emails? We’d love to help! Feel free to schedule a call with our marketing experts at talktofsm.com.
FAQS
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What are the most important email marketing best practices?
Keep your list clean, authenticate your emails with SPF/DKIM/DMARC, avoid spammy words, balance text and images, and make unsubscribing easy.
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How often should I email my firework customers?
For seasonal businesses, start a few weeks before your season and send reminders gradually. Consistency helps improve inbox placement.
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Why do my emails end up in spam?
Common reasons include poor list quality, missing authentication records, misleading subject lines, or too many images. Following email marketing best practices can prevent this.
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Do subject lines really affect deliverability?
Yes. Honest, clear subject lines that avoid spam triggers are a key part of email marketing best practices.
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What’s the easiest way to avoid spam complaints?
Include a one-click unsubscribe link in every email. It keeps your subscribers happy and protects your sending reputation.