Email address often going into spam folders because of name

[copywriter39]

I have a problem and wonder if anyone has any suggestions on how to overcome it. The word marketing is in my business name and I think because of this, many of my emails go into spam folders. I use a couple of different email addresses for my business and both go into spam folders. It consistently happens with my clients, including some who I regularly correspond with. It will be like every 5th email to them goes into their spam folder. I'm concerned this may have happened with prospects and that it could be costing me business. Should I just use a gmail address with my name in it or is there something I can do so my business emails aren't considered spam

[deepsand]

Given the plethora of spam filters in use, and the various user settings in play, there's no sure fire way to know what's triggering such events, let alone avoid them all.

[keyon]

It consistently happens with my clients, including some who I regularly correspond with.
Most email providers (like the ones that your clients are using) usually have some way that allows people to "whitelist" specific email addresses so they will always go to their inbox. Sometimes this is simply a matter of adding an email address to a contact list. Of course you have to first reach your clients to tell them this (which can be a problem if no emails are getting through), but maybe it's something you can communicate to them by some other means -- phone, mail, or a message on your website.

[Eric24]

I'd actually be surprised if just the word "marketing" would in itself be a trigger for a modern spam filter. I've dealt with spam filters since the mid-90s and that would surely cause too many false positives. Some things to try: a) Add DKIM (http://www.dkim.org/) to your mail server; b) add SPF (http://www.openspf.net/) to your domain; and c) check your site on http://www.spamhaus.org/ and http://www.dnsbl.info/, and if you're blacklisted, follow the instructions on those sites to get yourself "un-blacklisted".

[deepsand]

I'd actually be surprised if just the word "marketing" would in itself be a trigger for a modern spam filter. I've dealt with spam filters since the mid-90s and that would surely cause too many false positives. Some things to try: a) Add DKIM (http://www.dkim.org/) to your mail server; b) add SPF (http://www.openspf.net/) to your domain; and c) check your site on http://www.spamhaus.org/ and http://www.dnsbl.info/, and if you're blacklisted, follow the instructions on those sites to get yourself un-blacklisted.
Per the OP, "It will be like every 5th email to them goes into their spam folder." Ergo, the problem is content dependent.

Were said clients using SPF, none of the missives in question would be delivered, but bounced back to sender.

Were the sender blacklisted, all would either be refused, discarded by the recipients' e-mail ASP, or delivered flagged by it as spam.

[Eric24]

@deepsand: Yes, you bring up some good points. I had read the OP's "every 5th email" as meaning email sent to different recipients, thus thinking that some had SPF and/or DKIM and some didn't. But if a single recipient is flagging some messages as spam while allowing others through, that does seem to be content-dependent. Although even that's a bit strange, as many spam systems I'm familiar with (like Spam Assassin, Baracuda, Gmail, etc.) will tend to ignore the content of a given message if some number of prior "non-spam" messages have already been received from a given sender.

[deepsand]

I had read the OP's "every 5th email" as meaning email sent to different recipients, ...
He said that its was happening to "clients," rather than "some clients," let alone "certain clients;" i.e., he qualified the affected missives rather than the recipients.


Although even that's a bit strange, ...
In my experience, it's quite commonplace with enterprise grade systems such as Brightmail.