How can I avoid having my emails marked as "Spam"?

Anonymous Blackbaud User

Many email providers and internet service providers offer spam protection software, to flag potential spam emails or even block them completely from reaching their customers. While this is certainly a useful feature, it may accidentally cause your emails (which aren't spam) to be blocked! All of these spam blockers use common criteria to determine whether a given email should be considered "spam", and understanding these criteria can help you avoid having your email be blocked by your constituents' email providers.

When sending an email through Convio, in the "Validation" step you have an option to run a Report - this generates a Spam score for your email and gives some useful information about why your email may be marked as Spam. Essentially, the email receives points (or fractions of a point) for each "violation" of certain traits that are common to spam emails - and each "violation" is weighted differently. If the total points for your email is higher than 2.2, there is a very good chance it will be marked as spam. In general, it is best to aim for a score of 2.0 or lower.

The following violations are unavoidable -- they will show up for any HTML email you send:

• 0.2 HTML_MESSAGE BODY: HTML included in message

• 0.4 HTML_60_70 BODY: Message is 60% to 70% HTML

• 0.7 MIME_HTML_ONLY BODY: Message only has text/html MIME parts

• 0.1 HTML_TAG_EXISTS_TBODY BODY: HTML has "tbody" tag -- This is normal, since that tag is typically inserted by the WYSIWYG in Convio. If you want to remove this, go to Source View on the HTML portion of your email and remove the tags.

The following violations are avoidable, and are usually triggered by certain words or phrases used in the email:

• O.6 HTML_TABLE_THICK_BORD BODY: HTML table has thick border -- Frequently, spammers will use tables with thick borders in their spam email. If you see this violation, try thinning the borders on any tables in your email.

• 0.1 HTML_FONTCOLOR_BLUE BODY: HTML font color is blue -- Many spammers use colored fonts (particularly blue) in their emails. Try reducing or limiting the number of colored fonts in your email to avoid this.

• 0.2 HOT_NASTY BODY: Possible porn - Hot, Nasty, Wild, Young -- Try to avoid using these words where possible.

• 0.1 HTML_LINK_CLICK_HERE BODY: HTML link text says "click here" -- Try to find a phrase other than "click here" for your links.

• 0.1 CLICK_BELOW: Asks you to click below -- Again, try to find a phrase other than "click below" to use in your emails.

There is one other violation that you may see, but only in a very specific change from a default Convio configuration:

• 0.5 HTML_TITLE_EMPTY BODY: HTML title contains no text -- In Convio, the default stationery for an email should contain the Site Name in the HTML title for an email. If you see this, please contact Support.

For more information on tips and tricks to avoid having your email marked as Spam, see the following website from Apache's SpamAssassin Wiki: http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/AvoidingFpsForSenders