Something lurking in the corner of the email marketing world scares many marketing teams: horrifying spam traps. Spam traps scare marketers. This is because if your email sender address is marked as spam, it will have an immediate and negative impact on your email delivery rate. Most people understand how spam traps work, how common they are, and more specifically, how to minimize the risk of being flagged as an insecure sender. It May not be. It is not possible to completely avoid spam traps, but proper data hygiene can help limit risk.
It is important to note that sending junk mail is not the same as sending spam. It is important to take certain precautions in advance to avoid spam traps when sending cold emails. Read below for more information on spam traps and how to avoid spam trap emails.
What is a spam trap?
Spam traps are valid, deliverable email addresses that are used only to receive and “capture” junk email. Spam traps tend to look like regular email addresses, making them look indistinguishable. You are responsible for keeping spam out of our inbox-and we should be grateful for that.
The purpose of spam traps is to identify spammers and senders who are cheating on email. Unfortunately, for many teams, this is not a seamless process. Not only can spam traps catch spammers, but they can also unintentionally catch good people. Even companies that follow best practices in building IP and domain reputation can fall into spam traps.
Spam traps can break into the email list of legitimate senders. In most cases, this is due to a lack of data hygiene on the part of the sender. Anyway, the results can be serious. The deliverability of the sender’s email can be significantly reduced, and the entire domain can be blacklisted, preventing corporate or even personal interactions with customers and prospects. increase.
Types of spam traps
There are two main types of spam traps used to reduce unwanted emails. Pure and recycled spam traps.
Pure spam traps
1. Fake address for a real person
Pure spam is also called a fallen, unwanted spam trap, and is designed for the sole purpose of the spammer. The name of your Chief Executive Officer is John DOE, and your email expression is. <first.last@company-name.com>.
You can create the inbox for <john.doe@company-name.com> as a spam trap and create and mark all incoming e-mails as spam on this address. This is because anyone who has a legitimate reason for an email from John is used to receiving an e-mail instead of sending it. Companies often have a discharge to email to the network, as the spam is often dropped in the corner of the Internet.
2. Real address for a fake person
Companies looking for THWART SPAMMER create a fake social profile and set the inbox as a trap for this fake person, and then mark a company that rises as spam as an e-mail as this receipt increases. This identifies people and organizations that send someone to email. Note: This exercise will throw a very wide network because there is a legitimate reason to reach people by email.
Recycled or retired email spam traps
Another type of spam trap is a recycled email address. Some companies receive emails from retired employees and turn them into spam traps. Marketers who buy old lists or use data that hasn’t been cleaned up on a regular basis are particularly vulnerable to these pitfalls.
However, it is important to note that all types of marketers are vulnerable to these types of spam traps. This is because even your client can recycle abandoned email addresses into spam traps.
Ways you could fall into a spam trap
When you run a cold email campaign, you run the risk of getting into a spam trap. Data providers, email validation tools, and email marketers can help minimize the possibilities, but they cannot completely eliminate the risks.
What should a conscientious email marketer do? If you want to completely avoid spam traps, you only need to send emails to opt-in contacts. Also, avoid purchasing data from your data provider. It may sound simple, but these tactics aren’t always useful when it comes to creating new leads and increasing sales.
Outbound campaigns are the key to digital marketing growth. To be successful, all sales and marketing teams need to leverage third-party data in some way. The first step in dealing with spam traps is to realize that spam traps cannot be completely avoided. Learn a little more about how they work to mitigate risk.
How to avoid spam trap email addresses
1. Make sure you have access to the most up-to-date data possible.
The best way to avoid spam traps is to use an up-to-date data list.
This is because the list expires in minutes. The bounce rate you get is also uncomfortable. Work with your data provider to prioritize continuous data hygiene to ensure that your list is constantly reviewed, cleaned up, enhanced, and old and old emails removed.
2. Scrub inactive contacts out of your CRM and marketing automation tool.
If someone is not open, if you clicked, or if you respond to an e-mail after 15 consecutive campaigns, you will probably want to publish all emails to this address. Most Marketing Automation Platform (MAPS) Functional filters will be able to delete contacts that are not used in messages within a period of time.
3. Invest in email verification services.
Email verification services, like NeverBounce, are capable of confirming that the email addresses in your list are valid and updated. Keep in mind: conducting email verification will help you avoid spam traps, but only if you`re taking other measures to ensure your list is clean and accurate. Unfortunately, many spam traps will get past email verification tools because they are actual inboxes.
Note: Email verification services have their limitations in avoiding spam. They can mark emails as having a high risk of being a spam trap. But they are not a complete solution for two reasons:
- They don`t actually know which emails are spam traps.
- These types of services often classify an address as “potentially dangerous” just because it was on a list that contained a spam trap.
For example, let`s say there`s a list online of 1,000 marketing professionals, and your email address is on it. Now let`s say a company emails everyone on that list and gets notified that the email hit a spam trap. Your email address would also get tagged as “potentially dangerous” because it was on a list that contained a spam trap—despite being correct.
With validation tools, you are less likely to encounter spam traps. However, avoiding including many valid emails in the campaign also reduces the addressable market and potential.
Key takeaways to avoid email spam traps
If spam traps sound like they`re difficult to avoid, don`t despair. And don`t assume your email list is spotless just because it appears to be.
While spam traps are one of the biggest roadblocks to a perfect email reputation, you can take steps to avoid them as long as you put the right processes and tools in place. The more time and effort you put into avoiding spam traps, the more you`ll reap the rewards and fuel a winning email strategy.
Email verification is critical to the process of identifying and avoiding spam traps in your email marketing efforts. For all your real-time email cleaning needs, visit NeverBounce.
