How to prevent emails from being marked as Spam/Junk

If you use server-side signatures, your emails are routed to the Exclaimer Cloud servers - it is essential that the SPF record for the domain you are sending from is updated with Exclaimer Cloud SPF include mechanism.

If you do not update your SPF record, your email headers will be marked with SPF: Fail or SPF: Softfail. Many antispam agents will immediately deliver emails that fail SPF checks to the spam folder.

You can easily look up your SPF record using a free online tool like MXToolbox's SPF Lookup.

1. Enter the domain from which you are sending your email.
   
   
2. Click SPF Record Lookup.
   
   Example:
   
3. The results will be displayed below. 
   
   Example:
   
   
   This is your SPF record.
   
   
4. Check that your SPF record includes the Exclaimer Cloud's SPF include mechanism include:spf.<region code>.exclaimer.net
    
   Where <region code> is replaced with the region code for the subscription (see How to check your region code).
   
   Example:
   
5. If your SPF record does not have the Exclaimer Cloud's SPF include mechanism, please ensure this is updated as soon as possible to avoid problems with getting a bad IP address reputation.

For more information on updating your SPF record, please see How to update the Sender Policy Framework (SPF)?

As well as, your SPF record needs to have Exclaimer Cloud's SPF include mechanism; it is vital that your SPF record meets all of the validity criteria set out by the relevant standards.

Validity issues in the SPF record can lead to SPF: Fail, SPF: Softfail and SPF: Permerror in your email headers. Many antispam agents will immediately deliver emails that have SPF failures or errors to the spam folder.

You can easily check your SPF record's validity using a free online tool like MXToolbox's SPF Lookup.

1. Enter the domain from which you are sending your email.
   
   
2. Click SPF Record Lookup.
   
   Example:
   
   
   The results will be displayed below.
   
   
3. Check that your SPF record passes all of the tests.
   
   Example:
   
   
   
4. If any tests fail, click More Info for guidance on how to correct the fault.
   
   Example:
   

Invalid and suspicious-looking hyperlinks in emails are common contributors to email spam classifications.

Avoid doing any of the following:

Use the "fax:" prefix for fax number hyperlinks.

The fax prefix on fax/telephone numbers was deprecated in 2004 and is known to cause emails to be classified as spam.

 

Leaving incomplete hyperlinks in the signature

Having incomplete hyperlinks like https://exclaimer in the signature can cause spam classifications and worse!

 

Using the HTTP protocol when HTTPS is available

You're much less likely to have an email classified as spam if you use the more secure link.

 

Use redirected, shortened and excessively long URLs

A link is much less likely to be classified as spam if it leads to exactly where it appears to go.

Examples:
Good:
https://www.exclaimer.com/about-us/contact-us/

Avoid:
https://www.exclaimer.com/about-us/contact-us?$Display=inline&stream_sort=time%2Cdesc&viz=stream&from_ts=1675445080892&to_ts=1675445980892&live=true
https://srtlnk.com/ex-cu

Some text, phrases and images can cause an email to be classified as spam.

Avoid using punctuation and symbols where they wouldn't normally be, using numbers or symbols in replacement for letters
Such as avoiding:

• Click_____________Here ^^
• B0nu$ C0ntent

Please don't use particularly spammy phrases. Hubspot have a great list of these here: https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30684/the-ultimate-list-of-email-spam-trigger-words.aspx

Avoid using images that contain words. These will increase the spam score.

Unnecessary use of HTML tables and spaces or carriage returns to space out signature elements are known spam contributors.

You may accidentally create multiple groups/tables while creating your signature design. These can lead to an excessive amount of pointless HTML coding.

An exaggerated example of too many tables:


Try to keep things tidy within the signature design.
Tip! Dragging this group of fields outside these tables will automatically clear the unused groups.

Avoid using anything other than padding to create space within your signature design, and then keep padding to a minimum. See How to use padding to space the signature elements.

Having more of the screen space taken up by images than text in an email is a spam contributor.

Ideally, you should stay within 30% of the space taken up by images.

Bad IP reputation tends to occur if your domain has been sending a lot of emails where:

• Content is detected as spam
• Authentication checks such as SPF fail or error
• Recipients mark the email as spam
• The recipient is invalid
• Bouncebacks occur

The key here is to maintain an overall healthy mail environment. Be aware of any errors occurring and act quickly on them. Make sure your contact lists are kept up-to-date.

If you end up with a bad IP address reputation, it can be an unpleasant task to deal with, so it's essential to keep on top of it.

This is always the first step that should be taken when troubleshooting spam issues, as it's fast and resolves a high percentage of issues.

• In Outlook, you can view the message headers by opening an email in its own window and then navigating to  File >Properties.
  
  
• In Outlook on the Web (OWA), you can view the message headers by clicking the '...' button and then navigating to View > View message details.
  
  Example:
  
  
  
• In Gmail, you can view the message headers by clicking the '…' button and then clicking Show original.
  
  Example:
  
  
  Examine the Authentication-Results, Received-SPF and other similar headers for failures or errors for SPF, DKIM, DMARC and ARC.
  
  Example:
  
  
  NOTE: Exclaimer Cloud only requires that you update your SPF record. If you see Authentication failures other than SPF, it is unlikely to be related to your Exclaimer Cloud configuration.
  
  
  CAUTION! While online header analysers such as MXToolbox might seem very helpful and more accessible to interpret than plain-text headers, they can be prone to overzealous warnings about DKIM results.
  These tools aren't well-suited to interpreting DKIM results after the fact. The bottom line is: If the plain-text headers show a DKIM: pass, that's how the mail server saw it too, and it's not a contributor to the spam score.

After authentication checks have been eliminated, spam classifications typically fall into two categories: Email routing and Email content.

- If you have configured server-side signatures for your subscription, it's wise to establish whether the additional routing to Exclaimer Cloud servers and back into your mail servers is a factor in email spam classification.

The best way to do this is to stop your Exclaimer Cloud signatures from applying to a single sender that you can test with; then send an email that routes through Exclaimer Cloud but doesn't receive a signature.

If the email is delivered successfully, you know the signature content is the problem.
If the email is still classified as spam, you know there is an email routing issue.

- If you have only configured client-side signatures for your subscription - your emails aren't routed to Exclaimer Cloud, and the signature content is the likely cause of the spam classification.

Exclaimer Cloud utilizes the latest technologies and works closely with Microsoft and Google to ensure that there aren't any fundamental issues which would cause email delivery issues; however, there is always a possibility that things don't work exactly as expected. 

You should exclude a user or temporarily disable the mail flow/content compliance rule in Exchange Online or Google Workspace. This will allow you to confirm whether the Exclaimer Cloud mail routing is definitely the cause of the spam classification.

In many cases, the issue will turn out to be an overzealous antispam filter giving false positive results; however, it's best to raise a ticket with Exclaimer Support for further guidance.

Unfortunately, anything in an email can get classified as spam, so it's good to have a methodical approach to troubleshooting.

Check for and resolve the following common contributors as per the sections above:
- Bad hyperlinks
- Excessive tables and whitespace 
- A high image-to-text ratio

• If your emails are still marked as spam after checking the common contributors, remove all hyperlinks from your signature and then retest.
  
  
• If your emails are still marked as spam after removing all hyperlinks, remove all images and then retest.
  
  
• If your emails are still marked as spam after removing all hyperlinks and images, remove the remaining parts of the signature line by line. Test each time until you establish exactly which part of the signature is causing the spam classification.
  
  
• Once you establish the part of your signature causing the spam classification, try inserting that content directly into your mail client (in the body of the email and not in the signature) to see if that still causes an issue.
  
  You may need to contact the email provider if you find that they are blocking content in your emails.
  
  If you need help with some content causing spam in your Exclaimer Cloud signatures, please don't hesitate to raise a ticket with Exclaimer Support for further guidance.