After spending hours creating an , the last thing you want to do is get blocked by your recipients’ spam filters. Luckily, by avoiding common email spam trigger words, you can successfully prevent your emails from getting routed to spam folders.

Let’s take a look at what spam trigger words are, what gets emails sent to spam, and which spam words you should avoid when creating your email campaigns.

Spam filters can be triggered for a variety of reasons, causing your email to skip recipients' inboxes and land straight in their spam inbox. One of the easiest ways to avoid spam filters is by carefully choosing the words you use in .

Trigger words are known to cause problems and increase the chances of your email getting caught in a spam trap. By avoiding these words in your email subject lines, you can dramatically increase your chances of getting beyond the filters.

Spam trigger words alone aren’t enough to send your email to spam. For instance, if you are offering a 3-for-1 discount sale, you can still advertise that in your emails and not get sent to spam. It’s important to understand all the factors that come into play when emails get identified as spam.

What causes emails to go to spam?

Email providers look for a number of factors when deciding whether to automatically send your emails to spam. If you’ve made it on an , that means you’ve repeatedly sent emails to recipients who haven’t signed up for your email list.

Your emails can get sent to spam if you:

• Don’t include an unsubscribe button in your email


• Send poorly-designed emails with broken or glitchy code


• Address your recipient by “my friend” or “dear” (or not by their name)


• and mass-send messages to email addresses that don’t exist (resulting in a )


• Use all-caps text and extreme punctuation (!!!!! or ?????)


• Include strangely formatted fonts (???? ????)


• Provide links to fraudulent websites

Email providers only want to deliver emails from high-reputation senders. To be a high-reputation sender, do the following:

• Include an unsubscribe button


• with clean code using a tool such as


• Personalize your emails with the recipient’s first name


• Only email those who’ve subscribed to your email list (if you don’t have any, you should learn to naturally )


• Keep your high


• Keep the text free of odd formatting and extraneous punctuation


• Only link out to reputable websites

If you meet these criteria, you can get away with using “classic” email spam words in your subject line and your email. The text surrounding the spam phrase also matters, as does your history as an email sender. If email providers don’t have a reason to mistrust you, they simply won’t.

Email Spam Words to Avoid

When writing your email subject lines, you want to avoid:

• Over-sensationalizing


• Over-promising


• Using strange formatting to “stand out” in the recipient’s inbox

Next time you sit down to write an email subject line, consult the exhaustive list below. In fact, you might want to bookmark this list so you can refer back to it every time you craft an email subject line.

Commerce

1. As seen on


2. Buy


3. Buy direct


4. Buying judgments


5. Clearance


6. Order


7. Order status


8. Orders shipped by shopper

Personal

1. Dig up dirt on friends


2. Meet singles


3. Score with babes


4. XXX


5. Near you

Employment

1. Additional income


2. Be your own boss


3. Compete for your business


4. Double your


5. Earn $


6. Earn extra cash


7. Earn per week


8. Expect to earn


9. Extra income


10. Home based


11. Home employment


12. Homebased business


13. Income from home


14. Make $


15. Make money


16. Money making


17. Online biz opportunity


18. Online degree


19. Opportunity


20. Potential earnings


21. University diplomas


22. While you sleep


23. Work at home


24. Work from home

Financial - General

1. $$$


2. Affordable


3. Bargain


4. Beneficiary


5. Best price


6. Big bucks


7. Cash


8. Cash bonus


9. Cashcashcash


10. Cents on the dollar


11. Cheap


12. Check


13. Claims


14. Collect


15. Compare rates


16. Cost


17. Credit


18. Credit bureaus


19. Discount


20. Earn


21. Easy terms


22. F r e e


23. Fast cash


24. For just $XXX


25. Hidden assets


26. hidden charges


27. Income


28. Incredible deal


29. Insurance


30. Investment


31. Loans


32. Lowest price


33. Million dollars


34. Money


35. Money back


36. Mortgage


37. Mortgage rates


38. No cost


39. No fees


40. One hundred percent free


41. Only $


42. Pennies a day


43. Price


44. Profits


45. Pure profit


46. Quote


47. Refinance


48. Save $


49. Save big money


50. Save up to


51. Serious cash


52. Subject to credit


53. They keep your money — no refund!


54. Unsecured credit


55. Unsecured debt


56. US dollars


57. Why pay more?

Financial - Business

1. Accept credit cards


2. Cards accepted


3. Check or money order


4. Credit card offers


5. Explode your business


6. Full refund


7. Investment decision


8. No credit check


9. No hidden Costs


10. No investment


11. Requires initial investment


12. Sent in compliance


13. Stock alert


14. Stock disclaimer statement


15. Stock pick

Financial - Personal

1. Avoice bankruptcy


2. Calling creditors


3. Collect child support


4. Consolidate debt and credit


5. Consolidate your debt


6. Eliminate bad credit


7. Eliminate debt


8. Financially independent


9. Get out of debt


10. Get paid


11. Lower interest rate


12. Lower monthly payment


13. Lower your mortgage rate


14. Lowest insurance rates


15. Pre-approved


16. Refinance home


17. Social security number


18. Your income

General

1. Acceptance


2. Accordingly


3. Avoid


4. Chance


5. Dormant


6. Freedom


7. Here


8. Hidden


9. Home


10. Leave


11. Lifetime


12. Lose


13. Maintained


14. Medium


15. Miracle


16. Never


17. Passwords


18. Problem


19. Remove


20. Reverses


21. Sample


22. Satisfaction


23. Solution


24. Stop


25. Success


26. Teen


27. Wife

Greetings

1. Dear [email/friend/somebody]


2. Friend


3. Hello

Marketing

1. Ad


2. Auto email removal


3. Bulk email


4. Click


5. Click below


6. Click here


7. Click to remove


8. Direct email


9. Direct marketing


10. Email harvest


11. Email marketing


12. Form


13. Increase sales


14. Increase traffic


15. Increase your sales


16. Internet market


17. Internet marketing


18. Marketing


19. Marketing solutions


20. Mass email


21. Member


22. Month trial offer


23. More Internet Traffic


24. Multi level marketing


25. Notspam


26. One time mailing


27. Online marketing


28. Open


29. Opt in


30. Performance


31. Removal instructions


32. Sale


33. Sales


34. Search engine listings


35. Search engines


36. Subscribe


37. The following form


38. This isn't junk


39. This isn't spam


40. Undisclosed recipient


41. Unsubscribe


42. Visit our website


43. We hate spam


44. Web traffic


45. Will not believe your eyes

Medical

1. Cures baldness


2. Diagnostic


3. Fast Viagra delivery


4. Human growth hormone


5. Life insurance


6. Lose weight


7. Lose weight spam


8. Medicine


9. No medical exams


10. Online pharmacy


11. Removes wrinkles


12. Reverses aging


13. Stop snoring


14. Valium


15. Viagra


16. Vicodin


17. Weight loss


18. Xanax

Numbers

1. #1


2. 100% free


3. 100% satisfied


4. 4U


5. 50% off


6. Billion


7. Billion dollars


8. Join millions


9. Join millions of Americans


10. Million


11. One hundred percent guaranteed


12. Thousands

Offers

1. Being a member


2. Billing address


3. Call


4. Cannot be combined with any other offer


5. Confidentially on all orders


6. Deal


7. Financial freedom


8. Gift certificate


9. Giving away


10. Guarantee


11. Have you been turned down?


12. If only it were that easy


13. Important information regarding


14. In accordance with laws


15. Long distance phone offer


16. Mail in order form


17. Message contains


18. Name brand


19. Nigerian


20. No age restrictions


21. No catch


22. No claim forms


23. No disappointment


24. No experience


25. No gimmick


26. No inventory


27. No middleman


28. No obligation


29. No purchase necessary


30. No questions asked


31. No selling


32. No strings attached


33. No-obligation


34. Not intended


35. Obligation


36. Off shore


37. Offer


38. Per day


39. Per week


40. Priority mail


41. Prize


42. Prizes


43. Produced and sent out


44. Reserves the right


45. Shopping spree


46. Stuff on sale


47. Terms and conditions


48. The best rates


49. They’re just giving it away


50. Trial


51. Unlimited


52. Unsolicited


53. Vacation


54. Vacation offers


55. Warranty


56. We honor all


57. Weekend getaway


58. What are you waiting for?


59. Who really wins?


60. Win


61. Winner


62. Winning


63. Won


64. You are a winner!


65. You have been selected


66. You’re a Winner!

Calls-to-Action

1. Cancel at any time


2. Compare


3. Copy accurately


4. Get


5. Give it away


6. Print form signature


7. Print out and fax


8. See for yourself


9. Sign up free today

Free

1. Free


2. Free access


3. Free cell phone


4. Free consultation


5. Free DVD


6. Free gift


7. Free grant money


8. Free hosting


9. Free installation


10. Free Instant


11. Free investment


12. Free leads


13. Free membership


14. Free money


15. Free offer


16. Free preview


17. Free priority mail


18. Free quote


19. Free sample


20. Free trial


21. Free website

Descriptions/Adjectives

1. All natural


2. All new


3. Amazing


4. Certified


5. Congratulations


6. Drastically reduced


7. Fantastic deal


8. For free


9. Guaranteed


10. It’s effective


11. Outstanding values


12. Promise you


13. Real thing


14. Risk free


15. Satisfaction guaranteed

Sense of Urgency

1. Access


2. Act now!


3. Apply now


4. Apply online


5. Call free


6. Call now


7. Can't live without


8. Do it today


9. Don't delete


10. Don't hesitate


11. For instant access


12. For Only


13. For you


14. Get it now


15. Get started now


16. Great offer


17. Info you requested


18. Information you requested


19. Instant


20. Limited time


21. New customers only


22. Now


23. Now only


24. Offer expires


25. Once in lifetime


26. One time


27. Only


28. Order now


29. Order today


30. Please read


31. Special promotion


32. Supplies are limited


33. Take action now


34. Time limited


35. Urgent


36. While supplies last

Nouns

1. Addresses on CD


2. Beverage


3. Bonus


4. Brand new pager


5. Cable converter


6. Casino


7. Celebrity


8. Copy DVDs


9. Laser printer


10. Legal


11. Luxury car


12. New domain extensions


13. Phone


14. Rolex


15. Stainless steel

Use Spam Trigger Words Sparingly and Within Context

So long as you use email marketing best practices and use spam trigger words within context, you can bypass spam filters. Spam filters have become much more sophisticated in recent years. Using one or two phrases won’t hurt you, but make sure to only email customers who want to hear from you and to always personalize your emails. Doing so will optimize the results of your campaign and keep you out of spam folders.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in March 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.