{"id":62783,"date":"2023-02-21T17:33:42","date_gmt":"2023-02-21T17:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/?p=62783"},"modified":"2026-10-07T10:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T10:28:08","slug":"what-is-spam-how-to-prevent-emails-from-landing-in-the-spam-folder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/blog\/2023\/02\/21\/what-is-spam-how-to-prevent-emails-from-landing-in-the-spam-folder\/","title":{"rendered":"What is spam? How to prevent emails from landing in the spam folder?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Even though email marketing has been around for many years, the line between what is spam and what isn’t is still interpreted in many different ways (and often ignored)<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n

In this article we’ll look at the term from a practical point of view, rather than offering a textbook definition.<\/p>\n\n

And, more importantly:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\u25c6 How to assess how likely your mailings are to end up in spam<\/p>\n\n

\u25c6 And how you can prevent it (as far as possible)<\/p>\n\n

This matters a lot because, as you can imagine, emails that land in the spam folder are far less likely to be opened.<\/p>\n\n

And emails that aren’t opened are far less likely to sell.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

So let’s look at why all this happens. We’ll show you at Mailrelay<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

NOTE: <\/strong>In this article I won’t show you ways to stop receiving spam yourself; that is beyond the scope of this article.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u00b7 First of all, what is spam?<\/h2>\n\n

Unsolicited email<\/strong> is the first thing that comes to mind. Junk email. Unwanted advertising<\/strong>, in short. A promotional email with information we didn’t ask for, sent to us by someone (probably someone we don’t know at all) to sell us something.<\/p>\n\n

Email providers<\/a> do everything they can to stop or reduce the spam their users receive.<\/p>\n\n

You’ve most likely received one of these emails at some point, right?<\/p>\n\n

And you may simply have ignored it, or your email client may have put it in the spam folder.<\/p>\n\n

So, with this definition of spam as an email we didn’t ask for, a key question arises.<\/p>\n\n

\u25ba Junk mail vs phishing<\/h3>\n\n

We shouldn’t confuse spam, or junk mail, which is ultimately just a nuisance, with phishing<\/strong>, which is something far more dangerous.<\/p>\n\n

Although there can be different types of spam<\/strong>, it usually consists of unsolicited messages sent with the intention of selling something.<\/p>\n\n

Phishing, on the other hand,<\/strong> aims to steal private information, such as passwords.<\/p>\n\n

The problem is that, since the sender is often unknown, it’s impossible to know the ultimate intention of an unsolicited message.<\/p>\n\n

That’s why email service providers (ESPs) take such care to keep unsolicited messages from reaching their users’ inboxes.<\/p>\n\n

\u25ba Why does spam exist?<\/h3>\n\n

As we mentioned before, most of the time the purpose of spam is to promote a product and sell it through mass email.<\/p>\n\n

It’s the equivalent of unsolicited phone calls or leaflet drops, that is, cold outreach techniques in which the customer doesn’t know the company contacting them.<\/p>\n\n

Spam is as old as email itself, and of course, from the very beginning there has been a battle between ESPs and the companies that send spam.<\/p>\n\n

While ESPs try to limit the reach of spam, the companies that send it try to get around the existing filters.<\/p>\n\n

Unlike phishing, which tries to steal information, spam is only after sales.<\/p>\n\n

Although, of course, the two are often confused.<\/p>\n\n

\"How<\/figure>\n\n

You may also be interested in these articles:<\/p>\n\n