Hi @KindeR 

Thank you for posting your question in the community.

When it comes to Email Deliverability, thinking about it similar to a Credit Score. All of the ISPs (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) give you a score based on a number of factors (engagement with your emails, list hygiene, segmentation, etc.), with one of the most important factors being engagement. If engagement with your emails is low, the ISPs will give you a lower score which overtime will result in your messages going to the spam folder. 

Deliverability remediation is possible, but it does take time, it cannot be fixed overnight. 

The process to fix your deliverability should start with your segmentation. You should be sending the majority of your emails to your most engaged subscribers (30-day Openers, as an example), while only occasionally sending to less engaged subscribers. 

While sending to your most engaged subscribers, you’ll also want to assess the content. If your subscribers slowly stop engaging or you see an increase in unsubscribes, that is an indication that the content should be refreshed. 

There are other factors that can contribute to your messages being sent to Spam, but these would be the first two areas to start with!

I hope this helps!

@In the Inbox 

Hello,
Thank you for your answer.

If I communicate exclusively with my engagement segment, will the emails also land into their spam folder?

Thank you!

Hi @KindeR 

Its always possible that some messages might land in the Spam folder as the ISPs evaluate your campaigns to your subscribers, but the more people engage with the content the more the ISPs will recognize you as a credible sender and increase the number of messages delivered to the inbox. 

But, if you target your most engaged subscribers its likely your messages are already landing in their inbox to interact with, enhence their high engagement already. 

Overtime, as you target your most engaged subscribers, you should see your engagment metrics improve as they slowly improve, you can start to increase the size of your segment criteria (Example: from 30-day openers to 45-day openers, etc.)

Best,

@In the Inbox 

Thank you very much!
For how long should I engage only with these subscribers before trying to reactivate my unengaged subscribers to avoid the “Spam” folder? 

Well! Bryan from @In the Inbox  has already shared some great advise. I’d like to add my thoughts to that:

If your emails are going into the spam folder, you’re not alone. Mailbox providers like Gmail doesn’t care whether you’re doing emails for the first time or you’re a seasoned email marketer.

They only care about just 1 thing -

Great inbox experience for their customers (users who have accounts with them).

Keeping this in mind, keep your emails customer centric and deliver wanted emails which are personalised and relevant to your audience.

The simple thumb rule to stay away from spam folders: 3R Method

Right subscriber, Right Content, Right Time

Now, coming to your question, if your emails are landing into spam (assuming you are able to track inbox placement), and you’d like to fix it - follow this:

1. Monitor the message ISPs like Gmail highlight in the spam folder, when you open any email that landed in spam folder. In other words, interpret what Gmail is telling you - Why your email is considered as spam? Makes sense.
2. Monitor Postmaster to check your domain/IP reputation. If your reputation is high or medium, you are likely to inbox, and vice versa.
3. There could be a possibility, users are receiving emails in inbox every time, but suddenly start to receive emails in their spam folders despite the fact nothing has been changed from the sender’s side. Every user is different and spam filters tend to adapt and improvise consistently basis each user behaviour.
4. As @In the Inbox  rightly said, start with the segmentation, target your most engaged audience with your most engaging content (because engagement is key to delivering emails in the inbox).
5. Revisit your email acquisition sources and focus on list housekeeping methods.
6. Stop mailing to your dormant and inactive subscribers and reach out to them from different channels like SMS or FB custom audiences.
7. For unengaged users, implement a re-engagement strategy to re-activate your users who have lost interest in your emails, but under a controlled frequency. Refer to recent response on this thread - 

Hope that helps you align your thought process and win back your deliverability and email health.

Regards,

Mohsin