Ensure the emails you send, don't get junked

Spam filters are quite intelligent today, but there are times when they end up blocking legitimate messages because they contain keywords that may have been used by the recipient of the mail to set up the rules for her spam filter. Here are few ways to ensure your emails lands in the inbox and not the junk folder.

Mind your language:
Since most spam filters depend heavily in keywords, the language you use in your email is of great importance.Using all capitals or too many emoticons are definitely email stoppers. Avoid superlatives in the subject line - like 'best' and 'superb' or even phrases like 'just the one you want'. These usually rank high on the block list of the spam filters.

Stay away from fancy HTML and attachments:
If you are sending a message to someone you don't know, consider sending the email as plain text, rather than as fancy HTML web page. Web pages are more likely to get blocked since hackers often use HTML code to hide malicious codes. The same goes for attachments. So, if someone isn't expecting your CV, put your cover letter as well as the CV in the body of your email.

Skip the pictures:
Unfortunately, spam filters seem to have certain angst against email dressed up with pretty pictures and graphics. Because spammers like to use graphics, which means all emails with graphics suffer by association. So avoid those pre-format emails with a logo and letterhead over them.

Use blind carbon copy (BCC):
Spam filters monitor the number of recipients closely - they are set to block emails with more that a certain number of recipients. So if you need to deliver an important message to a large group, use the BCC function. With this mail gets sent out to each recipient individually and the only email address that will appear in the recipient's mailbox is their own.

Get white-listed:
The opposite of a blacklist, or a list of known spammers, a white-list is a list of 'safe' senders. Most internet service providers (ISPs) have such white-lists. To get on a white-list, write down to postmaster@the_domain and request to be put on the white-list. Similarly, individual recipients are able to maintain a white-list too, so mail them a request to add your address in their address book, white-list.