Emails I send are going into the recipient's junk mail folder

Problem

When you send an email, your email goes into the recipient's junk mail box.

Please read our other FAQ if your problem is the other way around (eg email you are receiving going into your junk mail folder). Read this by clicking here.

Why this might happen

Junk mail filters are simply a lot more paranoid these days and "picky" about what emails they let go into the Inbox due to the VAST amount of spam being sent out these days. So your chance of messages you send going into someone's spam folder have never been higher.

Unfortunately the only 100% accurate spam filter is a human being.

Here are some of the other common reasons your emails might go into somebody's junk mail folder:-

You're on a spam blacklist
The contents of your email look spammy, or contain spam "trigger" words. Some examples of these are:-

amazing
cancel at any time
check or money order
click here
congratulations
dear friend
for only (then a pound or dollar sign etc)
free
great offer
guarantee
increase sales
order now
promise you
risk free
special promotion
winner

They've never received emails from you before
Your email signature has an image in it

What to do about it

Whilst we'd love to be able to automatically make your messages go into someone's inbox rather than their junk mail folder, as the moving of the message into the junk mail folder happens on the other side (eg by the recipient's email system), it isn't something that we have control over, so we can't influence it (sorry, even with a gun to our heads it's not something we can control!)

However here are some handy tips to help prevent this from happening:-

Ask the recipient to add your email address to their whitelist (or safe list)

If they don't know how to do this, advise them to contact their email provider
Please note simply adding your email address to their contacts often isn't enough and they'll need to whitelist the email address in whatever spam system they have

Check to see if your domain name (eg my-company-name.com) is on a spam blacklist

You'll be on a spam blacklist if you have been suspected of sending spam (or if your account / computer has been hacked to send spam)
Being on a blacklist means that many email companies will automatically put emails you send into spam
To check if you're on a blacklist, use the MX Toolbox checker which you can access by clicking here
If you find you're on a blacklist, please raise a support ticket and let us know and we will see if we can get you removed

Recommend to the recipient that they contact their email provider and ask for help

As the junk mail filtering will usually be either their email provider, or software they have installed on their computer, we'd recommend that they consult with their email and/or IT provider