Surprisingly, no! When video emails are formatted correctly, they are actually less likely to go to spam than other types of emails.
In fact, video emails tend to perform 2-3 times better than text based emails.
The reason that video emails do a better job of avoiding the spam folder is because viewer engagement plays a huge role in email deliverability. Email service providers look at how much engagement similar emails get — and then make a judgment call as to whether your email belongs in the inbox or the spam folder.
Learn more about keeping videos out of spam and good email hygiene in our interview with Josh Odom, CTO of Mailgun (acquired by Sinch).
Because video emails tend to see higher engagement than their text / image based counterparts, they typically land in the inbox!
That being said, when sending our cold or mass emails, you always need to be cognizant of what could land your emails in the spam folder.
Follow these 12 steps to keep video emails out spam:
Large file sizes can get you caught in the spam folder. Instead of sending the .MP4 or full video file, use either embedded HTML code or a GIF preview of your video that links to a video landing page.
Video email platforms like Sendspark let you record or upload a video, and then automatically generate email embed code to make it easy to send your video in email.
Email service providers look at both your image-to-text ratio and HTML-to-text ratio. Because you’ll be embedding your video as either an image or HTML, it’s helpful to add some text (at least 2-3 sentences) to balance out the email.
While it is technically possible to embed videos so they autoplay out loud when opened — do NOT do this for cold email or mass marketing.
Video autoplay will annoy recipients and get you blacklisted faster than you can say “Hi there, I made you a video!”
You’re not just writing email subject lines for your recipient — you’re also writing them for the spam filter. Here are things to avoid with your email subject lines:
These trigger words can tip off spam filters:
Honesty is the best policy! These tricks might seem like they’ll increase your open-rates, but as soon as Google catches up, your emails will go right to spam...
If you need more inspiration, check out some of our recommendations for best subject lines for video emails .
Shhh, no one wants to be yelled at.
Email service providers will get suspicious if you’re too excited about the content of your email
One or two is fine, but more might tip off a spam filter.
Also be cognizant that your emojis might render differently on different devices and email clients. Do not use emojis in the middle of sentences, or anywhere where it could ruin your message if it doesn’t render properly.
A couple of typos won’t kill you, but if your message looks like it’s written hastily or by a bot, it could land you in the spam folder.
In addition to triggering spam filters, this makes your email harder to read by recipients.
Email providers are very cautious about links — for good reason. Real spammers trick recipients with false links. Always follow best practices when using links:
Sendspark provides video cname to use your own domain when sending videos, so recipients can feel confident clicking on links.
This helps email providers know that you are a legitimate sender.
Set up your sender address so recipients see who emails are from.
Make sure your sender address matches your domain, so email providers don’t think you’re phishing.
Note, it’s common to set up special domains for emails (so if you accidentally get your domain blacklisted, your true domain name is untouched), but you have to be careful that your new email domain does not look too similar to your regular domain that it could be phishing.
For example, as sendspark.com, we can send emails from @sendspark-mail.com, but would need to be careful with @sendsparks.com (which looks more like phishing).
Especially when you get a new email sending domain, it is vital you warm up your domain over time by sending more and more emails every day.
Do not get a new email domain, and then send out 10,000 emails! Start with 500 emails, and then add 500 emails every day over time to slowly build credibility for your email sending domain.
It’s important to stay compliant with CAN-SPAM because… well, it’s the law. CAN-SPAM gives you a lot of leeway to send cold emails, as long as you...
Keep an eye on your spam score, so you can roll things back if you start slipping.
Google now shows Spam Scores in search results, so you can just search your domain to see your spam score. (The data comes from Moz)
Aim to keep your spam score below 5%. If you notice it creeping up, slow down your outbound emails until you can improve your process.
As we mentioned up top, email engagement has a huge impact on your deliverability. Email clients look at whether emails that look like yours got a lot of engagement to determine whether your email is something people want to see, or should go to spam.
This is why video emails actually help your email deliverability — they get 2-3x more engagement than their text + image counterparts.
You can keep your email engagement high by…
There are some additional guidelines to keep in mind if you’re sending out an HTML email instead of a plain text email.
Still not sure your email is safe from the spam folder?
Check your email with a spam grading tool before blasting it out.
There are plenty of free email graders to give you feedback on how to optimize your email to avoid the spam folder.
Sendspark makes it easy to create video emails that have high deliverability. With Sendspark you can easily….
Get Sendspark for free to start sending high performing video emails today!
This article seems like a lot, but really, keeping video emails out of spam is simple. Use a platform like Sendspark to record and optimize your video for email — and then just send video emails that recipients WANT to receive.
You don’t need to be an expert to game the email system or outsmart Gmail — you just need to send out emails that genuinely connect with your audience.
I recommend writing at least 10 emails personally before sending out email blasts to make sure your emails come across natural and genuine.
Good luck and happy recording!