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Is Spam Filtering Silently Undermining Your Business?
When legitimate emails get caught in spam, it isn’t a technical issue—it’s a business risk. Missed proposals, unpaid invoices, and undelivered customer messages mean delayed deals, lost revenue, and reputational damage. This blog shares practical steps leaders can take to ensure critical emails reach the inbox.
According to a Gartner pulse poll, 67% of IT leaders cite “unmanageable workload” as the root of burnout—and one hidden driver is email that never reaches its destination. For CEOs, this isn’t a technical side issue—it’s a business operations issue. When proposals, invoices, or customer communications vanish into spam, the cost isn’t just inconvenience—it’s lost revenue, delayed deals, and damaged reputation.
The encouraging news is that most deliverability problems trace back to a handful of avoidable human habits and fixable technical missteps. Addressing them proactively keeps your teams focused on growth, not chasing lost emails. Here’s a handy guide outlining what to avoid to keep your emails out of spam filter crosshairs.
Six Everyday Habits That Keep Messages Out of Spam
Bad Habit #1: “FREE!!!” & other spam-trigger words
Why Filters Hate Them
Content scanners flag words that scammers overuse (e.g., guaranteed, act now, double your income).
Quick Fix
Use clear, specific language: “February pricing attached” beats “AMAZING SAVINGS.”
Bad Habit #2: Huge attachments (PDFs, ZIPs, videos)
Why Filters Hate Them
Big files are a favorite place to hide malware; size alone can downgrade reputation.
Quick Fix
Link to a secure SharePoint or Google Drive folder instead.
Bad Habit #3: All-image emails
Why Filters Hate Them
Filters can’t read images, so they assume the worst and junk them.
Quick Fix
Keep a 60-40 balance: mostly text, with few images.
Bad Habit #4: Emojis & ALL CAPS in subject lines
Why Filters Hate Them
These can look like marketing blasts; personal email rarely uses them.
Quick Fix
Use plain-case subjects and save emojis for social media.
Bad Habit #5: Too many recipients on CC/BCC
Why Filters Hate Them
Bulk sends look like spam lists when sent from a normal mailbox.
Quick Fix
Use a newsletter tool (Mailchimp, HubSpot) for announcements; keep Outlook/Gmail for 1-to-1 or small group messages.
Bad Habit #6: Replies from multiple domains
Why Filters Hate Them
“From” address mismatches hurt trust.
Quick Fix
Standardize: everyone sends from @yourcompany.com, not Gmail aliases.
Bottom-line rule: If an email feels “salesy” (especially in an “overly aggressive car salesman” sense), spam filters will probably agree. Keep business messages short, specific, and attachment-light, and you’ll dodge most junk folders.
This might leave you thinking “Does this mean I can’t send out sales emails?” Of course, email-based sales are still possible. However, the tactics and strategies need to shift from selling hard in your outgoing email to providing basic, clear information that is factual, yet engaging. Once you have a recipient's attention with a no-nonsense outreach, you can direct them into your sales funnel.
Remember, you’re not the only one affected by these changes. All your competitors will need to play by these same rules going forward. As always, just adapt to the changing rules and update your practices to align with the latest anti-spam measures.
What You Can Do This Week
Here’s a list of some easy adjustments you can make even without the assistance of your IT team.
- Move newsletters to secure email-marketing/CRM services with built-in compliance tools such as HubSpot or MailChimp.
- Ask marketing to drop spammy phrasing—swap “Act Now!” for “Action requested.”
- Standardize signatures & reply addresses so every employee sends from the same branded domain.
- Train staff to link files instead of attaching multi-meg PDFs.
- Set a company style guide: no all-caps subjects, limit emojis to internal culture emails, keep images under 100 KB.
- Keep up to date: That you’re reading this is a good indicator that you’re a problem solver for your company. Taking the time to periodically check back with us to find out what’s new in the IT and cybersecurity industry is a great way to keep up.
These steps cost nothing, yet they fix half of all deliverability complaints we see when we onboard new clients.
Let’s Get (a Little) Technical
Below we breakdown some technical reasons why inboxes are stricter and some of the top reasons your messages go missing. We also review why it's essential to get the list of acronyms below working together instead of against you. This terminology is important to understanding how email works under the hood and why emails might be going to spam instead of inboxes.
Technical Email Terminology in Plain English
SPF: Sender Policy Framework—a list in your domain’s settings that names which servers are allowed to send mail on your behalf.
DKIM: DomainKeys Identified Mail—an invisible signature that proves a message wasn’t changed in transit.
DMARC: Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance—think of this as rules for what Gmail/Outlook should do if SPF or DKIM fail.
TLS: Transport Layer Security—encrypts the route between mail servers so hackers can’t read messages in flight.
MTA-STS: Mail Transfer Agent – Strict Transport Security—a rule that forces TLS every time; no encryption, no delivery.
Why Mailbox Providers Are Getting Stricter
The rules of the game have changed: Microsoft Outlook began shunting unauthenticated bulk mail to junk in May 2025 and Gmail’s February 2024 update did much the same. Mailbox providers now scrutinize sender authentication, encryption standards, and domain reputation more aggressively than ever; even password‑reset links can vanish into spam because mailbox providers have tightened the screws.
Outlook’s new policy is blunt: senders that average 5,000+ messages a day must pass SPF, DKIM and DMARC—or be routed to junk, then rejected. Google’s update forced bulk senders to authenticate every message, provide one‑click unsubscribe, and keep complaint rates under 0.3%. Even if your company sends only a few hundred emails daily, these algorithmic rules still score messages for alignment, TLS, and reputation. One missing TXT record can drag a legitimate invoice into spam limbo.
Reputation & Blacklists: The Silent Inbox Killers
Mailbox providers track every domain and IP you use. Their internal “credit score”—often called Sender Score—ranges from 0 to 100; anything below 70 triggers heavier spam filtering. Open rates tank even faster if your IP lands on a public blacklist such as Spamhaus SBL or Barracuda; listed addresses are blocked outright or quarantined in junk.
How You Land There
- High complaint rate—As mentioned, Gmail flags complaint ratios over 0.3%. That means even one out of three hundred recipients reporting an email as spam can land you in junk mail jail.
- Compromised credentials that let a spammer blast phishing from your server.
- Mass forwarding through a single Cloudflare or AWS IP that already has a poor score.
How Your IT Team Can Monitor & Remediate
- Check Google Postmaster Tools weekly; watch the “Spam Rate” graph for sudden jumps.
- Run a free blacklist lookup at Spamhaus if open or click‑through rates drop overnight.
- Request delisting only after fixing the root cause—and publish a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject to prove you’re serious.
How Uprise Partners Keeps Your Email Flowing
Uprise engineers use Kineo Intercept, (part of our Kineo Technology Platform) which is our comprehensive, best-in-class security solution that delivers real-time protection across each client’s entire digital ecosystem, including email. The technology framework continuously detects and blocks threats from malicious actors (not your customers or corporate accounting firm), enabling swift awareness and response in real-time.
In addition to the recommendations throughout this blog, Uprise engineers also train Intercept’s machine learning algorithm to recognize trusted senders, helping ensure every email lands where it should. We also provide tailored security awareness and simulation training for users, so your business stays efficient and your operations run seamlessly.
Ready to reclaim the inbox? Reach out to hello@uprisepartners.com. We’re here to help!
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