Why emailed enquiries from websites are going to spam

There has been a growing trend of emails sent from websites being tagged as spam. Typically these emails are generated from enquiry and or contact forms from websites and these emails are getting caught up in the fight against spam.

As the spam battle continues to ramp up on both sides of the fence, the tests applied to normal email activity have been tightened and increasingly we see more and more legitimate email is being sent to the spam or junk folder.

This is very frustrating and costly to website owners whom may not necessarily notice enquiry emails from their website being tagged as spam and not delivered to their normal inbox.

Email remains and will continue to be a core part of the business toolset and a primary means for recording communications. Email is typically the default communication channel for conveying website form output to website managers and owners.

What can be done to help protect against this:

1. Check your junk and spam inbox regularly
2. Upgrade your website form spam guard to the latest version (we recommend Google Captcha)
3. Verify your domain
4. Change your email provider to a more robust and up to date platform (we recommend GSuite, known as gmail for business)
5. Set up a safety net database to capture all form output (we recommend Google Sheets)
6. Upgrade your website email sending platform to one that is more robust

Why not use open email addresses and abandon using forms?

We’ve always favoured forms over open email addresses from a marketing perspective as these allow for better conversion tracking and control over what information is being requested from visitors.

Open email addresses will improve the chance of enquiry emails being received by the website owner, but they will also significantly increase the number of spam emails that you receive.

What Adhesion is doing for its website customers

For new websites that we design and build, Adhesion currently incorporates the latest features to mitigate the risk of enquiry emails being tagged as spam including:

• Latest Google Captcha
• Google Sheets integration to capture a copy of all form output
• Upgrade to enterprise level email sending platform (Postmark) to improve email deliverability and gain access to better reporting and diagnostic tools

And for existing website customers we are proactively making recommendations regarding upgrades as we identify potential issues.

If you're concerned that you are not receiving emailed enquiries from your website, please contact us for a consultation.