1. Don’t use sales-y phrases like “once in a lifetime opportunity,” “huge discounts,” or “buy now.”
2. Use! exclamation! points! sparingly!
3. Don’t cut and paste HTML from a Word document into an email. Word uses a rather sloppy HTML coding, which spam filters hate. If you need to copy text from a Word document, paste it into a text editor like Wordpad or Notepad first, which will remove the HTML that Word automatically inserts.
4. Don’t use the word “test” in the subject line. While this usually isn’t enough in and of itself to flag a message as spam, it might be enough to push it over the scoring threshold if the message has other red flags.
5. DO NOT WRITE IN ALL CAPS. It’s a breach of email etiquette and a dead giveaway for spammers.
6. Avoid colored fonts—especially bright greens, yellows, and reds.
7. Don’t send HTML emails that consist only of an image with little or no text.