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“Spam” is the shorthand term for unsolicited bulk email, sent to thousands or even millions of emails at a time for marketing purposes. Spam filters function to sort these messages out of the recipient’s inbox. If you use email marketing to promote your insurance business, it’s important to understand how these filters work—and how to keep your messages out of them.

Be sure your email is authenticated. Spam filters will automatically check to be sure your messages have proper email authentication, so it’s important to set up that authentication before sending an email marketing campaign. This process is different depending on the email you use.

Don’t buy lists of leads. You’ll always get better results if you grow your list of prospects organically. While it’s possible to buy lists of hundreds and thousands of email addresses, these addresses belong to people who’ve never heard of you and have no reason to want to. They’re much more likely to click “delete” on your message—too much of this can get you permanently flagged—and not to respond to your messages.

Know which words trip the SPAM filters. There are a number of words SPAM filters automatically recognize and filter out of inboxes. Unlucky for insurance marketers, one of those words is “insurance.” Others include “Free,” “Promo,” “buy,” and so on. There are lists of hundreds of words online that will provide more comprehensive information on words to avoid—both in your subject line and body copy.

Know how to say what you’re saying. The fact that the word “insurance” itself could trip spam filters is a bit discouraging for insurance marketers. But Spam filters also look at your content and formatting—do these right, and your insurance emails are more likely to get through.

Avoid spammy writing tactics like using all capital letters, using punctuation in subject lines, using more than one exclamation mark in a sentence, or using font sizes larger than 10- or 12-point.

Avoid relying too much on images. Some Spam filters consider a high image-to-text ratio a trigger. If your image is too large, that can also get your email filtered. Try to be sparing with images and when you use them, make them fairly small. Bear in mind that many email users have automatic settings that block images in emails, so if your messages are particularly visual, it’s possible a lot of your message isn’t getting seen.

Avoid shortening your links. Some domains that shorten web links (such as bit.ly) will get your emails automatically blocked. Include the full email address rather than using a URL shortener. It’s also a good idea not to link to a large number of separate domains in a single email message. In addition, be selective about where you link to—only link to sites with good reputations.