1. Assess the scale of the problem. It's hard to assess what percentage of emails end up in the virtual dustbin.
"It's something of a hidden problem," says Matthew Potter, head of client development at email service provider Experian CheetahMail. "The first thing that brands see is whether an email was received or bounced back. If it is sent, you can't see which folder it has been delivered to."
There are ways around this. Companies can use methods such as setting up and monitoring fake email addresses to see which folder emails are delivered to.
2. Ways to avoid the junk-mail folder. There are a few creative-based rules that every company should adhere to if they want to ensure emails make it to the inbox. These include not using obvious trigger words such as 'free', particularly in a subject line, or using too many images.
It is also a good idea to make any sign-up process as transparent as possible, so that customers expect to receive emails and don't mark them as spam. Brands can also use the first email after sign-up to encourage recipients to add their details to an address book or safe list of senders.
3. Whitelisting and relationship management. This signals to internet and email services providers that your brand is one that can be trusted.
Establishing a relationship with an email company or internet service provider (ISP) and keeping regular contact with them will help ensure your brand is 'whitelisted'. This allows brands to bypass spam filters and, if anything goes wrong, to fix the problem more easily.
4. Certification systems. Brands can invest in systems such as Goodmail, a certification programme that ensures emails avoid the junk-mail folder. Messages are labelled with a blue-ribbon envelope icon in the email interface and have fully enabled links and images.
Return Path, another programme, works in a different way but allows marketers to monitor and track campaigns, optimise deliverability variables and join an industry-wide whitelist accreditation programme called Sender Score Certified.
5. List and data management. Only certain factors, such as infrastructure and IP stability, are within an email service provider's control, according to Ken Takahashi, VP of corporate and international development at Return Path. Senders are still responsible for managing complaints and bounce-backs.
"Keep your list clean, sign up for feedback loops, get on a sender score list and above all be consistent," he says. "If your IP address gets blocked, don't hop around to new ones. The way to differentiate yourself is to play by the rules so that the ISPs can identify you as a reputable sender."
WHAT IS...
Spamming: the use of mailing lists to send unsolicited messages of a promotional nature to email addresses
Domain keys: an email authentication system developed by Yahoo and designed to verify the domain name system (DNS) of an email sender
SPF (Sender Policy Framework): a protocol to enable emails with a forged address in the 'from' fields to be rejected
IP (Internet Protocol) address: four sets of digits, separated by dots, assigned to every computer connected to the internet.
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