The real estate industry relies heavily on email communication, but often, emails end up in the spam folder, especially in Gmail. As a real estate agent, it’s crucial to ensure your emails reach your clients' inboxes. Here’s a detailed guide on how to stop emails from going to spam in Gmail, particularly in light of Google's new regulations effective from February 1st, 2024.

Understanding Gmail's Spam Filter Mechanism

Gmail employs a sophisticated blend of AI and machine learning to power its spam filtering process. More information about the Google spam filtering algorithms can be found here.
Below are some key aspects of how their spam filtering system operates:

Email Domain Reputation Check

Initially, Gmail examines whether your domain and IP address are listed on any blacklists. This is a crucial step to establish yourself as a legitimate sender. If your domain is not blacklisted, Gmail then scrutinizes the content of your emails.

Email Content Analysis

The content of your email is thoroughly scanned for any harmful links or the use of words typically associated with spam or promotional material.

User Engagement Evaluation

After clearing the previous hurdles, Gmail assesses user interaction with your emails. This includes checking if recipients are deleting your emails unopened, which might suggest a misleading or irrelevant subject line. Additionally, Gmail monitors how often your emails are marked as spam by recipients.

Sending History and IP Warm-Up

For new IP addresses, a warm-up phase is essential. Initially, Gmail may temporarily block emails from new IPs for the first few hours. After this period, a small number of emails are allowed through to gauge recipient response. If these initial emails result in a high complaint rate, it's likely future emails will be categorized as spam. Conversely, if recipients mark them as “not spam,” Gmail will start to view your address as safe for regular inbox delivery.

These components collectively define the effectiveness of Gmail's spam filters. Understanding and adapting to these factors is key to ensuring your emails reliably reach your audience's inboxes.

How to Stop Emails Going to Spam in Gmail?

Move to a Professional Email Domain

With Google’s updated policies, using personal @gmail.com addresses for business email activities, particularly when sent through third-party applications, will result in those emails being marked as spam. It's imperative to switch to a professional email with your own domain. This not only improves email deliverability but also enhances your brand's security.

Ensure Full Configuration with Third-party Email Services

Your email server must be fully configured to align with third-party email infrastructures used for routing your marketing emails , whether it’s Follow Up Boss, KvCore, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or anything else. This seamless integration ensures that real estate agent’s emails are recognized and authenticated, reducing the risk of them landing in the spam folder.

Maintain Low Spam Report Complaints

Google Postmaster Tools can be utilized to monitor your spam report complaints. It’s crucial to keep this rate below 0.1%. A rate between 0.1% and 0.3% can negatively affect your email reputation, while anything above 0.3% significantly increases the likelihood of your emails being marked as spam.

Implement One-click Unsubscribe

For your real estate email campaigns, it's now essential to incorporate a one-click unsubscribe option in your emails. Email servers are designed to assess the simplicity of the unsubscribe process, and a convoluted method might lead to your emails being either blocked or rejected.

List Segmentation and Management

Segment your email lists to ensure that your communications are targeted and relevant to each group. This reduces the likelihood of recipients marking your emails as spam, which can harm your overall email deliverability.

Managing Email Lists

Actively manage your email lists by promptly removing addresses that have unsubscribed or bounced. It also becomes even more important now to regularly run the database through email verification software to eliminate invalid and fake emails from your lists. This not only keeps your list clean and compliant but also improves the overall health of your email marketing efforts, preventing your domain reputation and email trust score from being damaged

Implement DMARC for Enhanced Security

To add an extra layer of security against spoofing and phishing, implement DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) for your email domain. A correctly built and implemented DMARC policy will serve as a “verification indicator” to an incoming email server, indicating that your email is legitimate and is coming from a trusted source. Consequently, it is less likely that the email will be filtered into spam.

7 Tips to Avoid Emails Going to Spam in Gmail

Use Short and Relevant Subject
The first element your prospects notice in their inbox is the subject line of your email. Tailor these lines to resonate with their interests, based on your understanding of the prospect, to increase the likelihood of engagement.
Avoid Spam-Triggering Keywords
Email servers often scan for specific keywords to identify promotional content. Avoid using common spam triggers to reduce the risk of being marked as spam. While the comprehensive list of spam trigger words and phrases can be found in this article, some of them are represented below:
Free
Get
Sale
Cash
Offers
Discount
Best price
Income
Money
Establish Warm Connections Beforehand
Cold, unsolicited emails often lead to low response rates and high spam reporting. Building a rapport with prospects before emailing them significantly increases the chances of your emails being opened and read.
Steer Clear of Blacklists
Being on a blacklist means your emails will likely be directed to spam across various email services. Regularly use online tools to check if your sending IP addresses or a domain name are listed on DBLs/DNSBLs .
Adhere to Email Legislation
Compliance with email marketing laws such as CAN-SPAM, CASL, and GDPR is crucial. These acts mandate transparency in commercial emails and allow recipients to opt out of future emails. Non-compliance can result in fines of up to $51,000 per email that violates them and a negative impact on domain's reputation.
Reduce HTML coding and URLs in Emails
Excessive HTML and embedded multimedia are often indicators of promotional content. Stick to simple, text-based emails, which are less likely to be flagged as spam.
Test Your Email Campaigns
Finally, always test your email templates. Send them to yourself and colleagues to ensure they are formatted correctly and land in the primary inbox, not the spam folder.

Conclusion: Ensuring Your Emails Reach the Inbox

To stop emails from going to spam in Gmail, real estate agents must adopt a proactive and compliant approach to their email strategies. From moving to a professional email domain, integrating with third-party services, maintaining a low spam complaint rate, to implementing one-click unsubscribe and email security protocols such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, each step plays a crucial role in ensuring your emails reach their intended destination - your clients' inboxes.

For more tailored solutions and detailed guidance, consider seeking Google Workspace consulting for business email. Professional consultants can provide personalized strategies to enhance your email deliverability and compliance with Google’s regulations.

How to Stop Real Estate Agent's Emails Going to Spam in Gmail?