When it comes to writing a compelling subject line, you start to wonder what’s the appropriate words to use so that your email stands out in your contact’s inbox. You look for a sentence that should neither be too short nor too long, yet grabs readers attention. But this is not the entire case! There’s something even bigger that really impacts your email performance: “spam trigger words”.
Spam traps and filters are becoming smarter and stricter by the day, so much that at times, one word can increase the chances of being filtered and buried in the spam box.
To optimize your email content for spam compliance, we’ve provided a list of 500 words and phrases you should avoid using in your subject lines.
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Call-to-action – Urgency – Cost – Money – Business – Ecommerce – Email – Marketing – Internet – Offer – Number – Medicine – Health – Time – Legal – Miscellaneous – Negative statement – Questions
Call-to-action
- Click
- Click here
- Click to remove
- Click to get
- Click below
- Visit our website
- Please read
- Apply here
- Action
- Action required
- Subscribe
- Unsubscribe
- Opt-in
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- Cancellation required
- Cancel at any time
- Double your
- Get started
- Remove
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- Compare
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- Claims
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Urgency
- Now
- Take action now
- Order now
- Get started now
- Access now
- Click now
- Compare now
- Cancel now
- Claim now
- Do it now
- Request now
- Save now
- Subscribe now
- Act now
- Apply now
- Get it now
- Call now
- Act immediately
- Order today
- Urgent
- Hurry up
- Signup free today
Cost
- Free money
- Free website
- Financial freedom
- Financially independent
- Affordable
- Costs
- Price
- Price protection
- Purchase
- Loan(s)
- Lower monthly payment
- Rates
- Compare rates
- Mortgage rates
- Lower interest rates
- Billing
- Billing address
- Lowest price
- Lowest rate
- Free investment
- Quote
- Mortgage
- Lower your mortgage rate
- Hidden fees
- Buy direct
- Talks about hidden charges
- The best rates
- Strong buy
- Buy
- Lowest insurance rates
- Refinance
- Refinance home
Money
- Earn
- Earn $
- Earn per week
- Expect to earn
- Potential earnings
- Earn money
- Instant earnings
- Earn monthly
- Earn from home
- Earn per month
- Fast cash
- Cash out
- Cash bonus
- Extra cash
- Earn extra cash
- Subject to cash
- Extra income
- Million dollars
- Billion dollars
- Credit card
- Wants credit card
- Accept credit card
- Credit card check
- Casino
- Debt
- Double your income
- Get paid
- Money
- Sales
- Increase sales
- Increase your sales
- Cards accepted
- Check
- Check or money order
- Online income
- Instant income
- Make $
- Make money
- Income
- Unsecured debt
- Credit
- Only $
- Get out of debt
- Pennies a day
- Unsecured credit
- Your income
- Additional income
- Eliminate bad credit
- Consolidate your debt
- Profits
- Calling creditors
- Cents on the dollar
Business
- Investment
- Requires initial investment
- Investment decision
- Avoid bankruptcy
- Stock disclaimer statement
- Boss
- Be your own boss
- Stock alert
- Hidden assets
- Online biz opportunity
- No selling
- Name brand
- Explode your business
- Compete for your business
- Stock pick(s)
- New customers only
Ecommerce
- Order shipped by
- Confidentially on all orders
- Shopper
- Order status
- Shopping spree
- Mass email
- Auto email removal
- Dear [email/friend/somebody)
- Direct email
- Bulk email
- Email harvest
- Email extractor
- Extract email
- Stop emailing me
- Mail in order form
- Priority mail
- One time mailing
- Claims to be in accordance with some spam law
- Not spam
- We hate spam
- This isn’t spam
- Lose weight spam
- Sent in compliance
- Not junk
- Message
- Message contains disclaimer
- Junk
- This isn’t junk
- Undisclosed recipient
Marketing
- Email marketing
- Internet marketing
- Multi-level marketing
- Online marketing
- Marketing solutions
- Direct marketing
- Ad
- Search engine listings
- Search engine(s)
- Increase traffic
- Tells you it’s an ad
Internet
- More internet traffic
- Internet market
- Online degree
- Web traffic
- Online pharmacy
- Apply online
- Compare online
- Online job
Offer
- Amazing offer
- Best offer
- Bargain
- Best bargain
- Fantastic offer
- Great deal
- Serious offer
- Special offer
- Credit card offers
- Deal
- Discount
- 50% off
- Giving away
- Prize
- Sale
- Stuff on sale
- Best price
- Special for you
- Special deal
- Special discount
- Limited offer
- Lifetime deal
- Huge discount
- Vacation offers
- Exclusive deal
- They’re just giving it away
- Cannot be combined with any other offer
- Month trial offer
- Special promotion
- Talks about prizes
- Long distance phone offer
- Offer
- Great offer
- Offer expires
- Give it away
- Fantastic deal
- Incredible deal
- Give it away
- Give (it) away
- Claim your discount
- Free gifts
- 100% free
- Free money
- Free access
- Free cell phone
- Free consultation
- Free installation
- Free offer
- Free DVD
- Free Macbook
- Free iPhone
- Free instant
- Free preview
- Free
- F r e e
- For free
- Free priority mail
- Free grant money
- Free leads
- Free quote
- Free hosting
- Free membership
- Free sample
- Free bonus
- Free information
- Subscribe for free
- Affordable deal
- Call free
Number
- Million
- 100%
- 100% satisfied
- #1
- Zero chance
- Zero risk
- Number one
- Number 1
- For only
- Serious only
- Now only
- Limited
- Only
- Unlimited
- One time
- Limited amount
- Limited number
- Once in a lifetime
- Thousands
- Join millions
- Join millions of Americans
Medicine
- Viagra
- Fast Viagra delivery
- Valium
- Xanax
- Cures
- Vicodin
Health
- Weight
- Weight loss
- Lose weight
- Human growth hormone
- Stop snoring
- Cures baldness
- Cell phone cancer scam
- Safeguard notice
- Life
- Removes wrinkles
Time
- Time limited
- Lifetime
- Lifetime access
- Per month
- Per day
- Limited time
- Limited time offer
- Limited time only
- Per day
- Per week
- Presently
- This won\’t last
Legal
- Claims to be legal
- In accordance with laws
- Legal notice
- Terms
- Obligation
- Terms and conditions
- Easy terms
- Reserves the right
Miscellaneous
- Hello
- Instant
- Luxury
- Please
- Promise
- Score
- Success
- While supplies last
- All new
- As seen on
- Bill 1618
- Cable converter
- Chance
- Home based
- Life insurance
- Nigerian
- Pre-approved
- Rolex
- Score with babes
- Social security number
- Won
- Avoid
- Certified
- Clearance
- Congratulations
- Expire
- Great
- Lose
- Name
- Open
- Satisfaction
- Serious
- Supplies
- Traffic
- Win
- Being a member
- Brand new pager
- Here
- Home employment
- Maintained
- Round the world
- Satisfaction guaranteed
- Solution
- Unsolicited
- Wife
- Work from home
- Amazed
- Cheap
- Collect
- Fantastic
- Friend
- Guarantee
- Guaranteed
- Problem
- Trial
- Winner
- 4U
- Acceptance
- Amazing
- Collect child support
- Hidden
- Home based business
- Information you requested
- Laser printer
- Medium
- Opportunity
- Performance
- Produced and sent out
- Removal
- S 1618
- Stop
- We honor all
- Access
- Addresses on CD
- Amazing stuff
- Diagnostics
- Drastically reduced
- Form
- Leave
- Meet singles
- Outstanding values
- Phone
- Print from signature
- Removal instructions
- Reverses
- Section 301
- The following form
- University diplomas
- You are a winner
- Accordingly
- Beverage
- For you
- Copy accurately
- Dig up dirt on friends
- For instant access
- Gift certificate
- If only it were that easy
- Insurance
- It’s effective
- Member
- Miracle
- One hundred percent guaranteed
- Passwords
- Print out and fax
- Real thing
- Reverses aging
- See for yourself
- Stainless steel
- Teen
- Weekend getaway
- While you sleep
- You have been selected
- Big bucks
- Buying judgements
- Can’t live without
- Copy DVD’s
- Dormant
- Get
- Home
- Important information regarding
- Luxury car
- Member stuff
- MLM
- New domain extensions
- Offshore
- Promise you
- Sample
- Supplies are limited
- Vacation
- Winning
- All natural
- Be amazed
- Be surprised
- Beneficiary
- Call me
- Important notification
- Info you requested
- Increase your chances
- Meet girls
- Meet women
- Meet me
- Limited supply
- Reverses aging
- Stop calling me
- You have been chosen
- Your chance
- Your status
- Help
- High-score
- Celebrity
- Risk-free
- Extra
Negative statement
- Don’t delete
- Don’t hesitate
- Claims not be selling anything
- This isn’t a scam
- Will not believe your eyes
- Not intended
- Not-scam
- No obligation
- No-obligation
- Never
- No claim forms
- No gimmick
- No strings attached
- No hidden
- No middleman
- No disappointment
- No age restrictions
- No experience
- No inventory
- No questions asked
- No catch
- No selling
- No-selling
- No investment required
- No medical exams
- No hidden fees
- No interests
- No purchase necessary
- No credit check/experience
- At no cost
- No cost
- No hidden costs
- No fees
Questions
- What are you waiting for?
- What’s keeping you?
- Have you been turned down?
- Who really wins?
- Why pay more?
Below are a few suggestions to help you optimize your email messages on your campaigns or automations:
- Make your subject lines short, less than 7 words.
- Don’t use one-word subject lines.
- Do not use all caps.
- Avoid special characters as well as “?,!,#” whenever you can.
- Personalize subject lines by using shortcodes, AKA merge tags. Check this article for more details.
- A/B test your subject lines.
- Insert an emoji to have your emails standout.
- Gmail apps only: use email markup to add actionable items within your email subject line.
- Use synonyms to words like “complementary”instead of “free”.
- Don’t add “RE:” to subject lines if it’s not a reply.
A great subject line should be part of your email marketing strategy. It can impact your open rate and contribute to the success or failure of your email campaign. The most critical part when writing a subject line is to highlight the benefit, make it relevant, and avoid using spam trigger words that might affect your deliverability.
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