How the Spam Check tool works

How to check if your email looks like spam.

Georgina Doyle avatar
Written by Georgina Doyle
Updated over a week ago

Airship’s Spam Check tool allows you to check the spam score of your emails before you send them. Our algorithm is based on SpamAssassin, industry standard software that provides extensive algorithms to check the content of an email for spam-like content.

How do I use the Spam Check tool?

You can use our Spam Check tool when you create emails in Airship. After populating your email with content, and choosing your subject line, click “Spam Check” to view the spam score. This will display a pop-up window with a list of issues if any have been detected.

In the example above, our subject was “Test”, which caused the spam score to increase. 

What does the Spam Check tool do?

It runs complex algorithm against the content in your email to detect for common keywords that would lead to your email being caught by a spam filter in a user’s inbox or prevent your email from being delivered by ESPs (Email Server Providers) such as Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook.

The spam filter results are not necessarily trying to tell you your mail is spam, only that your mail might look like spam.

When the algorithm is run, it uses a scoring system. The higher the score, the more likely your email will be filtered as spam (even if it’s not spam).

How can I reduce my spam score?

Avoid any spam-like content. This can be as simple as your choice of wording. The algorithm will detect matching and part-matching words and notify you when these are detected.

Good content is king. The algorithm will detect if your email relies primarily on images and HTML rather than actual text content. Make sure your email contains a good ratio and your score will reduce.

What do the messages in the Spam Check tool mean?

When you use the Spam Check tool, it will display a list of issues found, with a description next to each issue. The description usually provides enough information for you to resolve the issue, but if it doesn’t please email success@airship.co.uk for assistance.

Can you alter the Spam Check tool to allow more keywords?

If you are using keywords that have been detected as spam by the Spam Check tool, you will need to replace these with different words to reduce the spam score. We cannot alter the algorithm as it relies on industry standard software and is used across the Airship platform. ESPs use very similar algorithms, so even if we allowed your keywords, your email would likely be caught as spam when it reaches the ESP.

Where can I find more information?

The spam check tool is extremely extensive, there are hundreds of checks and possible outcomes. Email success@airship.co.uk for further assistance and we’ll do our best to help you reduce your spam score!

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