You rewrote your cold email three times. You took out "free", "guarantee" and "limited time". You replaced "$" with "dollars". It still lands in spam, or replies stay flat and you can't tell why.
The problem is usually not the words. Long lists of "spam trigger words" circulate online, but modern filters at Gmail and Outlook judge far more than vocabulary. Treating a word list as the fix means you polish the least important part of the email while the real causes stay untouched.
This guide shows what to check instead, in the order worth doing it.
Why the spam word lists exist
Early spam filters leaned heavily on content rules. Certain phrases added points to a spam score, and enough points sent a message to junk. Those lists stuck around in blog posts long after filters changed.
Today, mailbox providers look at signals like whether your domain is authenticated, how your sending domain and IP have behaved, whether recipients open, reply, delete or mark you as spam, and whether your list contains dead or risky addresses. Content still counts, but as one signal among many.
So one honest word like "free" in a normal sentence is unlikely to sink a well-sent email. A shouty, salesy email from a brand-new domain blasting an unverified list will struggle no matter which words it avoids.
What content does still matter
The myth is not that content is irrelevant. It is that single words are the problem. Patterns are what hurt:
- Looking like a mass blast. Heavy images, big buttons, several links, tracking-heavy templates.
- Aggressive formatting. ALL CAPS subject lines, many exclamation marks, coloured text.
- Link problems. Shortened links, links to domains with a poor reputation, or a link whose text doesn't match its destination.
- Identical copy to hundreds of people. Exactly the same body sent at volume looks automated, because it is.
- Content people don't want. If recipients ignore or delete it, that behaviour feeds back into how your future mail is filtered.
A plain, short, specific email written to one business reads as a real message. That does more than any word swap.
Step 1: Check your domain setup today
Before editing a single sentence, confirm the basics on the domain you send from:
- SPF lists which servers may send for your domain.
- DKIM signs your messages so they can be verified.
- DMARC tells receivers what to do when checks fail.
Your email host's help pages explain how to add each record. Send a test to a personal Gmail address, open the message, choose "Show original" and confirm SPF, DKIM and DMARC show as passing. Many senders also use a separate domain for cold outreach so their main business domain stays protected. Sender requirements change, so check the current rules from the providers you send to.
Step 2: Warm up and slow down
A new mailbox that suddenly sends hundreds of cold emails looks suspicious. Build volume gradually. Read our explainer on email warm-up for how that works.
A cautious rule of thumb many senders use is to start with a small daily number per mailbox and increase it slowly over a few weeks, spreading volume across several mailboxes instead of pushing one hard. Space sends out across the day rather than firing them all at once.
Step 3: Clean your list before you send
Bounces are a clear signal that you're not sending to people who know you. Before any campaign:
- Run email verification and remove invalid addresses.
- Be careful with catch-all and generic addresses. Our page on role-based email covers when info@ or sales@ addresses are worth using and when they aren't.
- Remove anyone who has unsubscribed or asked not to be contacted, and keep that list permanent.
In GetClient you can verify a list you scraped from Google Maps or imported by CSV before it goes into a campaign, so the cleaning step doesn't require exporting to another tool.
Step 4: Rewrite for one reader, not for the filter
Now the content. Instead of hunting forbidden words, run this edit:
- Cut length. Aim for a few short paragraphs a person can read on a phone.
- One link at most in the first email, or none. Use your full domain, not a shortener.
- No images or attachments in a first cold email.
- Plain text styling. Normal capitalisation, one question mark at most, no colours.
- Make it specific. Mention their business, their city or something on their website. See personalization for what makes this feel real rather than templated.
- Vary the copy. Use merge fields and a sentence or two that changes by segment. Our guide to custom fields in email campaigns shows how to add more than just a name.
- End with an easy question, not a demand for a 30-minute call.
If you use merge tags in GetClient, write them exactly like {{params.name}}, {{params.city}} or {{params.category}}, otherwise they won't fill in. Use the per-step preview to check how each version reads.
Step 5: Make it easy to say no
Including a clear way to opt out is expected under many email rules and also protects deliverability: a person who can unsubscribe in one click is less likely to hit the spam button. GetClient adds a one-click unsubscribe link and skips unsubscribed addresses automatically. Rules differ by country, so check what applies to where you and your recipients are. This isn't legal advice.
Step 6: Follow up without hammering
Sending the same pitch four times to people who never opened is the kind of pattern that hurts reputation. Space follow-ups out, change the angle, and stop after a few attempts. Our not-opened follow-up strategy walks through branching on opens so silent recipients get a different message from engaged ones.
A quick test to run this week
To see for yourself whether words matter much, pick a small, verified list split in two halves. Send both halves the same email from the same warmed mailbox, with one difference: one version uses a so-called spam word naturally in a sentence. Compare replies, not just opens, since open tracking is imprecise. Then run the same idea for something structural, like no link versus two links. You'll learn more about your own setup than any list can tell you.
For a fuller diagnosis of deliverability problems, read why cold emails go to spam. If you want to try finding, verifying and emailing leads in one place, new accounts get free credits; see plans and credits.