If you’re sending cold emails, sales outreach, or even just regular updates, you know the pain: emails that never make it to the inbox. You spend time crafting your message, hit send, and… nothing. If you’re using tools like Lavender to help write better emails, you’re on the right track, but let’s be honest—good writing is just one part of the game. Deliverability is a whole mess of its own.
This guide is for anyone who wants to use Lavender to get more emails into inboxes, not spam folders. We’ll focus on what Lavender can help with, where it won’t save you, and what you should (and shouldn’t) bother with. No magic bullets—just solid, practical advice.
Step 1: Clean Up Your Sending Practices First
Before you even touch Lavender, make sure you’re not sabotaging yourself.
- Warm up your domain. If you’re sending from a new domain or account, start slow. Send a few emails a day and ramp up over a couple weeks.
- Authenticate your email (SPF, DKIM, DMARC). If you don’t know what these are, look them up and set them up. If these aren’t set, your emails are dead on arrival—no tool can help.
- Check your sending volume. Hundreds of emails a day from a single account? That’s a one-way ticket to the spam folder.
- Keep your list clean. Bounces and spam complaints kill your sender reputation. Use a list cleaning service if you’re not sure.
Pro tip: No amount of Lavender polish will save you if your sender reputation is trashed. Fix your foundation first.
Step 2: Use Lavender to Write Like a Human
Spam filters love robotic, salesy, or mass-blasted emails. They hate genuine, personal-sounding ones. This is where Lavender can actually move the needle.
What Works
Lavender’s core strength is making your emails sound less like spam and more like a real person wrote them. Here’s how to use it:
- Use the personalization suggestions. Lavender will nudge you to add a line about the recipient’s recent activity or interests—take the hint. Even a small touch can help.
- Shorten your emails. Long emails look like templates. Keep it under 100 words when possible. Lavender flags length for a reason.
- Simplify your language. Tools like Lavender highlight complex sentences, jargon, or sales-y phrases. Rewrite until it sounds like something you’d actually say.
- Check the “spammy language” warnings. If Lavender flags phrases like “act now,” “guaranteed,” or “limited time,” don’t just ignore them—swap them for plain English.
What Doesn’t Matter As Much
- Emoji and images. Some folks obsess over whether a smiley face will kill deliverability. In reality, one emoji or a small image won’t hurt. Just don’t go overboard.
- Over-personalization. Dropping in {{first_name}} and {{company}} is fine, but if you fake it or use info that’s obviously scraped, it’s worse than not personalizing at all.
What to Ignore
- “Best time to send” hacks. Most of these are guesswork. Write good emails and send them when you can.
- Overly formal writing. Real people don’t say “To whom it may concern.” Lavender pushes for conversational tone—follow its lead.
Step 3: Pay Attention to Lavender’s Deliverability Features
Lavender isn’t a full-on deliverability tool like GlockApps or Mail-Tester, but it does surface some useful warnings and suggestions.
Use the Spam Checker
- Run every email through the spam checker. Lavender will flag common red flags: spam trigger words, too many links, attachments, and so on.
- Act on the warnings. If it says your links look sketchy, swap them out or use fewer. If the message is too “salesy,” rework it.
- Don’t chase a perfect score. Chasing a 100/100 on every message is a waste of time. If you’re in the green, you’re fine.
Watch Out For:
- Link overload. Too many links—especially if they all go to tracking sites—set off alarms. Stick to one or two max.
- Excessive formatting. Bold, underlines, colored text? Looks spammy (and tacky). Keep it simple.
- Attachments. Unless you really need to send a file, don’t. They’re a big spam trigger.
Pro tip: If you need to include a link, use a reputable domain. Weird shorteners or tracking links can tank your deliverability.
Step 4: Don’t Blindly Trust AI Suggestions
Lavender’s AI writing suggestions can be helpful, but don’t let the robot take over.
- Read every suggestion out loud. If it sounds like a bot wrote it, rewrite it.
- Watch for “over-optimizing.” Sometimes AI tries too hard to sound “personalized” or “friendly” and ends up sounding fake.
- Customize the template, don’t just fill in the blanks. Even if Lavender gives you a template, tweak it for each recipient. Spam filters spot mail-merge jobs a mile away.
Step 5: Test and Adjust—But Don’t Obsess
Even with the best writing, some emails will end up in spam. That’s just reality. The trick is to spot patterns and course-correct.
- Send test emails. Use Gmail, Outlook, and a couple of other free accounts to see where your emails land.
- Watch your reply rates. If you’re getting ignored, it might not just be deliverability—it could be your message.
- Tweak one thing at a time. If deliverability drops, don’t overhaul everything. Change one variable (subject line, link, language) and retest.
Pro tip: If you’re consistently landing in spam, check your domain reputation with a site like Google Postmaster Tools. It’s not always your email content—sometimes it’s your sending history.
Step 6: Ignore the Hype, Focus on the Basics
Lavender is a solid tool, but it won’t fix fundamental problems like a bad sender reputation or a dirty list. Here’s what not to get distracted by:
- Deliverability “hacks.” There are always new tricks floating around—“put this word in the subject line,” “add a 1×1 pixel image,” etc. Most are useless, a few are risky.
- “Perfect” templates. There’s no universal perfect email. What works for one audience lands another in spam.
- Feature bloat. Stick to Lavender’s core features: spam checker, personalization, and clarity suggestions. The rest is mostly fluff.
Step 7: Keep It Simple and Iterate
At the end of the day, deliverability isn’t rocket science. The basics don’t change:
- Start with clean sending practices.
- Write like a human, not a robot.
- Use Lavender’s feedback, but don’t become dependent on it.
- Test, tweak, and pay attention to what actually works.
The best results come from small, consistent improvements—not chasing every new tactic. Use Lavender to spot issues, write better emails, and stay out of the spam folder. Then get back to work.