Top 40 Words to Avoid in Your Email Subject Lines

Email marketing has the highest return on investment out of all current-day marketing strategies.

But your return on investment could quickly drop to zero if you include spam words in your email subject line.

Sometimes spam filters latch onto words you wouldn't even think of as "spam".

By not including these 40 spam words in your email subject lines, you'll avoid spam filters and convince people to open your message.

40 Email Spam Words to Never Use:

  1. Free

  2. No Risk

  3. Huge Savings

  4. FWD:

  5. RE:

  6. Chance 

  7. Win

  8. Here

  9. One time only

  10. Limited Time Offer

  11. 100%

  12. Cheap

  13. No Cost To You

  14. ATTENTION

  15. STOP!

  16. Dear Friend

  17. Easy

  18. Fordable

  19. Buy

  20. XXX

  21. Best Price

  22. Claim

  23. For only $5 (or any other specific dollar amount)

  24. Full refund

  25. Open now

  26. Dorment 

  27. Hidden

  28. Home

  29. Winner 

  30. Teen

  31. Lose

  32. Hello

  33. Click

  34. Form

  35. Multi-level marketing

  36. Cures

  37. Spam

  38. #1

  39. Become a Millionaire

  40. Instantly Slim

What Makes Spam Words Spam?

This list is just the tip of the iceberg. If you want a more extensive list, check out the one put out by HubSpot.

While you were looking at this list you were probably surprised at least once.

I mean, "teen"? What's so spammy about that word?

I separate spam words into two categories.

  1. Obvious Spam

  2. Corrupted Words

Obvious spam includes loud, unrealistic promises or warnings.

“STOP! Your Account is in Danger! Act Now”

These types of subject lines are full of spam and don’t give any real information about the content of your email.

This email subject line is much more effective:

“Robin, Your SpaceBox account closes in 3 days”

The language is specific and spam-free, and there’s still some fear of missing out or losing something.

The second category includes words like teen and win. These words could be incorporated into a wonderful subject line if used properly.

“8 movies your teen will love” would have made a great subject line for a newsletter.

Unfortunately, some words have been corrupted and overused by copywriters and email marketers.

“Win your free ticket to Vegas!”

“Win a tan beauty on this site”

“Win, Win, Win! The best lottery site in history!”

Note: Subject lines with one or two corrupted words can sneak past spam detectors. This largely depends on the email provider used by the persons on your email list.

Not Just Words

There are subject line testers you can use to weed out spam words. Some of them, like Send Check It, are free.

However, the first thing you’ll learn when using this machine is that punctuation is just as important as words.

I once wrote a solid email subject line for an email I was creating for a client. I put it into my subject line tester and was very disappointed when it scored lower than expected.

Upon closer examination, I realized that the exclamation mark I added was the problem. After removing the troublesome punctuation the subject line scored MUCH higher and I was able to pass it on to my client.

If you’re familiar with email marketing (or receive large amounts of spam messages) you probably know why exclamation marks are a bad idea.

“HUGE opportunity!!!”

“Save big on our 50% sale!!!”

The exclamation mark and triple exclamation mark are almost a fixture in the stereotypical spam email.

Now, if you’re a small business owner who wants to handle your own email marketing campaigns this is probably frustrating. First, you have to worry about your words, now you have to stay away from certain punctuation marks.

I’ll admit, it’s a pain in the neck. It can take more time for me to write three emails (150 words each) than it does to write a 1000-word article.

Outsourcing email campaign creation to a freelance email copywriter (like me) removes the burden from your shoulders. However, if you would rather do it yourself, there are a few tools you can use.

Free Email Subject Line Tools

Copy.ai

Copy .ai is a free email subject line generator

Send Check It

Send Check It tests your subject line for readability, spam words, and more.

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