Oh that I had a nickel for every time I get asked this question. I suppose it's natural to want to go for the quick fix - in email marketing and in life!

The good news is that several lists do exist. The bad news is that nearly every effective direct marketing word can be found on these lists. The good news is that It isn't really about a list of words per se, it's how the filters see a constantly evolving combinations of words get used that trigger the filters.

We always suggest that senders write great marketing copy for their offer, marketing goals, brand and audience, and then test their creative for current triggers. You can do this via some free or nearly free tools like: Campaign Monitor, Litmus, Preview My Email and Mail Chimp.

You could also send test campaigns to your own accounts at various email clients and check each one for rendering and inbox delivery. Or, use a Campaign Preview or Spam Filter Monitor tool from your ESP or deliverability service provider (full disclosure: my company, Return Path, offers one).

Often, the flagged words include things like "new", "on sale", "whitepaper", "click here"; or the unsubscribe link or snail mail address. Since these words appear in almost all emails (for response and also for CAN-SPAM compliance), the spam filters pick it up as a trend with spam.

Out of fear of tripping the filters, some marketers try to alter words and content that have a lot to do with their business and what they have to offer. This is usually not necessary. For each campaign, once you see which words are flagged, just adjust or use synonyms or change the combinations.

That said, there are some obvious words to watch ..here is a list that is pretty good. http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt8/spamfilter_phrases.htm

Here's also a bunch of keywords identified by SpamAssassin themselves: http://spamassassin.apache.org/tests_3_1_x.html

But again, it could make you mad trying to stay away from all those words... best to focus on your marketing goals first, write great copy that engages and sells, and then be sure to test your emails prior to sending.

Comments

I've been telling clients that spam filtering is like a bucket, everything you do, that spammers do adds water to the bucket. That's things like use this word, use that word, have this rDNS setup, use this HTML structure, generate this many complaints. When the bucket overflows then your mail is filtered, blocked or otherwise treated like spam.

A bit of an oversimplification, but a good mental model to use when you're looking at crafting a specific mail and making choices about word usage.

The good news is that http://corlive.com exists ! I don't use email anymore.

Great list. We can testify to that fact that using "free" and anything will likely land an email in junk. Here's some others: SEO, advertising, marketing, free, sales, offer, proposal, SEM, PPC,