Is it Still a Mistake to Use a FREE Word in Your Email Messages?

Hey guys, Hope you're doing great! As you know a FREE word was a dirty word for most of the spam filters. Sometimes it totally ruined email campaigns. But is it still a mistake to use a FREE word in your email messages nowadays? That's the question! Hubspot has tested this. They prepared 2 versions of the email message regarding their new Report they were giving away for free. 1 version: "Free Report" phrase in a subject line + 3 words FREE in the body of the email. 2 version: "SEO Report" phrase in a subject line + no free-word in the body of the email, they used SEO instead. Deliverability results were as follows: 1 version: passed 7 of 9 filters in Return Path's SPAM filter check; was delivered to 99.3% of selected recipients. 2 version: passed 8 of 9 filters in Return Path's SPAM filter check; was delivered to 99.2% of selected recipients. As you can see a FREE word didn't change a thing, and the delivery rate is quite the same. But the 2 version had 17% better click-through rate. As you can see now, it's really up to you whether to use a FREE word in your email messages or not. Just make sure it really fits your selected audience, and your subscribers will get it the right way.