The biggest nightmare for any email marketer is their emails ending up in the subscriber’s spam folders. It means all their hard work has gone down the drain. That’s where email deliverability comes into the picture.
Defining Email Deliverability
Email deliverability means the placement of your promotional emails in the subscriber’s inboxes. An optimum email deliverability rate implies that your emails are getting “delivered” to the user’s inbox without triggering the spam filters.
Why is Email Deliverability Important
Email deliverability is an aspect often overlooked by marketers. However, it has a direct impact on important metrics like email opens, click-through rate, conversions, and ROI. The foundation of effective email marketing strategy is inbox placement. If your emails fail to make it to the subscriber’s inbox, it will hamper the engagement which will in turn affect the sender reputation. Not landing in the inbox paints your image as a spammer and alerts the spam filters, thereby posing a threat to your entire email strategy.
With that said, we shall now discuss how to improve your email deliverability and steer clear of all these spam filters.
8 Tips to Enhance Email Deliverability
1. Carry out email domain authentication
Implementing Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is of utmost importance if you want to prevent email spoofing. Email Domain Authentication lets the ISPs know that you are not a spammer. They verify your identity before you reach your subscribers. Another authentication protocol is DMARC (Domain Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance). It helps senders in informing the subscribers the authentication methods they should check and the steps to follow in case an email fails to clear the checks.
2. Warm up the IP before implementing your email strategy
If you are new to email marketing, you cannot start sending emails all at once. Start slow and gradually increase the number of emails over time.
Remember that as soon as you reach a daily volume of 25000 emails and more, switch to a dedicated IP address. Using a shared IP address can prove detrimental for your email performance.
Some marketers add IPs so that they can bypass the penalties. ISPs can figure out such tactics. Win over the trust of the ISPs with fair methods rather than looking for such shortcuts that can put you in trouble.
3. Use a double opt-in method
A double opt-in method will ensure that your email list contains engaged subscribers who are genuinely interested in hearing from you. They are more likely to wait for your email and engage with it. Consequently, it will have a positive effect on your deliverability rate.
4. Ask the users to whitelist your email address
Request the users to add your email address to their address book. Doing so will prevent the emails from reaching the spam folders. Users who have joined your list through a double opt-in method will be keener to do so. So, it’s a win-win for both parties.
5. Write engaging subject lines
Subject lines directly influence email deliverability and open rate. If spam filters find your subject lines spammy, they might filter out the emails. There is nothing like spam trigger words and no hard and fast rules that apply to this. But make sure that your subject lines are not clickbait, misleading, or salesy. Maintain the authenticity of your email subject lines as far as possible.
6. Send relevant and useful emails
The performance of your email campaigns depends a lot on the value you provide through them. Send emails that are relevant and useful for the readers. Make sure that they have signed up for those emails. For example: If a user has signed up only for marketing emails, don’t send them weekly newsletters. Deliver what you were asked for. What works the best is to create a preference center. Redirect the users to this page right after they complete the signup process. It will help you understand what kind of communications the readers wish to receive.
It is a good idea to send succinct emails with relevant visuals to grab the subscriber’s attention. This will also help in building a solicitous impression with the readers and make them look forward to hearing from you.
7. Follow a strict list hygiene regime
Maintaining a clean email list helps in overcoming email deliverability issues. Remove the disengaged subscribers at regular intervals to increase the subscriber engagement and email deliverability. Formulate a re-engagement email strategy to win back the inactive subscribers. Automatically unsubscribe them if they take no action even after sending a series of reactivation emails.
8. Collect feedback from the people who unsubscribe
Whenever a user opts out from your emails, ask them for their feedback. Were the emails spammy? Was the content irrelevant? Did you send too many emails? Based on this feedback, you can optimize your email campaigns for better results. It will help improve the email marketing health as a whole and help maintain an optimum email deliverability rate.
Wrapping Up
Apparently, email deliverability rate measures the inbox placement of your emails. But if we dive deeper, it reflects the kind of relationship you have with your subscribers. A strong relationship means better email deliverability. Keeping an empathetic tone, making the emails about the subscribers rather than your business, and providing useful content through every communication are the three keys that can unlock the door to optimum email deliverability rate.
