In this day and age of social media apps, instant messaging, and other online platforms, email is still the most preferred tool for business communication.
According to recent data, 306.4 billion are being sent and received daily. In addition, 81% of SMBs (small-to-medium businesses) or email marketers use email as a direct source to reach clients.
However, 50% of the 300 billion emails are in the spam folder and unsuccessfully attain the receiver.
Poor email deliverability can significantly impact your marketing efforts and sales. As a result, revenue losses happen, and productivity levels drop.
In this article, we gathered some best practices for email deliverability for you to prevent your email messages from the spam box and your recipients from clicking the unsubscribe link. Applying these tips will also increase your chances of being delivered to your recipient’s inbox.
But first, let us know what email deliverability is and why it is so important for your business:
What is Email Deliverability?
Email deliverability is sending an email to your recipient’s email address. However, this may sound easier said than done. Sending an email must go through a process before reaching their subscribers inboxes.
Furthermore, the emails must undergo various filters by different email service providers, including content filters, spam filters, and many more.
Once the email has successfully gone through them, it lands in one of the receiver’s inbox folders, whether in primary, updates, promotions, or spam.
Why is Email Deliverability Important?
It’s vital to plan and get it right to improve the efficiency of your email campaigns. Here are two reasons why email deliverability is essential:
Firstly, it gets your conversions done. Every email has a purpose: for users to read it and take action. If the email doesn’t reach the recipient, it affects the goal.
And secondly, it prevents you from becoming a spammer. You will not become spammers by following the best practices of sending emails. We all want to achieve our goal of reaching our recipient’s mailbox instead of ending up in spam. Otherwise, your email deliverability becomes critical.
11 Email Deliverability Best Practices
1. Use an Email Authentication
We encounter many mass email senders with email deliverability problems daily. Despite sending a mass email to a small list of 100 recipients, their new email account still gets blocked.
Therefore, authenticating their email account is the first thing a mass email sender should be aware of. Email authentication is similar to getting a driver’s license to move on the road to its destination.
There are four types of authentications your email campaign needs to go through to avoid ending up in spam and successfully landing in your recipient’s inbox
4 Types of Authentications
- SPF (Sender Policy Framework)
SPF is an email authentication protocol that lets the domain’s admin specify the mailing server list used by the domain.
Additionally, it makes a record in your Domain Name System (DNS) by listing all the authorized servers on the domain’s behalf. It also determines how receivers should handle the messages sent from unauthorized servers.
Furthermore, when a sender sends a message from an SPF-authorized domain, the receiver’s ESP checks the SPF authentication. It also offers a clean chit to the sender’s domain.
- DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail)
Another email authentication process is DKIM. This authentication helps the sender’s ESP verify that the message received is from an authorized source. This is done by offering a similar digital signature to your DNS records. Therefore, if you want to avoid many major email scams, adding DKIM records to the DNS enhances your email productivity.
- DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance)DMARC is another proper authentication process to boost your email deliverability. However, it is not mandatory. It assures your receiver’s ESP that no emails are associated with deceitful actions by recording the use of your DKIM and SPF records.
Additionally, internet service providers sometimes restrict some domain servers or IP addresses. In these circumstances, the DMARC records save you and make your email campaign go through the process.
- Custom Domain
Lastly, adding a custom domain is another trick to boost email deliverability. Tracking links in your email body also removes your marketing emails from the spam filter, thanks to the ESPs who block them.
Another advantage of providing a custom domain is it changes the initial tracking domain with your customized one. This option is safe, and no email provider blocklists it.
In addition, email automation tools like Saleshandy usually let you add a custom domain to your links.
2. Improve Your Email Sender Reputation
We don’t suggest you send huge email marketing (campaigns in sequences) from a new email account despite receiving a license to send to the receiver’s inbox.
Your account might come under your email service provider’s caution. As a result, it affects email deliverability. In the worst-case scenario, it might permanently block your email.
Instead, start slowly and gradually or practice a warm-up email account. To do this, send individual messages and form conversations. Practice this for a couple of days and slowly increase your number.
Moreover, an email warm-up boosts your sender reputation, making your account healthy for email campaigns (sequences).
- Maintain your sending quota
Maintaining your send quota is another tip to improve your email deliverability. Keeping track of how many emails you send daily prevents you from landing in spam, despite being allowed to send bulk emails after warmup and authentication.
You need to do this to ensure your emails are not blocked if you pull out a long list of receivers.
Therefore, stay within your email quota. Otherwise, your email provider will keep an eye on your actions and consider getting your account blocked in the meantime or forever.
- Be aware of email blacklistsAn email blacklist consists of domains and IP addresses presumed to send spam emails. It is a database that selects which are valid and which are not.
Two types of email blocklists you can use are domain-based or IP address-based.
The prior refers to a list of domains that repeatedly misuse the domain by sending spam or phishing activities. On the other hand, the latter frequently uses a list of networks and IP addresses that send spam.
3. Feedback loop
Email service providers often enable senders to gather feedback from their unsubscribers by redirecting them to complete forms or short surveys.
Doing this also lets you create a feedback loop to keep in touch with your recipients’ needs. Recipients can give feedback to the sender when they no longer want to be subscribed. As a result, this forms a meaningful engagement.
Using a feedback loop can maximize email deliverability in the long run. It maintains a cleaner and more valuable recipient list for the sender.
4. Stay away from email bounces
An email bounce is something you want to avoid. Despite the efforts, these can be identical to losing opportunities and still happens to 9.94% of business emails.
Moreover, email bounces will likely make a sender’s domain land on a blacklist, blocked by the email service provider, or both.
There are two types of email bounces: soft bounce and hard bounce.
A soft bounce is a temporary problem in email delivery due to a mail server currently down, a full recipient inbox, or a large email file. Soft bounces were an issue when inboxes only allowed a limited number of emails during the early days.
But nowadays, this happens due to a sudden increase in sending large volumes of emails.
A hard bounce, on the other hand, is a permanent bounce. Simply put, there is something wrong with the email address you are reaching. It could also mean that it no longer exists. To solve this, remove it immediately from your list to keep it clean.
5. Improve Your Email Content
The email content is the primary factor determining whether your email will reach your receiver’s spam or inbox. Here are some best practices to create valuable content for successful email deliverability.
6. Create a Relevant Subject Line
Your subject line is the first thing the receiver sees when they receive your email. According to a study, 69% of receivers report spam complaints on emails based on their subject line.
Additionally, spam filters do the same. Subject lines that include irrelevant or spammy keywords are more prone to end in the spam folder either by the recipient or through algorithmic filters.
Ultimately, this will affect email deliverability.
Also Read: 3 Key Elements of Irresistible Email Subject Lines
7. Consider the Text-to-HTML Ratio
Restricting spammy words is crucial in the subject line and the email body. Various email service providers update this list in their algorithms to filter your emails. Even a single spammy keyword might immensely affect your email deliverability.
8. Use Links
Another vital factor for conversions is using links. However, using too many links in a single email pulls the attention of the ESP. Not to mention, it will make your email end up in spam, which is dangerous and can affect your email deliverability and sender reputation score.
Email tracking links also include other additional links. For instance, the tracking link is blacklisted by various ESPs, directly impacting your email deliverability rate.
9. Personalize Emails
Sending personalized emails to offer 29% higher open rates than others. This is because people love to be addressed personally. Moreover, these will eventually improve your conversions and email deliverability.
10. Use an Excellent Email Service Provider
Using an excellent service provider is an essential tool to improve your email deliverability rate. If your current provider needs to be helping your business, consider switching to a better one.
However, if your current provider is great, determine other factors, such as your domain reputation, so spam filters and your recipients will not label you as a spammer.
At InboxAlly, we suggest not worrying about moving to a new email service provider or repairing a damaged sender reputation or domain. Try out our ultimate deliverability tool, and you’ll see the difference.
11. Engage with your subscribers
Your recipients will still mark your emails as spam if the content of your email is irrelevant to their needs. So, creating engagement around your email campaigns is essential to prevent them from getting reported as spam.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to improve your email deliverability?
Spend your time writing engaging and thoughtful email subject lines relevant to the content your subscribers will find in your email campaign.
Furthermore, other helpful tips include links to resources with more information, sharing insightful tips, and giving them opportunities to join the conversation.
How to optimize email deliverability?
Creating a successful content strategy is the key to optimizing email deliverability. You can do this by improving your email content. The subject line is the first thing your recipients will see when they receive your emails, so grab their attention and offer value.
Apart from the subject line, knowing what to include in the email body is also essential. You can achieve this by personalizing it, including links, and restricting spam trigger words.
How good is your email deliverability?
Some factors depend on your email deliverability’s quality. Some examples are the email content and the deliverability rate. If the content is valuable and high-quality and the rate is high, chances are you are doing great.
Meanwhile, if your emails are frequently in your recipient’s spam, you should improve it.
How to build a strong email deliverability strategy?
There are many ways you can build a strong email deliverability strategy. These include setting up an email subdomain, tracking your active and inactive subscriber list, leveraging email automation, managing the volume of the emails you send, and many more.
Final Words
Improving your email deliverability is essential if you’re starting or planning to start an email campaign and increase your domain reputation. Mail server infrastructure, authenticity, and open rates are some factors that affect email deliverability rates and sender reputation.
Additionally, high-quality content can maintain your email deliverability’s high rates. So, remove inactive subscribers, engage with them, and offer clear options for better deliverability.If you’re looking for the best email marketing solution for your small or large businesses, try InboxAlly now.
It’s the ultimate email deliverability tool that teaches inbox providers to reach their emails to their recipients successfully. You can even go for a 10-day free trial, with no credit card needed.
If you’re looking for the best email marketing solution for your small or large businesses, try InboxAlly now.
It’s the ultimate email deliverability tool that teaches inbox providers to reach their emails to their recipients successfully. You can even go for a 10-day free trial, with no credit card needed.