We marketers know the wonders that a well-crafted and timely campaign can do to our email marketing ROI or engagement. There goes a lot of time and efforts in creating a perfect email for your campaign.
You ponder upon the subject line to come up with the most intriguing one, you create appealing designs, invest your time in writing the most appropriate copy and include the most enticing offers to lure your customers.
But what if this email does not reach your subscribers’ inbox?
While crafting perfect emails is important, what is more important is to make sure that your emails are getting delivered to the right users. According to Returnpath’s Deliverability Benchmark Report of 2018, one in five emails never make it to the inbox but get lost in the users’ spam folders.
Statistically, your subscribers are likely to open your email within the first 24-48 hours, and if they do not open your email after your first follow up, the chances are, they will not open it at all. Hence, you only get one chance to get them to receive the email and ensure that they open them.
So, to make sure your emails receive the right emails at the right time, your email deliverability rate needs to be satisfactory.
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Here are a few things that you can do to increase your email deliverability:
1. Use double opt-ins
Adding a double opt-in method is a great way to ensure that you only send emails to subscribers who are genuinely interested in receiving your emails. While single opt-ins are easy and automatic, it may backfire sometimes by generating frequent spam complaints.
Users who have not willingly opted for your emails may report your emails as spam, which may cause some ISPs to block your sending server. It is, therefore, preferred to have double-opt ins to tackle spam complaints.
This can be done by simply sending an email to your users to validate their email address and ask for their consent. This automatically leads to higher deliverability rates and saves you time later in list cleansing.
2. Perform timely list management
If your email bounce rates are consistently high and so are the spam rates, it is time to manage your list. Sending emails to inactive or non-existent email users will only increase your bounce rates, which will result in low credibility.
Remove all inactive subscribers off your list by filtering out users who have not opened or engaged with your emails for a long time. Try to win back the inactive users by sending re-engagement emails, but if they still do not respond, delete them from your email list.
So, instead of worrying about the drop in your open rates and click rates, focus on cleaning your lists every now and then and send relevant emails to the interested lot.
3. Set up an authentic IP
In order to defend getting spammed by the ISP filters, you need to show that your IP is trustworthy and valid. Send emails in small batches to your most loyal and regular customers, who follow and engage with your emails every time.
As each email that you send is received and opened by the users, your IP will begin to build trust for the ISP. Slowly and steadily, increase the number of emails you send.
This way, you show the ISP that your IP and the emails you send are legitimate. This, in turn, improves your brand reputation.
4. Have a sender policy framework in place
A sender policy framework improves the authenticity and reliability of your emails for your receivers’ email servers. The receiving server verifies the domain name by matching it with the associated IP address to ensure it is real and trustworthy.
Not having an SPF (sender policy framework) in place can put your emails at the risk of getting blocked.
5. Follow a consistent send schedule
The prime reason your emails fail to reach your potential customers is sometimes due to random and inconsistent email sending.
Sticking to a timely and well-planned sending schedule improves your email send score, reduces IP rejection, and improves your email credibility.
6. Manage your email sending frequency
Too many or too less emails can hamper your brand reputation and fail to engage the right users. It is therefore important to send just the right number of emails to your subscriber list.
One email per week is a fairly good frequency. You can scale up to a maximum of two emails per week by testing the response metrics. Test for the ideal frequency for your brand and follow it to keep your customers always engaged.
7. Make sure you are not blacklisted
If your emails receive too many spam reports, your DNS will blacklist your IP address. This will lead to send problems and result in IP rejection.
Make sure your IP is not in the blacklist using an IP monitoring service. Make it a practice to check the blacklists on a regular interval.
8. Use a consistent sender name
A sender name is the first thing a reader notices to identify the email. It is, therefore, necessary to keep a sender name that states exactly who you are.
Inaccurate or inconsistent sender information can lead your emails to your subscribers’ spam or trash folders.
9. Allow your subscribers to opt-out easily
To improve your brand integrity, it is necessary to give your customers an easy way to unsubscribe and opt-out of your email list at any time.
According to the CAN-SPAM act, it is mandatory to have a simple unsubscribe process. Include a prominent unsubscribe link in all your emails and make it convenient for the users to opt-out in a single click.
Also, send them a confirmation email stating that they will no longer be receiving emails from you.
10. Focus on the content and formatting
Emails that contain poor content or bad formatting can get caught in the spam filters. Too bulky or messy HTML codes with overuse of styles, colours, links, images, and formatting can raise a red flag and land your email in the spam folder.
Develop the email in simple HTML and avoid using the unnecessary code. Keep your email content crisp and concise and avoid using full links as-is. Also, avoid overuse of spam trigger words.
Wrapping Up
Email deliverability is a critical part of your email campaign. In order to make an impact on your subscriber with your emails, they first need to receive the emails in their inbox. Check for the above-mentioned factors before sending your perfectly crafted emails, and it is sure to do wonders.
Author bio:
Chris Donald is the Director of InboxGroup, A professional email marketing agency that specializes in providing result-driven email marketing services. He has worked directly with Fortune 500 companies, retail giants, nonprofits, SMBs and government bodies in all facets of their email marketing services email audit and marketing automation programs for almost 2 decades. He enjoys sharing his distinctive thoughts and insights into email marketing best practices at his blog.
