Email deliverability is a critical aspect of email marketing that determines whether an email will reach its intended recipient’s inbox or not. There are several factors that affect email deliverability, and understanding them is crucial for ensuring that your email campaigns are successful. This paper will explore five factors that affect email deliverability: sender reputation, content quality, list hygiene, authentication, and sending infrastructure.
1. Sender Reputation
Sender reputation is a score assigned to an email sender based on their history of sending emails. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and email providers use this score to determine whether to deliver emails to the inbox or the spam folder. A good sender reputation is necessary for ensuring high email deliverability. Factors that affect sender reputation include the volume of emails sent, spam complaints, spam traps, and blacklisting.
To maintain a good sender reputation, it is essential to avoid sending spammy or irrelevant content, ensuring that all emails are sent to opt-in subscribers only, using proper email authentication methods, and monitoring email performance metrics regularly.
2. Content Quality
Content quality is another crucial factor that affects email deliverability. Emails that contain spammy or irrelevant content are more likely to be flagged as spam or junk mail, leading to poor email deliverability. Factors that determine content quality include the use of spammy language, excessive use of images, and links to untrustworthy websites.
To ensure high email deliverability, it is essential to create high-quality content that is relevant to your subscribers. Use simple and engaging language, avoid excessive use of images, and include relevant links to trusted websites only.
3. List Hygiene
List hygiene pertains to the upkeep of a clean and current email list. Maintaining a spotless list ensures that emails are delivered to active and engaged subscribers, thereby minimizing the chances of being marked as spam or bounced. Some crucial elements of list hygiene are:
Validating email addresses: It is essential to validate email addresses before adding them to the list. This process involves checking if the email address is valid and active. There are several email validation tools available that can help automate this process.
Removing inactive subscribers: Subscribers who have not engaged with the emails for an extended period should be removed from the list. This practice not only helps to maintain a clean list but also improves the overall engagement rate.
Segmenting the list: Segmenting the list based on various factors such as subscriber behavior, demographics, and interests can help to improve the relevancy of the emails. This, in turn, can lead to higher engagement rates and better deliverability.
Regularly cleaning the list: It is essential to regularly clean the list by removing hard bounces, soft bounces, and unsubscribes. This process helps to maintain a clean list and improves the email sender’s reputation.
4. Authentication
Email authentication is the process of verifying the identity of the email sender. Proper email authentication can help improve email deliverability by ensuring that emails are not flagged as spam or junk mail. Factors that affect email authentication include the use of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records.
To ensure proper email authentication, it is essential to set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for your domain. These records can help ISPs and email providers identify legitimate email senders and improve email deliverability.
5. Sending Infrastructure
Sending infrastructure, on the other hand, refers to the technical setup that enables the sending of emails. A robust sending infrastructure is crucial for ensuring the successful delivery of emails. A few critical components of sending infrastructure include:
Using a dedicated IP address: Sending emails with a dedicated IP address can enhance the sender’s reputation. This is because the sender’s reputation is not impacted by the actions of other senders who share the same IP address when using a dedicated IP address.
Authenticating the emails: Authenticating the emails using protocols such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC can help to prevent email spoofing and improve the email sender’s reputation.
Monitoring the email sender’s reputation: It is essential to regularly monitor the email sender’s reputation using tools such as Google Postmaster and Microsoft Smart Network Data Services. A good email sender’s reputation is crucial for ensuring the successful delivery of emails.
Using a reputable email service provider: Using a reputable email service provider can help to ensure the successful delivery of emails. Reputable email service providers have robust sending infrastructure, follow email best practices, and have established relationships with email providers.
In conclusion, email deliverability is a critical aspect of email marketing that affects the success of email campaigns. By understanding the factors that affect email deliverability, marketers can take steps to improve email deliverability and ensure that their emails are being delivered to the intended recipients. Maintaining a good sender reputation, creating high-quality content, keeping a clean email list, properly authenticating emails, and using a robust sending infrastructure are essential for ensuring high email deliverability.
