Email deliverability is a critical aspect of email marketing that refers to the ability of an email sender to deliver their emails to the intended recipients’ inboxes. With the increasing number of emails being sent every day, it has become increasingly difficult for email senders to ensure that their emails are not being marked as spam or blocked by email service providers. In this paper, we will discuss five steps that email senders can take to improve their email deliverability.
1. Authenticate Your Emails
Email authentication is the process of verifying the identity of the email sender. It helps email service providers to determine whether an email is coming from a legitimate source or not. There are several email authentication standards, including SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance). By implementing these authentication standards, email senders can significantly improve their email deliverability.
2. Maintain a Clean Email List
Another critical step in improving email deliverability is maintaining a clean email list. A clean email list contains only valid and engaged email addresses. Email senders should regularly clean their email lists by removing inactive subscribers, bounced emails, and unsubscribed addresses. This helps to ensure that the emails are being sent only to engaged subscribers, which in turn improves the email sender’s reputation and deliverability.
Having a clean email list is essential because email service providers use engagement metrics to determine whether an email is spam or not. If a significant portion of a sender’s emails is marked as spam, it can negatively impact their sender reputation, leading to lower deliverability rates. Regularly cleaning an email list helps to ensure that the emails are being sent only to engaged subscribers, reducing the chance of them being marked as spam.
3. Monitor Your Email Reputation
Email reputation is a score assigned to email senders based on their sending practices. A good email reputation ensures that the emails are delivered to the inbox, while a bad email reputation can result in the emails being marked as spam or blocked. Email senders should regularly monitor their email reputation using tools like Sender Score, Talos Intelligence, and Return Path. By monitoring their email reputation, email senders can identify and address any issues that may be affecting their deliverability. These issues can include high bounce rates, spam trap hits, and low engagement rates. Regularly monitoring email reputation can help email senders maintain a good reputation and improve their chances of reaching the inbox.
4. Optimize Your Email Content
The content of the email also plays a crucial role in email deliverability. Email senders should optimize their email content by avoiding spammy words and phrases, using a clear and concise subject line, and including a visible and easy-to-use unsubscribe link. Emails with high engagement rates, such as opens and clicks, are more likely to be delivered to the inbox. Therefore, email senders should also focus on creating engaging and relevant email content that encourages subscribers to interact with their emails.
Email senders can take several steps to optimize their email content. Firstly, they should avoid using spammy words and phrases, such as “free,” “win,” or “credit,” in the subject line and the email body. These words can trigger spam filters and hurt the email deliverability. Secondly, email senders should use a clear and concise subject line that accurately reflects the email’s content. A subject line that is too long, vague, or misleading can decrease the open rates and hurt the email deliverability. Thirdly, email senders should include a visible and easy-to-use unsubscribe link in their emails. This not only meets the legal requirements but also helps to maintain a clean email list and improve the email deliverability. Fourthly, email senders should format their emails for easy reading, using clear headings, bullet points, and images. Lastly, email senders should make sure that their emails are mobile-friendly, as more and more people are checking their emails on their mobile devices.
5. Use a Dedicated Email Sending Platform
Using a dedicated email sending platform can help email senders to improve their email deliverability. Dedicated email sending platforms, such as Mailchimp, Sendinblue, and Constant Contact, have built-in deliverability features that help email senders to optimize their email sending practices. These platforms also provide email senders with detailed analytics and reporting, which can help them to identify and address any issues that may be affecting their deliverability.
In conclusion, improving email deliverability is essential for the success of email marketing campaigns. By following these five steps, email senders can significantly improve their email deliverability and ensure that their emails are being delivered to the intended recipients’ inboxes. Authenticating emails, maintaining a clean email list, monitoring email reputation, optimizing email content, and using a dedicated email sending platform are all critical components of a successful email deliverability strategy. By implementing these best practices, email senders can build and maintain a good email reputation, improve their engagement rates, and ultimately achieve their email marketing goals.
