Email is a critical communication tool for businesses of all sizes, allowing them to reach customers, clients, and stakeholders around the world. However, simply sending an email is not enough to guarantee that it will be read or acted upon. In fact, a significant percentage of emails never even make it to their intended recipients due to issues with email deliverability.
In this article, we will explore the importance of email deliverability, including the factors that can impact it, best practices for improving it, and the potential consequences of poor deliverability. Whether you're a seasoned email marketer or just getting started with email outreach, understanding deliverability is essential to ensuring that your messages are seen and acted upon.
Understanding Email Deliverability
Email deliverability is the process of ensuring that your email is delivered to your intended recipient's inbox and not caught by spam filters or other barriers. It is a critical component of email marketing, as even the most well-crafted email is worthless if it never reaches the recipient. Email deliverability depends on a range of factors, including the reputation of the sender, the quality of the email list, the content and structure of the email, and the policies and practices of the recipient's email service provider. In order to improve email deliverability, marketers need to follow best practices, such as maintaining a clean email list, avoiding spam trigger words, and personalizing messages to increase engagement. By paying attention to email deliverability and optimizing campaigns accordingly, marketers can improve the chances of their messages reaching their intended audience and achieving their goals.
Factors that affect email deliverability
There are several factors that can affect email deliverability. One of the most important is the sender's reputation, which is determined by factors like email engagement rates and complaint rates. Other key factors include the content and formatting of the email, including the use of spam triggers words and links. Additionally, the quality of the email list, the frequency of emails, and the recipient's email service provider can all impact deliverability. To improve email deliverability, marketers need to follow best practices like maintaining a clean email list, personalizing messages, and avoiding spammy language and formatting. By paying attention to these factors and making adjustments as necessary, marketers can increase the chances of their emails reaching their intended audience.
Common email deliverability metrics
Common email deliverability metrics can provide valuable insights into the performance of email campaigns. Open rate, which measures the percentage of recipients who opened the email, can give a sense of the effectiveness of the subject line and the sender name. Click-through rate, which measures the percentage of recipients who clicked on a link in the email, can provide insight into the relevance and appeal of the content. Bounce rate, which measures the percentage of emails that were undeliverable, can highlight issues with the email list or formatting. Finally, the complaint rate, which measures the percentage of recipients who marked the email as spam, can indicate potential issues with the content or the email frequency. By monitoring these metrics and making adjustments as necessary, marketers can optimize their email campaigns for better deliverability and engagement.
Best Practices for Email Deliverability
Email List Management
Permission-based email marketing is an approach that involves only sending emails to people who have given their explicit consent to receive them. This type of marketing is critical for a few reasons. First, it helps ensure that the emails being sent are relevant and valuable to the recipients, increasing the chances of engagement and conversions. Second, it can help maintain the reputation of the sender, as unsolicited emails are more likely to be marked as spam and damage the sender's reputation. Third, it is required by law in many countries, and failure to comply can result in penalties and damage to the brand's reputation. By adopting a permission-based email marketing approach and following best practices like using clear and transparent opt-in processes, marketers can improve their email marketing results while building trust and positive relationships with their audience.
Email Content
Creating engaging and relevant email content is critical to improving email deliverability and engagement rates. To achieve this, marketers should focus on personalization and segmentation, tailoring their messages to specific segments of their audience. It's also important to provide value through educational or informative content, rather than solely focusing on sales pitches. Additionally, avoiding spammy language and triggers like all-caps, excessive punctuation, and deceptive subject lines can help improve deliverability and avoid being marked as spam. By following these tips and providing valuable, relevant content, marketers can increase the effectiveness of their email campaigns and build stronger relationships with their audience.
Technical Considerations
Properly configuring email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is a best practice for email marketing. These protocols help verify the identity of the sender and prevent email fraud and phishing attacks. SPF (Sender Policy Framework) checks that the sending IP address is authorized to send emails for a specific domain. DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) signs the email using an encryption key to ensure that the content has not been tampered with during transit. DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) helps receivers determine whether an email is authentic or not by checking SPF and DKIM records. By configuring these protocols properly, marketers can improve email deliverability, build trust with their audience, and protect their brand reputation.
Monitoring email sending reputation is also an important aspect of email deliverability management. Email service providers use various algorithms to evaluate the reputation of email senders, based on factors such as spam complaints, bounce rates, and engagement rates. A poor reputation can result in emails being sent to the spam folder, or even being blocked entirely. To monitor their email-sending reputation, marketers can use tools like Sender Score or Barracuda Reputation Block List to check their score and determine whether their emails are being flagged as spam. If the score is low, marketers can take steps to improve their reputation, such as cleaning their email list, avoiding spam trigger words, and personalizing their messages. By proactively monitoring and managing their email-sending reputation, marketers can help ensure that their emails reach their intended audience and achieve the desired results.
Testing and Monitoring
Testing and monitoring email campaigns is essential for achieving optimal results. By testing various elements such as subject lines, content, and send times, marketers can identify what resonates best with their audience and optimize campaigns accordingly.
A/B testing
A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a marketing technique used to compare two versions of a marketing asset, such as an email or landing page, to determine which version is more effective. The two versions, A and B, are shown to different groups of people, and their response to each version is measured using specific metrics such as click-through rates or conversions. By comparing the results, marketers can determine which version is more successful and use that version to target a larger audience. A/B testing allows marketers to improve the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns and optimize their content to better meet their audience's needs.
Inbox placement testing
Inbox placement testing is a type of email deliverability testing that evaluates where an email ends up after being sent, whether it lands in the inbox, spam folder, or is blocked. This testing involves sending a sample email to a test panel of email addresses across various email providers to measure the deliverability rates across different platforms. Inbox placement testing provides insight into how ISPs and email providers are treating emails and identifies issues such as spam triggers and authentication problems. By performing inbox placement testing, marketers can identify any deliverability issues, make necessary adjustments, and improve the chances of their emails being delivered to the inbox, ultimately improving engagement and conversion rates.
Troubleshooting Email Deliverability Issues
There are several reasons why emails may land in the spam folder, common reasons include using spam trigger words or phrases, using excessive punctuation or symbols, having a low sender reputation, lacking proper email authentication, and having a high complaint rate or unsubscribe rate. ISPs and email providers use algorithms to filter out unwanted or unsolicited emails, so if an email triggers these filters, it may be sent to the spam folder. To improve deliverability and avoid spam folders, marketers should follow email best practices, such as personalizing messages, providing valuable content, and avoiding spammy language.
Additionally, proper email authentication and monitoring of email sending reputation can help improve deliverability and reduce the risk of emails being marked as spam.
How to ensure your email deliverability?
When emails are not being delivered, there are several steps that can be taken to diagnose and resolve the issue. First, check to make sure that the email address is correct and that the recipient's inbox is not full. Then, review email content to ensure that it complies with best practices and does not trigger spam filters. It's also important to check email authentication settings, such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
To ensure that they are configured correctly. If the issue persists, it may be necessary to use an email deliverability tool to analyze and troubleshoot deliverability issues. These tools can help diagnose issues with email content, authentication, and sender reputation, and provide recommendations to improve email deliverability. By taking the appropriate steps and using an email deliverability tool if necessary, marketers can improve email deliverability and increase engagement with their audience.
In conclusion, prioritizing email deliverability in all email marketing efforts is crucial for the success of a campaign. By understanding and implementing best practices, such as creating engaging and relevant content, properly configuring email authentication protocols, monitoring email sending reputation, and testing and monitoring email campaigns, marketers can increase the chances of their emails being delivered to the inbox and improve engagement with their audience. Neglecting email deliverability can result in wasted resources and missed opportunities to connect with customers, therefore, it's important to prioritize email deliverability to ensure the success of email marketing campaigns.