Email marketing is an essential part of any digital marketing strategy, but it’s not enough to just create an email campaign and hit send. Your emails need to reach your subscribers’ inboxes, and that’s where email deliverability comes in. Email deliverability is the measure of your email’s ability to reach your subscribers’ inboxes. It depends on several factors, including your sending reputation, email content, and subscriber engagement.
In this article, we’ll share the best practices for email deliverability, including how to avoid spam filters, optimize your sending reputation, and improve open rates. We’ll also provide three use cases that illustrate how these practices can help improve your email deliverability.
Best Practices for Email Deliverability
Optimize your sending reputation
Your sending reputation is a measure of how trustworthy and reliable your email sending practices are. It’s based on several factors, including email bounce rates, complaint rates, and spam trap hits. To optimize your sending reputation, you should:
- Use a dedicated IP address: A dedicated IP address will give you full control over your email sending reputation. You won’t have to worry about other senders on the same IP address affecting your reputation.
- Authenticate your emails: Authentication ensures that your emails are legitimate and not forged or spoofed. Use SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication protocols to prove to ISPs that you’re a trustworthy sender.
- Monitor your metrics: Keep track of your email bounce rates, complaint rates, and spam trap hits. These metrics will help you identify any issues with your sending practices and allow you to take corrective action.
Avoid spam filters
Spam filters are designed to protect email users from unwanted and potentially harmful emails. To avoid being flagged as spam, you should:
- Use a clear and concise subject line: Your subject line should accurately reflect the content of your email and avoid using spam trigger words like “free,” “money,” or “buy now.”
- Don’t use all caps or excessive punctuation: These can trigger spam filters and make your email look unprofessional.
- Provide a clear opt-out option: Including a clear opt-out option will reduce the likelihood of your emails being marked as spam by recipients who no longer want to receive your emails.
Improve open rates
Your open rate is the percentage of subscribers who open your emails. To improve your open rates, you should:
- Segment your email list: Segmenting your email list allows you to send targeted and relevant emails to specific groups of subscribers. This can increase engagement and open rates.
- Personalize your emails: Personalized emails are more likely to be opened and engaged with than generic mass emails.
- Test and optimize your email content: A/B testing different email content can help you identify what resonates best with your subscribers and improve your open rates.
Use Case #1: A Retailer Improves Email Deliverability with Segmentation and Personalization
A retailer was struggling with low email deliverability rates and engagement. They decided to implement segmentation and personalization to improve their email marketing campaigns. They segmented their email list by demographics, purchase history, and engagement level. They also personalized their emails by using the recipient’s name and purchase history to recommend relevant products.
The results were significant. Their open rates increased by 25%, click-through rates increased by 17%, and their unsubscribe rates decreased by 12%. By optimizing their sending practices and delivering targeted, relevant content to their subscribers, they were able to improve their email deliverability and overall email marketing success.
Use Case #2: A Non-Profit Avoids Spam Filters by Using Clear Subject Lines and Opt-Out Options
A non-profit was struggling with low email deliverability rates due to their emails being flagged as spam. They realized that their subject lines were too vague and didn’t accurately reflect the content of their emails. They also didn’t include a clear opt-out option, which made recipients more likely to mark their emails as spam.
To address these issues, the non-profit started using clear and concise subject lines that accurately reflected the content of their emails. They also included a clear opt-out option in every email they sent. As a result, their spam filter rate decreased by 50%, and their overall email deliverability improved.
Use Case #3: An E-Commerce Business Improves Open Rates with A/B Testing
An e-commerce business was struggling with low open rates for their email marketing campaigns. They decided to use A/B testing to identify what type of email content resonated best with their subscribers. They tested different subject lines, email content, and calls-to-action.
Based on the results of their A/B testing, they were able to optimize their email content and increase their open rates by 20%. They found that personalized subject lines and calls-to-action that created a sense of urgency were most effective at engaging their subscribers.
Conclusion
Email deliverability is a crucial aspect of email marketing that should not be overlooked. By optimizing your sending reputation, avoiding spam filters, and improving open rates, you can increase the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns and drive more conversions.
To summarize, the best practices for email deliverability include:
- Optimizing your sending reputation by using a dedicated IP address, authenticating your emails, and monitoring your metrics.
- Avoiding spam filters by using clear subject lines, avoiding spam trigger words, and providing a clear opt-out option.
- Improving open rates by segmenting your email list, personalizing your emails, and testing and optimizing your email content.
By implementing these best practices and learning from the use cases we’ve provided, you can boost your email marketing success and achieve higher email deliverability rates.