Email is one of the most important tools in a small business owner’s arsenal. It’s a versatile way to stay in touch with customers, promote your products or services, and keep your finger on the pulse of the latest industry news. But if your emails aren’t reaching the inboxes of your intended recipients, all that time and effort you’ve put into crafting them is for naught. There’s nothing more frustrating than putting together a great email campaign, only to have it get buried in someone’s spam or junk folder. But there are ways of improving email deliverability and increase the chances that your emails will actually be seen by your intended recipients. That’s why email deliverability is so important—and why we’ve put together this ultimate guide to improving it.
What is Email Deliverability?
Email deliverability is the percentage of emails that are successfully delivered to subscribers’ inboxes. A variety of factors affect email deliverability including server configuration, domain reputation, content, and subscribe/unsubscribe rates.
There are two types of email deliverability rates: direct and indirect. Direct refers to emails that are delivered successfully to the recipient’s mailbox. Indirect, on the other hand, describes what happens when an email is delivered to the recipient’s spam folder instead of their inbox. Let’s take a look at reasons why your emails bounce.
Email Bounces
When an email is sent, it passes through a series of servers before reaching its destination. Along the way, each server checks to see if the email address is valid. If the address is invalid, the server will send a notification back to the sender and the email will be bounced.
There are two types of bounces: soft bounces and hard bounces. A soft bounce occurs when there is a temporary issue with the email address. Reasons include a full mailbox or a problem with the receiving server. Hard bounces can happen for a variety of reasons, including typos in the address, an inactive account, or a permanent block by the receiving server. Regardless of the reason, hard bounces are generally considered to be bad news for senders. Not only do they indicate that an email has failed to reach its intended recipient, but they can also cause deliverability issues down the line. For these reasons, it’s important to keep an eye on your hard bounce rate.
Why Is Email Deliverability Important?
Email deliverability is important because it is still the Number #1 to communicate with your clients and leads. Your deliverability rating directly affects your ability to communicate with your subscribers. If your emails aren’t being delivered to their inboxes, there’s no way they can see or engage with your content. Which means you miss out on valuable opportunities to nurture leads and drive sales.
Now that we’ve covered what it is and why it’s important, let’s take a look at some quick and easy things you can do today to ensure your messages are being received.
Tips for Improving Email Deliverability
1) Keep Your Email List Clean
One of the most important factors in determining email deliverability is the quality of your email list. Improving email deliverability means you need to make sure that your list is clean and up-to-date. Start by removing any inactive subscribers from your list. These are people who haven’t interacted with your emails in a long time and are likely no longer interested in receiving them.
Next, take a close look at your sign-up forms and processes. Are you making it easy for people to subscribe? Are you giving them a clear idea of what they’ll be getting by signing up? If not, make some changes. Finally, consider using an email verification service to weed out invalid and low-quality email addresses. Email verifiers work by sending a test message to each address on your list. They then monitor to see if the message is successfully delivered.
2) Use Double Opt-In
Another good way of improving email deliverability is to use double opt-in when adding new subscribers to your list. Double opt-in means that new subscribers must confirm their subscription via email before they’re added to your list. This helps to ensure that only people who actually want to receive your emails are added to your list.
3) Don’t Use Spam Trigger Words
The content of your emails is very important when it comes to deliverability. Avoid using spammy words and phrases like “free,” “win,” and “act now.” These will trigger spam filters and increase the chances that your emails will be flagged as spam. Being labeled a spam can quickly get your entire account flagged as spam by internet service providers (ISPs). Instead, focus on creating quality content that will resonate with your audience.
Another thing to keep in mind is the length of your emails. Shorter emails tend to have higher deliverability and engagement rates than longer ones. So, if you find that your emails are getting caught in spam filters more often than not, consider trimming them down a bit. Finally, make sure that all of the links in your emails are working properly. Broken links will damage your reputation with ISPs and could result in lower deliverability rates.
4) Segmenting Your Subscribers
Segmenting your subscribers into groups based on interests and/or demographic information improves email deliverability, because it allows you to send more targeted and relevant messages. This increases the odds that they will be opened and engaged with.
5) Make It Easy To Unsubscribe
With the ever-changing world of technology, it is now more important than ever to include an easy unsubscribe link in your emails. Doing so may seem contradictory at first, but think about it this way. If a customer does not open or engage with what you are sending them, then not providing them with an easy way to unsubscribe will only hurt both their experience and your reputation. You actually improve your deliverability by allowing these subscribers to control how often they receive emails by reducing the number of complaints.
Email deliverability is a critical component of any good digital marketing strategy and it’s also one that many small business owners struggle with . If you’re having trouble getting your messages through to people’s inboxes, there are things you can do to improve your deliverability rates . First, ensure the quality of your list is high by using a double opt-in . Second, pay attention to the content of your emails. They should be short, relevant and engaging. And finally, segment your subscribers into groups based on their interests. By following these tips, you can ensure that more of your messages get through —and that more people see and engage with them .
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