3 Steps to Dominate Email Marketing Deliverability

Email marketing deliverability refers to an email campaign’s ability to reach recipient inboxes and is critical to any email marketing campaign. If emails don’t reach the inbox, potential customers won’t see them.

In this article, we will discuss three (3) steps to dominate email marketing deliverability for your email campaigns.

Table of Contents

Step 1 – Use Email Servers with High Reputation

The sender’s reputation is a measure of the trustworthiness of the sender’s domain and email server’s IP address. Email service providers (ESPs) use this information to determine whether to deliver an email to the recipient’s inbox or to send it to the spam folder. A poor reputation can result in low deliverability rates, so it’s important to maintain a good reputation by sending relevant and valuable content to opted-in subscribers.

What is Email Server Reputation?

Email server reputation refers to the reputation of the server or IP address sending emails. It measures the trustworthiness of the sender’s domain and IP address. It is used by email service providers (ESPs) to determine whether to deliver an email to the recipient’s inbox or send it to the spam folder.

An email server’s reputation is based on many factors, including the sending IP address, the domain name, and the content of the emails being sent.

A good email server reputation is essential for high email marketing deliverability. ESPs use various algorithms and data sources to determine the reputation of an email server. They look at factors such as bounce rate, complaint rate, and spam trap hits, as well as engagement metrics like open and click-through rates. ESPs also look for signs of spamming, such as using certain words, phrases, or subject lines commonly associated with spam.

A poor email server reputation can result in low deliverability rates, so it’s important to maintain a good reputation by sending relevant and valuable content to opted-in subscribers, using best practices for email marketing, and monitoring your email server reputation.

To maintain a good email server reputation, it’s important to:

Send relevant and valuable content to opted-in subscribers.
Follow best practices for email marketing.
Avoid sending to invalid or unengaged email addresses.
Monitor your email server reputation regularly.
If your IP address is blacklisted, contact the blacklisting service to request delisting.
Use authentication protocols such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.

By paying attention to these factors, marketers can increase the chances that their emails are delivered to the inbox and seen by potential customers, resulting in increased engagement and conversions.

How Do I Measure My Email Server’s Reputation?

There are several ways to measure your email server’s reputation:

Check your bounce rate: A high bounce rate can indicate that your email server is sending to invalid or non-existent email addresses, which can damage your reputation.
Check your complaint rate: A high complaint rate can indicate that recipients mark your emails as spam, damaging your reputation.
Check your deliverability rate: A low deliverability rate can indicate that your emails are being sent to the recipient’s spam folder, which can indicate a poor reputation.
Check your open and click-through rates: Low open and click-through rates can indicate that your emails are not reaching the inbox or that the content is irrelevant to the recipient.
Check your IP address and domain against blacklists: IP and domain blacklists are used by email service providers to identify and block spam. If your IP address or domain is on a blacklist, it can negatively impact your reputation.
Use Reputation monitoring tools: Many reputation monitoring tools can help you monitor your email server reputation, such as SenderScore, Barracuda Reputation System, and TrustedSource. These tools can provide detailed information on your reputation, including bounce rate, complaint rate, and blacklist status.

It’s important to regularly monitor your email server reputation, as it can change over time. Keeping an eye on these metrics and addressing any issues can help you maintain a good reputation, ultimately leading to better deliverability and engagement with your email campaigns.

Step 2 – Use Quality Email Lists

The quality of the email list also plays a major role in email marketing deliverability. Sending emails to a list of unengaged or invalid addresses can harm your sender’s reputation. It’s important to maintain a clean email list by regularly removing inactive or invalid email addresses. Do everything you can to keep an eye on the open rate of your email campaigns.

What is an Acceptable Open Rate?

Acceptable open rates for email marketing campaigns can vary depending on the industry, the type of email being sent, and the quality of the email list. However, in general, an open rate of 20-30% is considered a good benchmark for most industries.

Email service providers have multiple email servers for their clients. If you (their client) maintain an open rate above 30% over time, most email marketing service providers will migrate you to email servers with higher sender reputations. Conversely, if your campaigns fall below acceptable averages, you may be downgraded to email servers with lower sender reputation scores. Email service providers do this because you are sharing that email server with hundreds or thousands of other companies. It is in the best interest of everyone for the spammers to get the worst email servers and for the responsible companies to get the best email servers.

Why Do Open Rates Vary for Different Campaigns?

It’s important to note that open rates can vary greatly depending on the type of email being sent. For example, a welcome or transactional email like an order confirmation may have a higher open rate than a promotional or newsletter email.

Different factors can affect the open rate of your emails, such as:

The subject line: A subject line that is clear, compelling, and relevant to the recipient can increase the chances that the email will be opened.
The sender name: An email that comes from a recognizable sender is more likely to be opened than one from an unknown sender.
The time and day of sending: An email sent at the right time and day can also increase the open rate.
Quality of email list: Email lists with engaged and opted-in subscribers tend to have higher open rates.

To measure the success of your email campaigns, it’s important to track the open rate and other engagement metrics such as click-through rate, conversion rate, and unsubscribe rate. It’s also important to compare your open rates to industry benchmarks and track how your open rates change over time.

It’s important to remember that even if you achieve a high open rate, it does not necessarily mean that your email marketing campaign is a success. A high open rate does not guarantee that the email has been read, that the recipient has taken action, or that the email has generated revenue. An email open rate is just one of the many metrics that should be considered when measuring the success of your email marketing campaigns.

Step 3 – Don’t Send Spammy Emails

The content of the email is also important for email marketing deliverability. Email that looks like spam, contains irrelevant or offensive content, or includes broken links or images may be flagged as spam and not delivered. It’s important to ensure that the emails you send are relevant, valuable, and well-designed.

What Makes an Email Look Like Spam?

Several factors can make an email look like spam to email service providers (ESPs) and recipients. Some of the most common include:

A high volume of emails sent from a single IP address or domain: ESPs may flag an IP address or domain as a source of spam if it sends a high volume of emails in a short period of time.
Using certain words, phrases, or subject lines that are commonly associated with spam: ESPs use filters that are designed to identify and block emails that contain certain words or phrases that are commonly found in spam messages, such as “free,” “win,” “earn,” “income,” “cash,” “$$$, and “Congratulations.”
Using a “spammy” email template or formatting: ESPs can also flag emails that use certain formatting elements commonly associated with spam, such as large fonts, excessive use of bold or capital letters, and multiple exclamation marks.
Lack of personalization or relevance: ESPs may flag emails that appear to be mass-produced and not personalized or relevant to the recipient as spam.
Using a free email service such as Gmail or Yahoo for business: ESPs may flag emails sent from a free email service as spam, as spammers commonly use these services.
Sending emails to an unengaged or invalid email list: ESPs may flag emails sent to an unengaged or invalid email list as spam, as these recipients are less likely to engage with the email or mark it as spam.
Lack of authentication: ESPs may flag emails that lack proper authentication protocols, such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, as spam.

It’s important to avoid these spam triggers to increase the chances that your emails will be delivered to the inbox and seen by potential customers.

Summary of Email Marketing Deliverability

To ensure high deliverability rates, marketers should maintain a good sender reputation, keep their email list clean, and create relevant, valuable, and well-designed emails. This will help to increase the chances that emails are delivered to recipient inboxes and seen by potential customers, resulting in increased engagement and conversions.